While the battle for northern Aleppo intensifies between the Syrian Al-Qaeda organization “Jabhat Al-Nusra” and the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS), their Islamist offshoots are busy killing one another in the eastern part of the Dara’a Governorate; thus, opening another front filled with hostility between the two terrorist organizations inside Syria.
The former allies began clashing in the southern part of the Dara’a Governorate, when militants from Jabhat Al-Nusra attacked a large contingent from Liwaa Shuhada Al-Yarmouk (ISIS affiliate) at the village of Al-Qaseer, resulting in the death of over a dozen enemy combatants from the latter and the subsequent control of this area by the Al-Qaeda affiliate before nightfall on Monday.
To counter Al-Qaeda’s abrupt offensive in southern Dara’a, Liwaa Shuhada Al-Yarmouk and their allies launched their own assault at the Al-Lajat area of east Dara’a, where they killed over 40 members of Jabhat Al-Nusra and their affiliates, while also suffering over 60 of their own casualties during this fierce firefight on the border of Al-Sweida in southern Syria.
These intense clashes between the two terrorist groups will have major implications in the months to come if they are not able to reconcile or dissipate the violence, as the previous fights weakened both ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra around Syria.