Clashes between Al-Qaeda Affiliates and Kurds kill more than 40 fighters

Syrian activists say that two days of heavy clashes between Kurdish fighters and al-Qaida-linked rebels in the northeast have killed at least 41 on both sides, AP reported.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says to Associated Press the clashes in Hassakeh province pitted Kurdish militias against rebels from two al-Qaida-linked factions — Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham.

Such rebel infighting has become common in recent months in the northeast, which has a large Kurdish population.

Observatory's director Rami Abdul-Rahman said Wednesday that 29 of the dead are from the two extremist groups, while the remaining 12 are Kurdish fighters.