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       Rights Group: Coalition Strikes Shift from IS, Target Nusra Front

   by VOA News

   A group monitoring the ongoing conflict in Syria said overnight
   airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition shifted off the Islamic State group,
   instead targeting two other hardline militant groups.

   The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said attacks from
   Wednesday to Thursday hit the Nusra Front in northwestern Syria's Idlib
   province. The airstrikes mark only the second time the al-Qaida-linked
   rebels have been targeted since the anti-Islamic State attacks began in
   September.

   Nusra Front bested Western-backed moderate rebels in the same area last
   week.

   The first strikes against Nusra Front in September targeted a militant
   cell the United States called the Khorasan group, alleging the
   militants had "imminent" plans to attack Western targets.

   Strike near border

   The Observatory also reported early Thursday that Ahrar al-Sham,
   another hardline Islamist insurgent group, was hit for the first time
   near the northwest Bab al-Hawa crossing along the Turkish  border.

   Daily coalition airstrikes have largely focused on Islamic State
   targets in northern and eastern Syria.

   A fractured Syria, already in a three-year civil war, faces an
   encroaching Islamic State group as the ultra-radical Islamist group
   fights to expand its reach through Syria and Iraq.

   Iraqi television station showed footage late Wednesday of government
   forces fighting IS militants in the restive city of Beiji, north of
   Baghdad. The city is home to Iraq's largest oil refinery, which has
   been under militant control since June.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/rights-group-coalition-strikes-shift-
   from-is-hit-nusra-front/2510284.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/rights-group-coalition-strikes-shift-from-is-hit-nusra-front/2510284.html