This undated image posted by the Raqqa Media Center, a Syrian opposition group, on Monday, June 30, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows fighters from the al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL
Syrian activists say rebel factions affiliated with a powerful tribe in an eastern stronghold of al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate have pledged allegiance to the rival Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
In an activist video posted online on Thursday by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a man is seen reading a statement in which "the people of the town" of Sheheil "swear allegiance" to the extremist group and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The group, which was ejected from al Qaeda earlier this year, recently declared an Islamic state in areas it controls in Syria and Iraq.
Most Syrian rebel groups have rejected the declaration and have fought al-Baghdadi's militants in towns along the Iraq border, including in Sheheil, a stronghold of the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's official Syrian branch.