Sunni Jihadi Group Seizes Syria City
- Updated Jul 14, 2014
A Sunni extremist group has taken over opposition-held areas of a city, Syrian activists say.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, says militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took over the areas in Deir el-Zour on Monday. The Masar Press Agency also said that militants had seized parts in the area.
The Islamic State group has captured territories in the east mostly and merged those captured areas with its areas in Iraq.
The conflict started about three years ago with protests against Assad, but the government struck down the protests and Syrians took up arms to fight. Jihadists soon joined the fight against the government, but rebels have accused them of fighting so their own motives and laying down Islamic rule in the territories they control.
According to reports, about 7,000 people have been killed in the rebel-on-rebel fighting since January. The majority of those killed have been militants, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Publication date: July 14, 2014
