Perhaps it would have been more crafty for the al-Qaeda bosses to avoid admitting they ordered the “breakaway” as a propaganda ploy to “protect jihad”.
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In April 2013, Al-Nusra refused to join up with IS and pledged allegiance instead to Al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri, who later proclaimed Al-Nusra the only branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria. Arabic, bottom right, reads, “Jihadis on their way to Khalsa village”. He added that the group would “have no links whatsoever with foreign parties”.
BEIRUT/MOSCOW Syrian pro-government forces tightened their grip around Aleppo on Thursday, and the governor of the area said they would open corridors for civilians to escape the besieged, rebel-held districts of the city.
Al-Qaeda prepared the ground for the announcement earlier Thursday in an online message.
But its closeness to other rebels has complicated efforts at a ceasefire.
But unlike Daesh, which opposes all those who fail to swear allegiance, Al Nusra works alongside an array of rebel groups fighting Assad’s regime and has popular support.
The group is an offshoot of Daesh in Iraq, Al Qaeda’s former affiliate in the country, in which Jolani was a leading figure in Nineveh province, a militant stronghold in the north.
He underlined the step took place with the blessings of al-Qaida’s leadership, and he thanked them for their understanding.
Nusra also renamed itself.
The State Department said the group is still being judged by its past actions. In its stead would rise a new faction: the Front for the Conquest of Syria. It will also “cease operating under the name of Al Nusra Front”. It was not clear when he made those recorded comments.
Here’s what National Security Agency Director James Clapper had to say: “So I think this is much more of a, as I say, a PR move”. Changing its name will not save Jabhat al-Nusra from being bombed, it will continue to be regarded as a terrorist organisation.
He said the move was meant to remove the pretext used by powers, including the United States and Russian Federation, to bomb Syrians. Nusra’s purported break with al-Qaida could ease its reluctance. But the efforts have had little success, given Nusra’s prowess on the battlefield.
But that would be more hard if Nusra becomes even closer to other rebels. “It’s now easier, not more hard, to lump like-minded groups with it. Those that cooperate with it”. It often fights alongside other rebel factions, which in turn have been hit by Russian airstrikes ostensibly targeting militants.
But Assad and his Russian allies are unlikely to accept the re-branding as a reason to halt military operations that have put the Syrian leader in the strongest position on the battlefield for years.
It has also been in a fierce rivalry with the Islamic State group.
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“The threat of external intervention against Jabhat al-Nusra has… sparked an intense internal debate within the group’s senior leadership regarding the overt nature of its relationship to al-Qaida”. “They do community outreach better, and they bring people along better”.
