Al-Qaeda-linked fighters clash with Kurds northern Syria

Syrian rebels and al-Qaeda-linked fighters clashed with Kurds in northern Syria on Thursday, activists said.

The heavy fighting in the town of Atma on the border with Turkey's Hatay province followed outbreaks of internecine conflict between rival rebel forces elsewhere.

 At least 15 fighters had been killed in two days of clashes around Atma, activists said.

 The fighting pits Syrian Kurds, alarmed by what they see as religious fighters' encroachment in northern Syria, against Arab fighters who suspect the Kurds of seeking secession.

 Faced with what they see as a shared Kurdish threat, FSA rebels fought in Atma alongside the Islamic State for Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an al-Qaeda affiliate, only a week after the two factions fought each other in another border town.

 At least nine ISIL fighters have been killed since the battle erupted on Wednesday in a region between Atma and the Kurdish town of Jindaris, part of the mostly Kurdish olive-growing region of Ifrin.

 Activists in Atma said FSA units had brought heavy guns into the town and started shelling positions to push back Kurdish fighters who had advanced to within sniper range in the surrounding hills.

 They said Kurdish tank shells fired from distance were hitting Atma, while Arab rebel heavy artillery was hitting Jindaris.