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Al-Qaeda Affiliate Faces Backlash from Fed-Up Syrians
(Washington Post) Hugh Naylor - Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, has provoked a backlash in recent weeks in Idlib province, where local residents have protested the group's heavy-handed tactics. Residents accuse the group of applying increasingly rigid interpretations of Islam, such as strict gender segregation in public places, executions of adulterers and seizures of the property of non-Muslims. "We're all feeling like we're suffocating now because of Nusra, which is acting like ISIS," said a prominent activist based in Idlib. After al-Nusra militants targeted a popular rebel faction in the village of Maarat al-Numan - a Free Syrian Army group known as Division 13 - and arrested or killed a number of them, hundreds of residents, including children, came to Division 13's defense. They held large rallies, stormed buildings used by Jabhat al-Nusra and defaced the group's symbols. The protesters, who were shown on social media setting fire to the militants' facilities, eventually forced the group to leave town.