Much of al-Nusra’s activities had been directed by al-Qaeda’s headquarters in Pakistan: “The new formation has no ties with any foreign parties”, al-Jolani was keen to stress.
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One reason for the disassociation, Jolani said, was to “remove the excuses before the worldwide community, headed by America and Russian Federation, in their bombardment and displacement of the Muslims in Syria under the pretense of targeting Al Nusra Front, which is part of Al Qaeda”. “This new front will have no links to any outside groups”, he said.
Al Nusra Front, whose leader on Thursday announced its break from Al Qaeda, is a well-organised, battle-hardened extremist group allied with rebels fighting the Syrian regime.
“The brotherhood of Islam among us is stronger than any organisational affiliation. your unity and unification is more important to us than any organisational link.it comes above organisational belonging”, Zawahri said. Nusra Front’s old flag was black, the color used by ultra-hardline jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
He also urged the Nusra Front to unite with other factions against “Crusaders” and form a good “Islamic government”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov said last week they had agreed “concrete steps” to save a failing Syria truce and tackle jihadists like Al-Nusra and IS.
For the first time, the organization released a photo of al-Julani.
The twin lures of a Syria-focus (as opposed to an internationalist concept threatening Western and other Middle Eastern states) and relative cohesiveness and strength in pursuing its goals have long made it a key player.
IS conquered large parts of Iraq and Syria and declared its own “caliphate”, fighting any group – including Nusra and other rebel factions – that refused to submit to its rule.
Syrian jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the Nusra Front, announced its friendly divorce from Al Qaeda.
Proposals to distance Nusra from al Qaeda have been floated before.
The group retains its Islamic militant ideology and commitment to jihad, and the formal break was carried out with the blessing of al-Qaida’s central leadership, which recognized it was needed to protect the group.
The State Department has, however, said the change in name does not alter Washington’s perception of the group. A man sitting next to Nusra’s leader during his statement is believed to be a longtime Al-Qaeda operative.
Al-Nusra first emerged in January 2012 – 10 months after Syria’s conflict began with anti-government protests that were brutally repressed by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. A doctor for a medical charity that operates in Aleppo also said the army had fired artillery at families gathering near another corridor, in the opposition-held Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood. That way, it has an easier time recruiting people whose primary goal is ousting Assad, and it has a better hope at avoiding USA airstrikes that target terrorist groups.
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But if rebels grow closer to an ostensibly “al-Qaida-free” Levant Conquest Front, they are likely to see such an air campaign as just a pretext for Moscow to help Assad defeat insurgents.
