Experts: Al Qaeda Infighting In Syria Leaves 700 Dead

Al Qaeda-linked fighters have struck back at a loose alliance of Syrian insurgents, including Islamists and other jihadists, retaking territory it had either ceded or was forced from and attacking foes with suicide bombings—the latest coming on Monday night, when eight Syrian rebels were killed in an attack on a checkpoint near Idlib city in northern Syria.

The counteroffensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS), in a war within the wider war to topple President Bashar al-Assad, has confounded many analysts. Some eExperts had predicted that, with the array of different brigades challenging the jihadist group—from Western-backed moderates to hard-line Islamists—it would only be a matter of time before ISIS, which has also launched a successful offensive on the Iraqi city of Fallujah, would be routed or at least severely diminished.

Fighting between ISIS and other Syrian insurgents erupted nearly two weeks ago and has left at lest 700 dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-headquartered anti-Assad monitoring group that relies for its information on a network of Syria-based activists.

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Despite the ISIS fight-back, al-Baghdadi is drawing criticism from important figures within al-Qaeda. “I think he is in big trouble with the broader al-Qaeda network,” says Thomas Joscelyn, a jihadist watcher for the Washington DC think tank The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. “Al-Baghdadi has important supporters but I think more chips are against him.”

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