By Hatice Vildan Topaloglu

ANKARA

The in-fighting between Syria’s opposition forces has come to an end following an agreement on Tuesday, a correspondent for The Anadolu Agency reported.

Ahrar ash-Sham, an Islamist rebel movement, encouraged the groups -- including the Syria Revolutionaries Front, Hazzm Movement, Al-Nusra Front and Jund al-Aqsa -- to settle their differences through an independent Sharia court in the south of Idlib province. 

Rebel factions have been fighting against the Assad regime in Syria, as well as amongst themselves, since March 2011.

According to AA sources, the agreement stipulates that all parties must deliver hostages taken from other factions to the Sharia court for safe-keeping.

Ebu Talha al-Ansari, a commander of the Ahrar ash-Sham movement, told AA: “We are working to halt any single movement that can change the direction of the revolution. Conflicts of this kind should be resolved in independent and reliable Sharia courts.”

There were two main camps in the internecine rebel fighting: The Jund al-Aqsa alliance and Nusra Front on one side, and the Hazzm Movement and Syria Revolutionaries Front on the other.

The feud started when the Nusra Front arrested members of the Syria Revolutionaries Front.

Street protests, ruthlessly repressed by the Assad regime, turned into a bloody civil war which has claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people so far, according to the UN. 

The unrest created by the civil war in Syria paved the way for extremist movements, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, to gain a foothold in the region.

www.aa.com.tr/en