Beirut: Mainstream Syrian rebels are battling militants suspected of links to Daesh in a southern province near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, with at least 29 people killed in days of clashes, a spokesman and activists said Wednesday.
Daesh is not known to have a significant presence in southern Syria.
However, Essam Al Rayess, spokesman for the Free Syrian Army’s Southern Front, said a group known as Jihad Units ambushed some of his fighters in the Quneitra province who were on their way to join an offensive against forces loyal to President Bashar Al Assad.
He said the Southern Front, a rebel coalition, has long suspected the Jihad Units of being loyal to Daesh. After the ambush, the militants raised black flags similar to those carried by Daesh.
Six of the Southern Front fighters were killed in the ambush, Al Rayess said. Soon after, another ambush resulted in the kidnapping of two fighters, he said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 29 people, including at least nine from the Jihad Units and two Saudi nationals, have been killed in the fighting since Monday.
The rebels have vowed to clear the Jihad Units from the province, and Al Rayess said his men are currently besieging about 200 Jihad Units fighters in a village south of Quneitra.
Fighters from the Al Qaida-affiliated Al Nusra Front and Ahrar Al Sham, a hard-line Islamist rebel group, have also joined in the fight against the Jihad Units, Al Rayess said, although there is no coordination.
“We will not allow for the presence of Daesh in the southern front,” Al Rayess said in a telephone interview. In an offensive last year, the rebels seized most of the Quneitra province, which is also considered a gateway to the capital.
