ALEPPO, Syria
Syrian opposition fighters killed ten Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants Sunday while defending a town in northern Syria, a spokesman for opposition groups said.
The fighting in Akhtarin saw fierce clashes between the ISIL forces and fighters from the Islamic Front, the largest coalition of rebel forces in Syria, front spokesman Salah Anadani told Anadolu Agency.
The battle took place after ISIL attacked the town, to the northeast of Aleppo. Anadani said: "The front's troops launched an offensive on the ISIL militants' sites with tanks and anti-aircraft weapons."
In Iraq, the army killed five ISIL militants in Fallujah, Anbar province, and destroyed two vehicles equipped with anti-aircraft weapons, security sources said on condition of anonymity.
Sabah Karhut, head of the provincial assembly, said reinforcements from Baghdad and Mosul had arrived to combat the ISIL threat.
In Iraq’s Salahuddin province, government aircraft dropped barrel bombs filled with high-explosives, oil and shrapnel, killing six civilians and wounding ten others. Provincial governor Ahmad al-Juburi called for the Iraqi military to be more careful in distinguishing between civilians and combatants.
ISIL-led militants have extended their influence from Syria to Iraq, seized Iraq's second-largest city Mosul and capturing a number of other towns in the northern and western Iraq.
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