DHAKA: Islamist rebels have captured the headquarters of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not clear what had happened to the jihadists who had been at the hospital in the Qadi Askar district.

Inside, the rebels found dozens of prisoners and the bodies of several men who appeared to have been executed.

Recent days have seen fierce fighting between ISIS and other rebel groups.

More than 270 people, including 46 civilians, have been killed in the worst rebel-on-rebel violence since the uprising in Syria began in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory, a UK-based activist group.

Attacks on fellow rebels and the abuse of civilian opponents of President Bashar al-Assad`s government by ISIS`s predominantly foreign fighters have led to increasingly frequent confrontations in recent months.

The latest clashes erupted on Friday when rebels led by the Islamic Front, a relatively new coalition of Islamist groups, launched what appeared to a series of co-ordinated strikes against ISIS in northern and eastern Syria. The offensive was backed by the National Coalition.

On Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory reported that ISIS`s main base in Aleppo, a former children`s hospital, had been captured by several Islamist brigades, adding that it was unclear what had happened to the "hundreds" of fighters who had been there.

However, dozens of their prisoners were reportedly found and freed.

Heavy fighting was also reported on Wednesday to the east in the city of Raqqa, the only provincial capital to be controlled by rebel forces.

Source: BBC
BDST: 1432 HRS, JAN 09, 2014
MR/RS