Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Al Nusra Front, the Al Qaida rebel militia, has claimed the launch of weapons production and has attacked Syrian Army positions in Homs.

On May 25, Nusra is said to have sent a car bomb that struck an Alawite neighborhood of Homs, which killed at least 10 people.

Nusra is also said to have sent four suicide bombers to attack Syrian Army positions in the northern province of Idlib.

“Four Al Nusra Front fighters carried out suicide attacks this morning, driving vehicles packed with explosives into four regime forces’ checkpoints in the Jabal Al Arbaeen area near Ariha city,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Al Qaida’s Nusra Front for the Defense of the Levant said it has begun manufacturing weapons and munitions. Nusra said this marked the first time Sunni rebels, denied military equipment by Arab and Western countries, were producing effective arms.

“In a bid to create a full-scale military industry, Al Nusra Front has established the Bas institution for military production and development, the first fully jihadist project of development and fabrication of effective weaponry,” Nusra said.

In a statement on Twitter on May 24, Nusra said the weapons would be
distributed to Islamist rebel militias. Nusra did not specify the arms.

“This is an opportunity to serve jihad and jihadists,” Nusra said.

  Al Nusra Front launches new attacks, Homs, Idlib, producing own weapons in Syria, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights