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Several al-Nusra troops die in battles with Kurds
KOBANE – At least three militant fighters from al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda branch in Syria, were killed in clashes with the Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) near Sheikh Maqsoud district in Aleppo.Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants launched an offensive on the Kurdish headquarters in Sheikh Maqsoud on Wednesday, which led to clashes between them and the YPG fighters. “Nusra terrorists launched several mortar shells on our security center in the district,” a YPG spokesman told ARA News in Aleppo. “Subsequent to clashes, the terrorists retreated from the vicinity of Sheikh Maqsud.” “We have collected the corpses of three terrorists who were killed in the clashes,” the source said. Islamist rebels of al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham have been targeting the YPG headquarters in the Kurdish district of Sheikh Maqsoud with rocket-propelled grenades and hell cannon for weeks. The militants have recently intensified their shelling on the district by using mortar shells and bombing residential buildings. On Monday, Nusra shelling on the district killed four civilians and wounded more than ten others. Al-Qaeda Responds to SDF Progress Sheikh Maqsoud is under the control of Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) –leading member of the western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The developments come after the al-Qaeda-affliated Nusra Front and its allies lost ground to the Kurdish-Arab alliance of the SDF in northern Aleppo. On Friday, the SDF seized control of the villages of Tat Mrash and Tanab in the vicinity of Azaz city north of Aleppo after clashes with militant fighters of al-Nusra Front and the Islamic Movement of Ahrar al-Sham. On Sunday, the western-backed SDF units recaptured the village of Keshtaar in the suburb of Tel Rafaat city north of Aleppo. The village has been constantly used by Nusra militants and allied Islamists as a base from which they used to attack the Kurdish region of Afrin northwest of Aleppo. Posted by: badanov 2016-01-07 |
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