A day after the Al Nusrah Front’s emir for Albu Kamal in Deir Izzour issued a statement explaining that he was relinquishing the town to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham to avoid jihadist bloodshed, other Al Nusrah fighters and allied Islamist fighters captured two ISIS positions in the strategic border town. A car bomb exploded near a checkpoint by the Al Nusrah and Islamic Front shura council in Deir Izzour, and warplanes targeted a building in Albu Kamal taken over by Al Nusrah from ISIS. A suspected ISIS car bombing of a market in Damascus killed at least two people. In Aleppo, ISIS executed and crucified an ISIS fighter accused of extortion, and targeted Ikhtrin with mortars. In Raqqah, ISIS detained a civilian and another man and was targeted by regime airstrikes; ISIS is reportedly housing Chinese fighters in Tal Akdar outside Tal Abyad city. In Hasakah, ISIS and allied tribal gunmen battled regime forces. The newly created judicial council of Ghouta in Damascus, set up by Al Nusrah, Ahrar al Sham, Ajnad Al Sham, and 13 other groups, challenged ISIS to submit to its sharia court; ISIS refused. Al Nusrah and the Islamic Front battled regime forces in Homs, Reef Dimashq, and Aleppo.
