ISIL militants ride into battle in Syria in US Humvees seized from Iraq

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) battled with rival opposition fighters in northern Syria on Sunday, using US-made military vehicles captured from neighbouring Iraq for the first time, a monitoring group said.

ISIL has made rapid gains in Iraq in the past two weeks, taking control of the northern city of Mosul and major border crossings with Syria.

The advances of ISIL in Iraq appear to have spurred on the Syrian branch, which is fighting both the army of President Bashar al-Assad and also rival opposition groups such as the Western-backed Free Syrian Army.

For the first time, ISIL combatants were using US-made Humvees - four-wheel-drive military vehicles - in fighting in northern areas of Syria's Aleppo province, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1539122/isil-militants-ride-battle-syria-us-humvees-seized-iraq