Syria rebels seize al-Qaida base in Aleppo

Syrian rebels today seized control of a hospital in the northern city of Aleppo that was used as a base for the area by their al-Qaida rivals, activists said.
The capture of the hospital was a boost for the rebels, who only the day before saw 20 of their fighters killed in an al-Qaida suicide car bombing in the northern city of Darkoush, said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It also underscores the intensity of the rebel infighting that has raged for days between Syrian rebels and their one-time allies, fighters from the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

Also in Aleppo, the Observatory said a series of government airstrikes in two rebel-held suburbs late on yesterday night killed 19 people. There were no further details. The government in Damascus did not comment on the bombings.
The two main rebel camps in Syria fighting against President Bashar Assad's troops a chaotic array of rebel brigades and the al-Qaida-linked group turned their guns on each other last Friday. The clashes have since become the most serious rebel infighting since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011.
The rebel-on-rebel fighting began after tensions, which had simmered for months, erupted into the open after reports that the al-Qaida fighters had tortured and killed a popular doctor.

It has since spread from the northern province of Aleppo to nearby Idlib and to the province of Raqqa. At least 300 people have been killed in the infighting, said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Observatory.
The clashes add another layer of complexity to the Syrian conflict, less than three weeks ahead of a planned international peace conference to try to resolve the civil war.
Syrian rebels seized the hospital in Aleppo's Qadi Askar quarter that the al-Qaida fighters had overrun months ago and used as their main compound or base for the area, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground.