Al-Qaeda gave the Nusra Front, its official branch in Syria, its blessing to break ties with the terror group in order to “preserve the interests of Islam and Muslims and protect the jihad of the Syrian people”.
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Nusra Front has renamed itself Jabhat Fatah al Sham so that the worldwide community, the United States and Russian Federation can no longer use the pretext of its affiliation with al Qaeda to attack Syrians, the group’s leader, Abu Mohamad al-Golani said.
But the US said that the rebrand would not affect Washington’s thinking about the group as a radical Islamist organization, saying that it feared the group had plans to launch attacks in the West.
Nusra, for example, has been seeking an alliance with the powerful hardline Islamist rebel faction Ahrar al-Sham.
The announcement came as Russian Federation and President Bashar al-Assad’s government declared a “humanitarian operation” in the besieged rebel-held sector of Aleppo, opening “safe corridors” so people can flee Syria’s most important opposition stronghold. Washington and its allies have long pressed mainstream opposition groups to “de-couple” from front lines where Nusra is present, with little success.
This week reports surfaced that the group might cut ties with al-Qaeda, the global jihadi franchise once led by Osama bin Laden, and form a coalition with opposition groups, prompting a whirlwind of speculation.
A Nusra Front official told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the leader of the group plans to declare a split from al-Qaeda soon and merge with other insurgent groups.
Al Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahri speaks from an unknown location, in this still image taken from video uploaded on a social media website June 8, 2011.
It is Syria’s preeminent extremist force, along with its key rival, Daesh. Russian Federation and the United States are also discussing closer coordination to target the group.
Jihadist groups expert Abdulrahman al-Haj told Asharq Al-Awsat that the audio message of Abu al-Khayr was “coordinated with al-Nusra Front with the aim of supporting the decision to ends its relations with al-Qaeda, and therefore, offer al-Nusra the legacy it needs to prevent a possible split in its ranks”.
Proposals to distance Nusra from al Qaeda have been floated before.
And because of its terrorist affiliations, Jabhat al-Nusra has been excluded from ceasefires between the Assad regime and moderate opposition groups.
Golani said the action would narrow differences with other rebel groups that are also fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria analyst Aymenn al-Tamimi put the number of Al-Nusra fighters at between 5,000 and 10,000 – with 80 percent of them Syrians.
In a debut video appearance on Thursday, the leader of al-Nusra Front in Syria Abu Mohammad al-Julani announced that the group has split from al-Qaeda and rebranded to Jabhat Fath al-Sham, or The Front for liberation of al-Sham.
One of the biggest terrorism players in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, just distanced itself from its parent organization, Al Qaeda, in what analysts see as a savvy political maneuver.
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Rebels fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army have denied direct coordination with Nusra, which has also fought and crushed several Western-backed rebel groups.
