Almost 500 people have been killed over the course of one week in clashes between Syrian rebel forces and al-Qaeda associated rebels, activists said Friday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based organization, said at least 482 people are dead from violence that broke out in areas controlled by rebels in northern Syria, the BBC reported. A total of 240 Syrian rebels and 157 al-Qaeda linked fighters were killed. The rest were 85 civilian casualties.
"It is likely dozens more people have lost their lives," Syrian Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman, told AFP, the BBC reported. "But it is impossible to accurately document all the killings."
The al-Qaeda linked group, called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, has carried out numerous vicious attacks on Syrians in recent months in an attempt to force them to follow Islamic law, the Associated Press reported.
The killings are said to be the most deadly instance of fighting among rebels since the civil war began in March 2011, the BBC reported. Ultimately the rebels are all fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad. Civilians are also living in deplorable conditions in rebel-controlled refugee camps, in particular the Yarmouk Palestinian camp.
According to the BBC, one UN official, Christopher Gunness, told the AP that "residents, including infants and children, have been subsisting for long periods on diets of such things as stale vegetables, animal feed and cooking spices dissolved in water."
The rebel forces were once united in their efforts to overthrow Assad. The lesser organized Syrian rebels initially benefitted from uniting with the more radical and structured Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant, the AP reported.
But the Islamist rebels were too radical and vicious, causing a rift between them and the other Syrian rebels, the AP reported. Al-Qaeda linked rebels accidentally beheaded a man they thought was a supporter of Assad in November 2013. The rebels posted a video of man's severed head on the Internet.
