Via LWJ:
The Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, al Qaeda in Iraq’s affiliate in Syria, may be close to taking control of Deir al Zour, the last major city on the Euphrates River in the west. The al Qaeda group’s gains in the city take place just days after jihadists announced the formation of the “Sharia Committee for the Eastern Region” to govern areas under its control. […]
The Al Nusrah Front and allied groups are consolidating their control over the Euphrates River Valley, while Al Nusrah is securing its lines of communications with its parent, al Qaeda in Iraq. The cities of Raqqah and Thawra are now under Al Nusrah’s control, and the groups has established sharia, or Islamic law, in smaller towns, such as Mayadin along the river. Abu Kamal is under the control of the Free Syrian Army, but the Al Nusrah Front maintains influence in the border town. Abu Kamal has long been a rear base for al Qaeda in Iraq.
The jihadist alliance in eastern Syrian, which is led by the Al Nusrah Front, established the “Sharia Committee for the Eastern Region” to impose Islamic law on March. 9.
“The Committee has taken the rights over the executive, legislative and judicial powers over large parts of the east of Syria: establishing a police force, courts, fatwa offices, overseeing humanitarian aid, and the role of guiding people on the right path of god,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported today.
Residents of Mayadin are protesting “the presence and control of the Nusrah Front over their community,” the Syrian Observatory reported.