A rogue Iraqi offshoot of al Qaeda is now killing more rival al Qaeda fighters every week in Syria than President Bashar al-Assad’s forces as infighting intensifies among opposition gunmen. Clashes this year between al Qaeda’s official Syria wing, the Nusra Front, and the franchise’s disowned offspring, The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), have killed hundreds of fighters and displaced tens of thousands of civilians. Nusra lost control of Raqqa – the only rebel-held city in Syria – to ISIL fighters in January and intense fighting over the weekend resulted in ISIL making gains in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, Syria’s oil region. If ISIL can take the province, it will control territory across Syria and into Iraq. Al Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has repeatedly tried to rein in ISIL and this month he appealed to the group to return to Iraq […]