Islamic State has captured two more towns in Syria
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which is now being called just Islamic State, continues to rampage the Middle East, now with militants capturing two towns in northern Syria Wednesday.
The towns of Akhtarin and Turkmanbareh of the northern Aleppo province were captured by IS fighters, along with several smaller villages. IS militants fought “Syrian rebels to take over the land,” according to the Aug. 13 ABC report.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group based in Britan, 31 Syrian rebels and eight IS militants were killed in the fighting. The capture of Akhtarin has strategic significance as the town is “the gate to the northern countryside of Aleppo,” said a local rebel commander who uses the name Abu Thabet.
“They launched an all-out offensive for Akhtarin on Tuesday and the clashes lasted all night,” he detailed.
Thabet said he believes that the next strategic move from IS militants would be to capture the towns of Marea and Azaz.
ABC noted “The fighters from the al-Qaida breakaway Islamic State group control huge swaths of territory in eastern and northern Syria and are fighting rival rebels, Kurdish militias and the Syrian army for more. In neighboring Iraq they are batting Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters as well as Iraqi government troops…The takeover of Akhtarin and surrounding Syrian villages was also reported on social media by jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State group.”
The other reports center on the chemical weapon disposal which has been in the works for months after the international community demanded the destruction and cooperation of the Assad regime. While ISIS terrorists have committed horribile atrocities (crucifying men over a protection tax), the rebels have also performed vicious murders as well (killing Christans, behead a priest and commit acts of cannibalism.)
Brandon Jones - Writer and Co-Founder of The Global Dispatch, Brandon has been covering news, offering commentary for years, beginning professionally in 2003 on Crazed Fanboy before expanding into other blogs and sites.
Appearing on several radio shows, Brandon has hosted Dispatch Radio, written his first novel (The Rise of the Templar) and completed the three years Global University program in Ministerial Studies to be a pastor.
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