Jihadists Withdraw from Kessab

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Jihadists Withdraw from Kessab –

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(AFP) — Syrian rebels and their allies the jihadist Al-Nusra Front on Saturday withdrew from Kasab, a strategic village on the border with Turkey they seized in March, a monitoring group said.

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Most fighters from Al-Nusra and the other rebel groups pulled out, “leaving behind only a small number” of men, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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Troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime sent tanks to nearby villages, signalling an imminent army advance on the border town.

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The rebels pulled back as regime forces backed by pro-regime fighters, among them members of the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, advanced on the nearby village of Nabaein, the Observatory said.

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Activists confirmed the account, adding the rebel fighters and the Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate, withdrew to rebel strongholds in the Jabal al-Akrad area.

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Kasab, an Armenian town, is strategically important because it is located near the only border crossing with Turkey in sensitive Latakia province, the heartland of the Alawite sect from which Assad hails.

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