ISIL fighters seize key towns in eastern Syria: Monitoring group

Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) stand guard at a checkpoint in the northern Iraq city of Mosul on June 11, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) stand guard at a checkpoint in the northern Iraq city of Mosul on June 11, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Friday captured key towns in eastern Syria adjoining territory the Al-Qaeda splinter group has seized in Iraq, a monitoring organisation said.

The Islamists, whose stated aim is to create a strict Islamic state straddling national borders, took over the towns of Muhassan, Albulil and Albuomar, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

ISIL, which opposes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has also been fighting rival rebel groups in Deir al-Zor, an oil-producing eastern province of Syria devastated by the three-year-old civil war.

The newly captured towns are in an area running along the Euphrates River that links Syria and Iraq and are significant because they are close to Deir al-Zor's military airport and the Syrian city of al-Mayadin, the Observatory's Mr Rami Abdurrahman said. "If you control al-Mayadin, this means there are no more important cities except Abu Kamal out of (ISIL) control," in the province, he said, referring to another town close to the Syria-Iraq border. "They are pushing forward."

Muhassan, which is just over 100km from the border with Iraq, is an important position for any attempt to capture the airport, he added.

The Observatory, which opposes Mr Assad, tracks the Syrian civil war through a network of activists in the country.

Deir al-Zor has seen more than two years of fighting between opposition fighters and the Assad government forces and some civilians fled to Iraq to escape it. A second wave of internecine war among anti-Assad factions has erupted in parts of Syria they control.

ISIL, a rebranding of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which fought American forces during the US occupation, has been disowned by the Al-Qaeda leadership.

It took neighbourhoods of Deir al-Zor city last month from the Nusra Front, Syria's official Al-Qaeda affiliate.

ISIL has a core of foreign fighters and has imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law on the territories it controls.

A car bomb in Syria's western Hama province on Friday killed 34 and wounded more than 50, Syria's state news agency Sana said, blaming the attack on rebels.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on a government-controlled village.

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