At least 1,069 people have died over the past two weeks in northern Syria in fighting pitting the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant against rival rebel forces, and other Islamist groups in Syria, including al Qaeda's other Syrian affiliate, the Al Nusrah Front. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition activist observer group, claimed that 1,069 people have been killed in clashes between rival Islamist groups from Jan. 3 to Jan. 15 in northern and eastern Syria. That figure includes some 130 civilians, as well as 312 ISIS fighters and 608 combatants from what the SOHR calls "the Islamist and non-Islamist rebel battalions." A total of 608 members of factions opposed to the Islamic State have died in the fighting, 113 of whom were executed by the jihadists. At least 312 members of the Al Qaeda-linked group have died, 56 of them executed by rival combatants. During this same time period, the forces of President Bashar al Assad have been able to capitalize on the disarray and make gains, particularly around Aleppo, after the ISIS withdrew from certain areas. The rebel infighting is a boon to regime forces and clearly detrimental to the overall strength of the Syrian opposition. On Jan. 3, rebels affiliated with the Islamic Front, the largest Islamic opposition alliance; the Free Syrian Army; and the Army of the Mujahedeen launched an offensive in several northern provinces to expel the Islamic State, which they accuse of abducting, torturing and killing those that oppose its ultraconservative interpretation of Islam. Over the past week, ISIL have recovered control of their main stronghold in the city of Al-Raqqah and seized nearly a score of towns outside Aleppo, although they were ejected from that major northern city on Jan. 8. ISIL has been using a well known tactic by using car bombs and suicide bombers on headquarters and bases belonging to the FSA. This has claimed many lives of fighters belonging to the Free Syrian Army. Map Of El-Atarib: http://adf.ly/c2Gvm Map of Saraqib: http://adf.ly/c2HMm

• published: 17 Jan 2014
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