The Fatah Army, an alliance of Islamist groups that have seized the city of Idlib on Saturday, said in statement it will continue fighting until liberating more Syrian territories.
The statement, which seen by Zaman al-Wasl, said the Army of Fatah is not a joint task room which has united key rebel groups under one military command. But it’s a real army that includes sufficient and qualified commanders and fighters who will keep fighting to achieve more gains.
The alliance includes al Qaeda's Nusra Front, the hardline Ahrar al-Sham movement and Jund al-Aqsa, but not Islamic State, their rival. They launched the offensive to capture Idlib city on Tuesday.
“The Islamist alliance calls its operation Army of Fatah, a reference to the conquests that spread Islam across the Middle East from the seventh century.
By taking Idlib, capital of a northwestern province of the same name, hardline Islamist insurgents now control a second province after Raqqa, the stronghold of the Islamic State group which has been the target of U.S.-led air strikes.
Syrian officials could not be immediately reached for comment. State media said fighting continued and the army had managed to halt the insurgents' advances on the northern, eastern and southern sides of the city.
"The army is fighting fierce battles to restore the situation back to what it was," state television said, adding that the army had killed hundreds of fighters.
Idlib, a city whose population has been swollen by hundreds of thousands of displaced people from other parts of Syria, is close to the strategic highway linking Damascus to Aleppo and to the coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of Bashar al-Assad.
Syria's four-year-old war has killed more than 220,000 people and forced millions out of their homes. (With Reuters)
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