In brief: Taliban infighting leaves dozens dead in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD – Clashes this week between two competing factions of the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s remote northwest killed dozens of fighters, intelligence officials and militant commanders said Friday.

The clashes, the result of a power struggle in the militant group, come as the government is trying to negotiate a peace deal with the Pakistani Taliban.

One senior Taliban commander put the number of dead at 23. Other Taliban commanders and intelligence officials put the number as high as 43.

Toll rises to 68 in rebel clashes

BEIRUT – The death toll from infighting between rival Islamic rebel groups in an eastern Syrian town has risen to 68, with some shot after being captured alive, activists said Friday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said battles raged Friday for a second day in the oil-rich Deir el-Zour province near the Iraqi border. It said the fighting concentrated in the village of Haseen after members of the al-Qaida breakaway group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant were forced from the nearby town of Bukamal.