Jabhat al-Nusra leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani in an undated photo released online, July 28, 2016, to announce that the militant group is changing its name and cutting ties with al-Qaeda.
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The decision to cut ties between al-Qaeda central and its official Syrian branch, Jabhat al-Nusra, was a tactical ploy to convince the United States to remove the group’s “terrorist” label and enable Nusra to partner other insurgent factions without being bombed by Russian and Syrian forces.
“We chose to stop operating under the banner of Al-Nusra and to set up a new front, called Jabhat Fateh al-Sham”, he said.
The announcement coming from leader Mohamad al-Golani, in the first known video statement to show his face.
He said the decision was made to “expose the deception of the worldwide community, namely the U.S. and Russian Federation, in their relentless bombardment and displacement of the Muslim masses of Syria under the pretext of bombing al-Nusra Front”.
His ally, Russia, said a fourth corridor would be set up in the north of the city for surrendering rebels, near the Castello road which the army recently seized.
Breaking with al-Qaida, even if only in name, also could hurt Nusra: It loses the brand name that drew many of its fighters to its ranks.
Listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States, the Nusra Front was excluded from a truce negotiated in February.
This new faction is called “Jabhat Fatah al Sham”.
The intervention by Osama bin Laden’s successor in an internal strategic debate among al-Nusra leaders that has waxed and waned for more than two years comes as the Assad regime offered unarmed rebels in besieged parts of Aleppo an escape route.
In 2011, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (the current leader of ISIS who then led al-Qaeda’s branch in Iraq) wanted to take advantage of the power vacuum caused by the Syrian civil war, sending seven top lieutenants, including Abu Mohammad al-Julani, to lay the groundwork for a Syrian expansion. Al Qaeda could build a terror in a modern world, being used local alliances and providing basic services to earn residents’ trust is the future. But this announcement is much clearer, and made more so by support from al-Zawahiri deputy, Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, who also released a message Thursday. The discussions come amid calls from Russian Federation to target the group, which collaborates with other rebel groups, including those backed by the U.S. Aid groups said a maternity hospital had been hit, but it was unclear which country’s warplanes were responsible.
The White House spokesman, Earnest, acknowledged the difficulties, saying it’s complex to distinguish between extremist groups and moderate opposition groups and those complexities aren’t diminished by Nusra’s public denial that it’s associated with al-Qaida. But Russian aircraft bombed what were supposedly the group’s bases in Idlib province on Friday.
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Al-Nusra believes it can “confront certain rebel factions over ideological differences but without rejecting the existence of all other groups in principle”, he added.
