Rebel infighting kills 62 in Syria

BEIRUT – Fighting between rival Islamic rebel groups in eastern Syria killed 62 fighters and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes over several days of violence, activists said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Syria’s Supreme Constitutional Court announced President Bashar Assad and two others will be the candidates in June’s presidential election, which Assad is widely expected to win.

Rebels from the al-Qaida breakaway group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and fighters of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front have fought each other for months over territory they captured together from Assad’s forces. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebel infighting on Sunday took place around three villages in the oil-rich Deir el-Zour province near the Iraq border.