A new and bloody front has been opened in eastern Syria as the country’s two most powerful jihadist groups battle for control of the region’s oilfields. The struggle for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars a day in much-needed funding highlights how controlling resources has become crucial to fighters from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) and Jabhat Al-Nusra. “The battles here aren’t over God or [President] Bashar al-Assad . They’re about oil,” said an activist in eastern Deir Ezzor province who asked not to be named. “Donors can turn the money pipeline on or off. But when you control an oil well, the pipeline never gets shutdown.” Since early 2014, infighting between Nusra, which is afiliated to al-Qaeda, and Isis, an al-Qaeda splinter group, has killed thousands in opposition-held regions of northern and eastern Syria. Clashes have intensified in eastern provinces in recent months […]