Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Al Qaida has been struggling in efforts to capture
northern Syria.

A leading Al Qaida militia has been battling a rival Al Qaida force as
well as Kurdish fighters along the Syrian-Turkish border.

On Sept. 22, Al Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and Levant lost a regional commander in clashes near the northern Syrian town of Hazano.

“ISIL rushed into a battle it was not ready for,” a Sunni rebel source said.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said ISIL lost at least 13 fighters in the clash near Hazano, located in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, one of the last strongholds of the rebels. Syrian Observatory identified the dead commander as Abu Abdullah Al Libi, believed to be a Libyan national.

The fighting came amid an ISIL offensive to capture the new Kurdish
entity along the Turkish border. ISIL, forced to withdraw from parts of the
region, has been facing Kurdish fighters linked to the Kurdish Workers Party as well as the rival Al Qaida-aligned militia, Nusra Front for the Defense of the Levant.

Nusra, said to be receiving orders from Al Qaida chief Ayman Zawahiri,
has also been battling ISIL in the Hasakeh province. The rebel source said
Nusra was part of a coalition of Sunni rebels and Kurds fighting ISIL.

Over the last three months, ISIL has spent much of its energy fighting
rival Sunni militias, including Nusra. In September, ISIL said it would
purge the rebel movement of pro-Western militias.

“There is a growing assessment that ISIL was being directed by Iranians
to divide and destroy the rebel movement in areas where the Syrian Army
cannot yet reach,” the source said.

  Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, Kurdish fighters battle for control of N. Syria, Kurdish Workers Party, Nusra Front, Rival Al Qaida militias, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights