Syria: ISIL Withdraws from Meda in Eastern Ghouta

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group has withdrawn from Meda town in Eastern Ghouta after fierce clashes with rival Jaysh Al-Islam group, Syrian sources announced on Wednesday.
The clashes between the ISIL and Jaysh Al-Islam in Meda resulted in ISIL’s withdrawal from Med, informed Syrian sources told FNA today.
The local sources said that the ISIL has now left Meda and surrendered the town to Jaysh Al-Islam.
Tens of militants have been killed in the past several days clashes between the two groups and Jaysh Al-Islam is now in control over five ISIL centers in Meda.
Last week, the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Jaysh Al-Islam killed a notorious commander of the rival ISIL in fierce clashes in Damascus countryside.
Abdelmajid Al-Atibi Al-Sabti, known as ISIL’s religious emir, was killed in heavy clashes with Jaysh Al-Islam in Eastern Ghouta in Damascus countryside last Tuesday.
Al-Atibi was killed in an ambush by Jaysh Al-Islam in Al-Ashari Farms. He was one of the most famous religious emirs of the ISIL who travelled to Syria in 2011.
The clashes between the ISIL and Jaysh Al-Islam were likely to intensify after Al-Atibi was killed in Eastern Ghouta.
Fierce clashes between these two groups have increased in the recent weeks in Syria as the ISIL attacked Jaysh Al-Islam’s positions in Al-Ashari region in Eastern Ghouta, killing a large number of the rival militants and holding as captive many others.
Jaysh Al-Islam in a statement has protested that the ISIL is fighting against the Sunni Muslims.
After the victory of President Bashar Al-Assad in the recent presidential election in Syria, the differences among opposition groups have increased. The ISIL, the Al-Nusra Front, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Ahrar Al-Sham and Jaysh Al-Islam have waged war against each other.
Jaysh al-Islam (meaning Army of Islam in Arabic language), formerly known as Liwa al-Islam (or the Brigade of Islam), is a merger of many militant groups involved in the Syrian War. It operates chiefly in the Damascus neighborhoods of Douma and Eastern Ghouta. The group is part of the Islamic Front.
The clashes between the Al-Nusra Front and the ISIL have prompted 60,000 people to flee towns in the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzur, while tens of thousands of others have escaped from other regions due to the infighting.