Emir of The Islamic State of Iraq an al-Sham, al-Qaeda
affiliate group, declared opening a new Shariah court and Police station on Thursday in 'the new Islamic
Emirate', Azaz, according to his twitter account.
The Sate new procedures came days after controlling the border city from the local rebel group known as the Northern Storm that led the fight last year to oust government forces from the town.
The conflict has shuttered a Turkish border crossing long
used to supply the rebel movement and heightened tensions between rebels who
seek the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad and extremists who want to erase
Syria’s borders and establish a transnational Islamic state.
Rebels who oppose the ISIS jihadists have collected their forces at the Bab al-Salameh border crossing a few miles away and are preparing to protect it should the jihadists advance.
The rise of ISIS in rebel-held areas in northern and eastern
Syria has posed a problem for the broader rebel movement. While many insurgents
are deeply Islamist themselves, their focus remains on toppling Mr. Assad, and
they accuse ISIS of prioritizing its own jihadist agenda over the fight against
the president. But the rebels hesitate to confront ISIS, saying their resources
are already stretched by fighting the government.
Last week, a Qaeda spokesman accused the Northern Storm of
attacking first and said the rebel group had struck a deal with Senator John
McCain during his brief visit to Syria this year to fight against ISIS “and hit
the mujahedeen''.
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