Nearly 70 foreign-backed militants have been killed during a fresh wave of infighting that erupted between two rival Takfiri terrorist groups over influence in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, says a UK-based monitoring group.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Tuesday that the clashes broke out between the two previously allied groups of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, and Jund al-Aqsa, suspected of having links to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, during the previous 24 hours.
It further said the fighting flared when Jund al-Aqsa’s militants carried out a bomb attack against a Fateh al-Sham headquarters in the provincial capital, Idlib, killing at least nine terrorists, adding that the ensuing heavy clashes as well as executions killed 60 terrorists from both sides.
"There are battles between warlords, it's a war for influence," said the observatory’s director, Rami Abdel Rahman, adding that the infighting was spreading to the neighboring Hama province.
The Saudi-backed militant alliance of Jaish al-Fatah, led by Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, has almost been entirely in control of Idlib province for the past year.
Last month, Fateh al-Sham terrorists engaged in another fighting with other militant factions in the province during 10 days of clashes, which killed dozens of militants. Battles among terrorist groups in Idlib province reflect growing deterioration in their mutual relations and straying from their once sole goal of war against Damascus.
For nearly six years, Syria has been fighting foreign-sponsored militancy. United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimated in August last year that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the crisis until then. The UN stopped its official casualty count in the war-torn country, citing its inability to verify the figures it received from various sources.
