BEIRUT/AMMAN: Fighters linked to Al-Qaeda have seized territory from a moderate Syrian rebel group in a three-day campaign that has expanded their control into one of the few areas of northern Syria not held by hardline Islamists.
Syrian opposition activist and a military commander said the Nusra Front had taken several villages in Idlib province from the Syria Revolutionaries' Front led by Jamal Maarouf, a prominent figure in the moderate opposition to President Bashar Assad.
"This has happened before and we came through it. But this time the mobilisation is very large," said a military official in the Syria Revolutionaries' Front.
Twenty of the group's fighters had been killed on Monday, the official said.
"Jamal remains steadfast," said the official, who declined to be named because he is not an official spokesman for the group. Speaking via Skype, he added that the Syria Revolutionaries' Front had taken 25 Nusra fighters prisoner.