2013 - Nusra + Islamic State
Jabhat al-Nusra was briefly the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda in Iraq. In April 2013, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the merger of "Dzhebhat en Nusra" and "Islamic State of Iraq" into a single "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (LIH). However, in November 2013 between the Iraqi and Syrian factions split. "Dzhebhat anti-Nusra" declared its loyalty to the head of "Al-Qaeda" Ayman al-Zawahiri, and again began to operate independently.
AQI emir Abu Du’a was in control of both AQI and al-Nusrah. Abu Du’a was designated by the State Department under E.O. 13224 on October 3, 2011, and by the United Nations under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 on October 5, 2011. Abu Du’a also issues strategic guidance to al-Nusrah’s emir, Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, and tasked him to begin operations in Syria.
Al-Qaida's Iraqi wing and Syria's Islamist insurgents share a hatred for Assad's Alawite-based power and for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government, which they see as oppressors of Sunnis in both countries. Al-Qaida in Iraq, which suffered setbacks before U.S. troops left at the end of 2011, bounced back with suicide bombings and coordinated attacks in 2013, including an ambush which killed 48 Syrian soldiers who had fled across the border. Iraqi security officials have said since 2012 that the militants were again active in Iraq's western desert region next to Syria, where cross-border Sunni tribal ties are strong.
The Front derived its local legitimacy from religious discourse, while it derived its transnational legitimacy from its pledge of allegiance to Al-Qaeda. It was said that Al-Julani was chosen at the time by the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, after the former had submitted a proposal to exploit the Syrian revolution that began in March 2011, with the aim of expanding the organization there. This contributed to the strong presence of the Al-Nusra Front in the Syrian revolution, in addition to its adoption of bombing operations that targeted security sites, which it highlighted more, including bombings that targeted security centers in Damascus, Aleppo, Idlib, and others, especially the two bombings that targeted the Palestine Branch and the Security Patrols Branch in Damascus in May 2012.
The first shock that the Front experienced was the announcement by the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in April 2013, that he had merged the “Al-Nusra Front” with his organization, and changed its name to the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” which the Syrian revolutionaries mocked at the time by abbreviating it to “ISIS,” the name that later became known about the organization. Following this announcement, al-Julani issued an audio message in which he said: “We inform people that the leaders of the Front, its Shura Council, and Abd al-Faqir, the general official of Jabhat al-Nusra, were not aware of this announcement,” and he stressed that the Front’s allegiance would only be to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri . This was confirmed by al-Zawahiri’s support for al-Julani, who decided in a written message published in June 2013, and an audio message that followed several months later, to cancel the merger between Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State.
This shock led to the loss of a large portion of the fighters in the Nusra Front to ISIS, especially since al-Julani used a discourse that could be described as “indecisive” in dealing with ISIS, as he stated in one of his interviews on Al Jazeera that the dispute between them and the organization “is like a dispute within one house.”
On April 10, 2013 the head of Syria's main Islamist rebel group swore allegiance to al-Qaida, deepening a rift with moderate rebels over how to rule the nation if they topple President Bashar al-Assad. Abu Mohammad al-Golani, leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, or Nusra Front, made the pledge of loyalty to al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message posted on militant websites. Golani also acknowledged that his group receives logistical support and training from al-Qaida's Iraq-based affiliate, AQI. He expressed "pride" in AQI’s achievements, but said it did not consult him before declaring that both groups had merged under the banner of the "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant." AQI chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the alliance in a separate audio message posted on the Internet a day before. Earlier in the week, Zawahiri sent out his own Internet message urging all Islamist militants in the region to join forces to create an Islamist state in Syria.
This upset Nusra, which affirmed its loyalty to Zawahri but said it had not been told of any merger. Nusra leaders, aware that many Syrians had joined the Front because of its military prowess, rather than for ideological reasons, sought to minimize the use of tactics such as indiscriminate attacks on civilians and Islamist crackdowns which had alienated many Iraqis from al-Qaida in Iraq during the struggle against the U.S.-led occupation after 2003.
On 10 June 2013 Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri intervened in a dispute between the Iraqi and Syrian branches of his network, telling both to "stop arguing." Qatar-based Al Jazeera television reported. According to a letter purportedly from Zawahri and posted on Al Jazeera's website, the al-Qaida leader annulled the merger declared by the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, saying each group was separate. "The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is cancelled, and work continues under the name the Islamic State of Iraq," he said in the letter posted on the website. "The Nusra Front for the People of the Levant is an independent branch" of al-Qaida, Zawahri said, urging both groups to "stop arguing in this dispute, and to stop the harassment among the Muslims." He also said Baghdadi and Nusra Front leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani would continue to head their groups for a year, pending a decision by their respective consultative assemblies.
"Nusra and the Islamic State have adopted very different public images,” said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a counterterrorism scholar and lead author of the study, "The War between the Islamic State and al-Qaida." Al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria was building a larger base of support among insurgents in the war-torn country, and was having some success in persuading regional governments that it should be seen as a useful partner, by marketing itself as the moderate alternative to Islamic State extremists. By restraining its fighters from enforcing as strict a Sharia law code as the Islamic State group and developing ties with Islamist rebel militias, Jabhat al-Nusra was becoming an “organic part” of communities in insurgent-held areas.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
