Syria: Islamic factions in new push against rivals

BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say a coalition dominated by Islamic rebel factions in Syria has announced a new push to dislodge fighters from a rival, al-Qaida-inspired group from the northern province of Aleppo.

Wednesday's announcement, reported by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, came a day after the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant overran much of neighboring Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul.

Details of the announced new offensive were not immediately known. But the Islamic Front claimed on Tuesday that its fighters captured four villages from the Islamic State and killed 17 of its fighters.

The infighting is part of broader rebel-on-rebel clashes that have raged across opposition-held northern Syria since early January

The Islamic State has strongholds in northern and eastern Syria.