Moderate opposition faction, the Hazm Movement, has joined an Islamic bloc after being attacked by the Nusra Front in the countryside of Aleppo, while clashes between regime forces and opposition fighters continue in Jobar neighborhood east of Damascus. Armed opposition groups operating north of the capital have also repelled an attack carried out by regime troops.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the Western-backed opposition group in northern Syria joined a coalition of mainly Islamist factions in Aleppo. The Observatory pointed out that the Western-backed Hazm Movement has joined al-Jabha ash-Shamiyah, which was formed at the end of last December and includes a number of other factions.
Director of the Observatory, Rami Abdul Rahman, who tracks news of the war in Syria using a network of sources on the ground, said that "Hazm was previously under pressure because it rejected to join al-Jabha ash-Shamiyah, but now it accepted to join due to the pressure of Nusra".
Hazm is one of the last remaining non-radical opposition groups in northern Syria, which has been routinely attacked by the Nusra Front in Aleppo and Idleb in the northwest of the country.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
