The group’s leader Abu Mohamed al-Jolani made his first appearance in a video for the group, declaring that the group had renamed itself as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the front for the liberation of al-Sham, using an ancient term for the Levant region.
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Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian jihadist group, has reportedly announced it would split from al-Qaeda, the BBC reported Thursday, citing a video message from the group’s leader. “No matter how it would call itself, Jabhat al-Nusra has been and remains an illegal terrorist organization, which has no other aim but to create the so-called Islamic Caliphate through cruel and barbarous methods”.
But unlike IS, 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.
Its jihadists, battle-hardened veterans of other conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan, have become the opposition’s shock troops, essential to the success of any offensive against pro-government forces, whether launched by hard-line Islamist groups or the so-called moderate factions of the Free Syrian Army. “At the centre of that, it’s still Al Qaeda”, he said.
Soon after the recorded message, an announcement appeared on social media accounts connected to Nusra saying its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, would soon make a statement.
Almost five years after its formation, Jabhat al-Nusra has demonstrated the potential value of its “long game” approach. One leaked USA proposal would call for a sharing of intelligence and targeting for strikes against IS and Nusra on the condition Russian Federation commits to convince its ally Assad to ground Syria’s bombers and start a political transition process.
Al-Qaeda, founded by Osama bin Laden and to which Al-Nusra pledged allegiance in 2013, encouraged the split to protect “the jihad of the Syrian people”. “The brotherhood of Islam that bonds us is stronger than any obsolete links between organisations”, he added. Beginning in late June, a high-level track of dialogue sought to encourage those within Jabhat al-Nusra less dedicated to al-Qaida’s transnational ambitions to break away and form a new, independent faction….
Al-Nusra first surfaced on the internet in early 2012 to claim responsibility for suicide bombings in Aleppo and Damascus. “It’s now easier, not more hard, to lump like-minded groups with it. Those that cooperate with it”.
It has been sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council, although in many parts of Syria it frequently fights on the same side as mainstream groups favored by Washington and its Arab allies.
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Meanwhile, president of the Syrian National Coalition Anas Al-Abdah described what was happening in Aleppo after the regime of Bashar Assad took control of it as “a war crime, a genocide and a forced displacement”. Al-Nusra is a key member of the Al-Qaeda network, alongside North Africa’s Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen.
