Al-Qaeda Faction Executes 22 in Syria, Including Rival Rebels

Executions Reported After Capture of Aleppo Border Town

Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) continues with its territory gains, and with the capture of the Aleppo Province town of Jarabulus, along the border with Turkey, they have continued their strategy of post-capture executions.

Reports say that AQI executed at least 22 people after taking the town, including 12 fighters from unnamed rival rebel factions. AQI began a push to take the town late last month.

Since January, several other rebel factions have been trying to take territory from AQI, and this “war within a war” has become in many ways more fierce than the civil war itself.

AQI has been using mass executions as a common tactic whenever it takes or is about to lose a territory, and has even executed members of other al-Qaeda factions, leading al-Qaeda’s parent organization to disavow them.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.