Syria rebels lay siege to Qaeda-linked jihadists

DAMASCUS: Syrian rebels were laying siege Monday to jihadists in their northern stronghold of Raqa, as they waged an all-out offensive aimed at crushing the Al-Qaeda affiliate they accuse of abuses.

Raqa is the latest front in a fight pitting a broad coalition of thousands of moderates and Islamists opposed to President Bashar al-Assad against the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

As the fighting raged, the National Coalition re-elected Ahmad Jarba to lead the exiled opposition bloc, less than three weeks before slated peace talks in Switzerland.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebels attacking ISIL in Raqa also "released 50 Syrian prisoners" the Sunni extremists held in another building.

Raqa is the only provincial capital to have fallen out of regime hands since the conflict erupted when regime opponents took up arms following a bloody crackdown by Assad´s forces on democracy protests in March 2011.

But it soon fell into the grip of ISIL, which is said to be holding hundreds of prisoners in their now besieged Raqa headquarters, among them rival rebels, activists and journalists -- including Westerners.

"The foreigners are being held in other buildings, outside Raqa city," said the Observatory, a Britain-based group that tracks the conflict.

But Turkish photographer Bunyamin Aygun, kidnapped in December in Syria, was freed Sunday amid the fighting.

Monday´s offensive in Raqa came after three powerful rebel alliances on Friday launched what they called a second "revolution" against ISIS in the northern province of Aleppo and Idlib to its west.