Kurdish rebels reportedly freed Abu Musaab, the local commander of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in exchange for the return of 300 Kurdish civilians taken hostage by ISIL. Kurdish fighters have been trying to expel ISIL and Al Nusrah Front militants in Hasakah province over the past week; over 60 people are said to have been killed in recent clashes between the Kurds and the al Qaeda forces. Regime forces ambushed rebel forces in a Damascus suburb, killing at least 49 people, activists claimed. ISIL and rebel forces from the Hamza Assad Allah Brigade clashed in al-Dana in Idlib province after protesters demanded that the emir of the ISIL, a Tunisian known as Abu Ussama al-Tunisi, leave town. ISIL beheaded the head of the brigade and his brother.
