Syria - Turkey: ISIS seizure of Syria's Azaz exposes hardline group linked to al-Qaeda on the rebel side

The Free Syrian Army is driven out of a town on the Turkish border. Several of their men are killed, perhaps as many as 100 captured. Inside the town, there are arrests of opposition activists and journalists. Members of the Sharia court are detained. 

It sounds like a description of a successful offensive by the regime. But the Free Syrian Army lost the town of Azaz to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, the most hardline group linked to al-Qaeda on the rebel side. As a measure of the grip the jihadis have in Azaz, one eyewitness inside the town said was no one was smoking on the streets - tobacco is forbidden according to strict Islamist doctrine.

All of this started when a wounded fighter from ISIS, or from an allied group, al-Muhajireen, was taken to the field clinic in Azaz. Doctors from a German charity have been working in the clinic for many months. The fighter was filmed by one of the German doctors, or by someone documenting their work in order to raise money back home.

The wounded fighter demanded the film. He called some of his friends to come and help. FSA fighters, from a unit called the Northern Storm brigade, were guarding the field clinic. There was a confrontation. It's claimed that two Muhajireen fighters were killed (a Tunisian and a Libyan, according to tweets from activists in Azaz). In reply, the ISIS "emir" of Azaz - that is the senior jihadi commander in the area, said to be a Kuwaiti - ordered an attack. The Northern Storm brigade were put to flight.

ISIS and al Muhajireen accused the man filming them - a doctor or his associate - of being journalists. That is a very dangerous accusation in Syria at the moment since the most extreme jihadi groups have taken a position that Western journalists are spies.

The jihadis seem to believe that mooted US strikes against the Syrian regime would have been aimed at them and were only postponed because Islamist fighters had successfully dispersed and hidden in new locations. They believe that Western journalists are coming into Syria now to acquire new targeting information for drone and missile strikes against them.

A new posting on a jihadist forum announced that "journalists are the enemy to the mujahideen in Syria and globally". Any Western journalists should be arrested and punished according to Sharia, the posting said. 

Read more: BBC News - ISIS seizure of Syria's Azaz exposes rebel rifts