International News | Syrian Rebels and Islamic State jihadists United

“The two parties will respect a truce until a final solution is found and they promise not to attack each other because they consider the principal enemy to be the Nussayri regime.”

 

MONITORING DESK

BEIRUT: Syrian rebels and Islamic State jihadists have signed a non-animosity agreement without precedent for a suburb of the capital Damascus, an activist gathering said today on September 12. 2014.

According to the deal, "the two parties will respect a truce until a final solution is found and they promise not to attack each other because they consider the principal enemy to be the Nussayri regime."

Nussayri is a negative term for the Alawite faction, a branch of Shiite Islam to which President Bashar Assad belongs.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the truce arrangement was concurred in the middle of Islamic State and moderate Islamist in Hajar al-Aswad, south of the capital.

Syrian rebels at first invited jihadists of Islamic State in their battle against Assad. However the group's strict understanding of Islam and pursuit for command started a kickback against it that started in January.

A union of radical groups pushed Islamic State out of much of northern Syria, however it has recovered much of that region lately and has a strong hold in Hajar al-Aswad.

Over 180,000 people have been murdered in Syria since the start of the uprising against Assad that started in March 2011.