A rebel attack on a gas pipeline south of Damascus airport left much of Syria, including the city itself, in the dark. A large blast targeted a regime checkpoint in Damascus. Syrian authorities released 14 female detainees in a hostage swap. The Al Nusrah Front, aided by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, the al-Khadra’ battalion (“the battalion of martyrs”), Maghawir Baba Amr battalion, and allied rebels battled regime forces in Homs over the towns of Mahin and Sadad, which is mainly Christian. Residents fled Sadad; the Islamists seek to take over its hospital, and have seized a large arms depot in Mahin. Al Nusrah, ISIS, and rebels clashed with Kurdish YPG forces in Hasakah. Several rebel groups in Idlib coalesced into the al-Shura council of Mujahideen in Jisr al-Shughour. ISIS clashed with a rebel battalion in Saju near Azaz in Aleppo; ISIS and Al Nusrah bombarded the Syrian Kurdish town of Tel’eran.
