MESOP LATEST WEST KURDISTAN : Margada town in Hasaka province under ISIL control

04-04-2014 –  ARA News – Qamishli, Syria– Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) took control over the entire town of Margada in the southern countryside of Hasaka city on Tuesday evening, after receiving reinforcements from Raqqa province. Fighters of the al-Nusra Front, the Islamic Front and the Free Syrian Army were forced to withdraw from the town after clashes with ISIL fighters for over a month. The clashes resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries in the ranks of the conflicting groups. 

Ammar Abdurrahman, an activist based in Hasaka, told ARA News that after the ISIL fighters gained control over the town and with the withdrawal of the fighters of the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic Front to the direction of Deir al-Zor province, “the ISIL fighters killed the injured rival fighters and mistreated their dead bodies pouring acid on them and disfiguring them”.

“Afterwards, clashes occurred between the two sides near al-Himma Mount, north of Margada town, during which fighters of the two fronts killed the ISIL military leader Omar al-Farwq al-Torki, in addition to thirteen other ISIL fighters, who were taken then to the hospital of Shaddadi city (40 km south of Hasaka city)”, Abdurrahman said.

On the other hand, thirteen fighters of al-Nusra Front were killed in a military operation carried out by ISIL fighters in the villages of Aqidat and Tariq al-Bagara near Margada town, according to local sources. Notably, ISIL fighters gained control over the nearby city of Shadadi on the background of continuous clashes between the ISIL group on one side and the al-Nusra Front, the Islamic Front and FSA fighters on the other. While the fighting over Margada town −located on the highway between Hasaka and Deir al-Zor cities and near the gas-and-oil-rich fields of al-Jibsa− had broken out between both sides in last the few weeks. Reporting by: Judi Aziz