Robert Ford, the former US ambassador to Syria, said his biggest complaint about the Syrian opposition has been its failure to distance itself from al Qaeda and affiliates. Regime forces closed in on rebel holdouts in Yabroud; a Hezbollah source claimed the city fell to regime forces after a Hezbollah raid killed 13 rebel commanders. The Army of Mujahedeen hauled a female activist and another woman into sharia court in Aleppo for refusing to wear a headscarf. The Islamic Front and the Al Nusrah Front battled regime forces in Aleppo, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham clashed with Kurdish forces in the province. The Islamic Front fought against regime forces in Hama, in Quneitra, in Deraa, in Raqqah, and in Reef Dimashq. Gunmen killed eight Al Nusrah fighters in Deir Izzour at an oilfield controlled by the group. Al Nusrah claimed that its Dec. 10 battle in Damascus, a joint operation with Ahrar al Sham, Jaysh al Islam, and other groups, killed nearly 1,000 regime soldiers; Al Nusrah also claimed a joint operation on March 12 in Hama with the Free Syrian Army’s Liwa al Ummah.
