Jabhat al-Nusra Close to Capturing Key Crossing on Syrian-Turkish Border
U.S. officials are considering broadening the air campaign in Syria to strike Jabhat al-Nusra, as it moves closer to capturing a strategically vital corridor from Turkey, the Washington Post reports.
The group is reportedly within a few miles of the key Bab al-Hawa crossing in northwestern Syria on the Turkish border, “one of only two openings through which the moderate Free Syrian Army receives military and humanitarian supplies provided by the United States and other backers.”
This weekend Jabhat al-Nusra made sweeping gains in Idlib province, west of Aleppo, dislodging FSA members from their strongholds, with many of them either fleeing towards Turkey of defecting to join the group. The two primary targets of the Jabhat al-Nusra attacks are the Syria Revolutionaries Front and Harakat Hazm, two groups that have received U.S. support.
ISIS Captures Second Syrian Gas Field in a Week
ISIS fighters claim they have captured control of a gas field in Homs, “the second it has seized in a week after battles with government forces,” the Guardian reports.
A series of photos posted by the group to social media show the ISIS flag raised in the Jahar gas field as well as captured weaponry and vehicles.
“So after the [Sha’ar] company and the [positions] surrounding it became part of the land of the caliphate, the soldiers advanced, conquering new areas, and all praise is due to Allah,” ISIS said in the message.
“Yesterday they tightened control over Jahar village and the Mahr gas pumping company, and nearly nine [positions] supported by heavy weaponry such as tanks, armoured vehicles and heavy machine guns of various calibres,” it added. ISIS is now in control of up to one-third of Syria and swaths of Iraqi territory.
ISIS Beheads Eight Syrian Rebels, Despite a Pledge of Amnesty
“The men surrendered in Albu Kamal because the Islamic State had offered amnesty to people who fought them if they turned themselves in,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP.
The group also reportedly decapitated three men, hanging their corpses from crosses – a method often employed by the group – in the city of Deir Ezzor.
The group is known for its extreme interpretation of Islam and beheading, crucifying and executing its opponents. In August, the United Nations accused ISIS of committing war crimes, including amputations, public executions and sex slavery.
France: Anti-ISIS Coalition Must Pay Attention to Battle for Aleppo
The U.S.-led coalition against ISIS “must now save Syria’s second city, Aleppo, as moderate rebels face destruction by attacks from forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and jihadi militants,” France’s foreign minister wrote in a column in French daily Le Figaro, the Washington Post and pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat.
Laurent Fabius said the city, the “bastion” of the opposition, “was almost encircled, and abandoning it would end hopes of a political solution in Syria’s three-year civil war,” Reuters reports.
“Abandoning Aleppo would condemn 300,000 men, women and children to a terrible choice: the murderous siege of the regime’s bombs or the barbarity of the Islamic State terrorists.”
As U.S.-led strikes target ISIS in parts of Syria, Syrian air force bombs have killed at least 221 civilians, one-third of them children, in the past 10 days.
Fabius’ comments come after a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who “sought to get backing from Paris for his calls to tackle Assad as well as Islamic State,” Reuters reports. Erdogan has called on the U.S.-led coalition to shift its focus away from Kobani to other areas in Syria.
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