In an audio message on YouTube October 12, Nusra Front leader Abu Muhammad al-Golani said Russia’s military intervention is aimed at saving President Bashar al-Assad’s rule from collapse but is doomed to fail.
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The head of Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate has issued bounties worth millions of dollars for the killing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the head of powerful Shia militant group Hezbollah.
At least 250,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in early 2011, with 7.6 million internally displaced and over four million having fled to nearby countries, according to the European Council. “And if they kill from our soldiers, kill from theirs”.
“Indeed, the war in [Syria] will make Russian Federation forget the horrors it faced in Afghanistan”, promised Jolani in a 21-minute video widely disseminated on social media on Monday. Golani said the Russian strikes were hitting only rebel groups such as Jaish al Fateh (Army of Conquest) and other rebel brigades whose fighters were actively engaging the Syrian army, leaving areas run by its rival the ultra-hardline Islamic State jihadists mainly untouched. On Tuesday, an AFP photographer reported two rockets had hit the Russian embassy in Damascus. “They will be shattered, with God’s permission, on Syria’s doorstep”. “The new Russian invasion is the last dart in the weaponry of the enemies of Muslims and the enemies of Syria”, he said.
Turkey and the West, for their part, accuse Russian Federation of targeting moderate groups in Syria opposed to Assad, many of which are supported by Ankara and Washington. “Delay the disputes until the demise and smashing of the Western Crusader and Russian campaign on Syrian land”.
He has since said that his troops are ready and willing to march on Syria to fight IS.
A few 300 people had begun to gather for a demonstration backing Russia’s recent intervention in Syria when the rockets crashed into the embassy compound in the Mazraa neighbourhood of the capital, the journalists at the scene said.
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It was responsible for the 2010 attack on Moscow’s metro system that killed dozens of civilians.
