A Devilish Pact In Jihad
"[Al-Qaeda is trying to convince Islamic State]: Let's just have a truce in Syria. That is what's underway now. ... What we have seen is that local commanders are entering into local truces. There are definitely areas where the two groups are not fighting."
"The Islamic State is the strongest jihadist group in Iraq and Syria, but the evidence thus far says that al-Qaeda is much stronger everywhere else."
Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal
"Tens of fighters left Nusra over the past days. They believe that they are being attacked by what they call the infidel crusader enemy."
Rami Abdurrahman, director, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, London
"I cannot believe that at this stage (Islamic State) or Nusra are saying they are not fighting."
Rita Katz, director, co-founder SITE Intelligence Group
There are fresh reports that the Nusra Front has been courting ISIL, to try to meld their operations, with the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra anxious to make common cause and reap opportunities with the Islamic State militias whose more vigorously vicious approach appears to have appealed more obviously to fresh recruits who are choosing to bypass al-Qaeda for the more action-oriented ISIS.
A truce of some kind was reached just as the American administration placed itself behind a plan to provide more effective weapons to what they deem the 'moderate opposition' groups, claiming that those are the militants that can aid in the fight against ISIL. Even while analysts expressed their alarm over the plan, reminding the forgetful administration that what has happened in the past will once again occur, with ISIL taking possession of the new weapons.
Al-Qaeda is chafing at the prospect and the very real occurrences of some of its recruits leaving them to join the Islamic State. Abdullah Muhammad al-Muhaysini, a pro-al-Qaeda cleric from Saudi Arabia chastised militant commanders online last week, denouncing them for not undertaking measures to halt the tide of recruit losses. He has equally trounced ISIL verbally for its arrogance in declaring an Islamic empire "without consultation". And he is dedicated to unifying the groups.
As far as SITE Intelligence Group is concerned in their analyzing of the terrorists' messages, no evidence has presented itself to convince them that the infighting between al-Qaeda and Islamic State has reached an impasse. They cite fighting between the groups a short ten days earlier in Aleppo. On the other hand, Bassil Darwish, a Hama activist close to rebels in Aleppo and Idlib asserts that hundreds of militants have defected from Nusra to Islamic State.
The reason extended by al-Qaeda to make common cause with Islamic State at this juncture is clear enough; outside interests attacking one of the family attack the entire family. With U.S. and allied airstrikes in Syria, feuding should come to a halt, however temporarily, with the joining of forces to counterattack western targets. Infighting can resume when the exterior enemy is routed.
With Islamic State in firm possession of roughly a third of both Iraq and Syrian geography, terrorizing civilians in its imposition of Islamic law, they are in the ascendancy. In a short order of time they managed, with their ruthless advance, to accomplish what al-Qaeda has never dreamed possible. And, needless to say, the senior organization would like a significant piece of that particular action.
Jihadist groups across the globe have stumbled over one another rushing to proclaim their new allegiance to Islamic State. Everyone wants to be part of the A-list team, the winners. And, according to Rami Abdurrahman of the Observatory, in the region bordering Lebanon the two groups have been useful to one another for some time, predating the U.S. airstrikes.
Labels: Al-Qaeda, Conflict, Iraq, Islamic State, Jihad, Syria, United States
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, October 30, 2014
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