Al Qaeda group seizes bastion of Western-backed rebels in Syria's Idlib region

BY MARIAM KAROUNY
BEIRUT Sat Nov 1, 2014 6:44am EDT

(Reuters) - Islamist militants affiliated to al Qaeda seized the last remaining stronghold of Western-backed rebels in Syria's northwest province of Idlib on Saturday after days of fighting, rebels and a monitoring group said.

Backed by other hardline Islamist groups, the Nusra Front are waging a major military campaign against the Syria Revolutionaries' Front led by Jamal Maarouf, a key figure in the armed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, after accusing him of being corrupt and working for the West against them.

The Nusra Front is al Qaeda's official affiliate in the Syrian civil war and was once one of the strongest insurgent groups fighting to topple Assad. But it has been overshadowed by the Islamic State, which has seized swathes of northern and eastern Syria and is now being targeted by U.S.-led air strikes

In the past few days, the Nusra Front captured several villages in the Jabal al-Zawiya region of Idlib province and on Saturday it entered the village of Deir Sonbol, the stronghold of the Revolutionaries' Front, forcing Maarouf to pull out.

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