Day 1,120: Rebel infighting kills 24 while government forces take another town

GlobalPost

Today is Day 1,120 of the Syria conflict.

Car bombings in a predominantly Alawite section of the city of Homs killed 25 yesterday. Alawites belong to a Shiite sect of Islam and tend to support the Assad regime — Assad himself is Alawite. The Syrian state news agency blamed "terrorists." Photo of the destruction above.

Meanwhile, it appears that government forces have taken the town of Rankus, north of Damascus, as part of the broader struggle in the Qalamun region bordering Lebanon. Readers may recall that the town of Yabrud fell to government forces a few weeks ago as well, and that the strategic importance of this region has much to do with the proximity to the Lebanese border, where rebels' supply lines are located.

More mixed news for rebels: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 24 have died so far today in fights between rival Islamic rebel groups in the town of Albu Kamal. The two groups involved were the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has been disowned by Al-Qaeda. ISIS is apparently in the process of retaking Albu Kamal, which Al Nusra won from them earlier this year.

Finally, John Kerry hasn't been having a good month. Aside from that whole business where Israel's defense minister called him "messianic" and "obsessive" regarding the Israel-Palestine peace process, the Obama administration's Syria policy has come under fire quite a bit recently — Kerry got grilled by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday on both that topic and the mess in Ukraine.

Now he's getting dissed by Hezbollah. That's really the only way to summarize the interview that Sheikh Naim Qassem, deputy leader of the group, just gave to Reuters. In the interview, the writeup of which Reuters published yesterday afternoon, Qassem "said the United Staets and its Western allies were in disarray and lacked a coherent strategy," a comment that probably stings in Washington precisely because so many individuals at home have said something similar.

In addition, Qassem noted (probably correctly) that the rebels couldn't really provide an "alternative" to Assad at this point, insisted (probably less correctly) that Assad still retained broad support, and predicted (almost certainly correctly, barring an asteroid strike) that Assad will win the upcoming elections.

The conflict continues.

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