Al-Qaeda leader calls for unity among Syrian Islamist opposition

Ayman al-Zawahari, Al-Qaeda’s enigmatic leader, has called for unity among militant Islamist organisations, in response to the public denunciation of Al-Qaeda by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Speaking in an interview with an Al-Qaeda run media outlet, Zawahiri said it was vital to focus on their mutual enemies, “America, and its Crusader allies and the Zionists and their traitor agents, and to incite the Ummah and rally it for jihad against them and leaving the side skirmishes.” He said that in-fighting should stop and that it was not acceptable for pious Muslims to kill one another. “If I command you to fight your mujahideen (holy warriors) brothers, do not obey me. If I command you to blow yourself up among your mujahideen brothers, do not obey me.”

Zawahiri’s words came in response to harsh comments posted on an online forum by ISIL spokesperson Abu Mohammed al-Adnani on Friday. He condemned Al-Qaeda and Zawihiri claiming the group was “no longer a base of jihad,” and that the leadership had “become a hammer to break the project of the Islamic State…the leaders of Al-Qaeda have deviated from the correct path. They have divided the ranks of the mujahedeen in every place."

Al-Qaeda publicly disowned ISIL, who originally grew out of the Al-Qaeda affiliate Islamic State of Iraq, in February, releasing a statement saying the group was “not a branch of the al-Qaeda group” and that they “did not have an organisational relationship with it and is not the group responsible for their action.”

The split is thought to have originated with an attempt by ISIL to unilaterally merge with the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front, in opposition to the wishes of the leadership, who disavowed the attempted merger. Part of the reason was due to ISIL attempts to impose its ultra-conservative form of Sharia law on Syrian citizens which has led to violence and in-fighting with the more moderate rebel groups. The Al-Qaeda leadership, already widely seen as extreme and draconian in their interpretation of the Sharia, criticised ISIL’s brutal actions saying they must "be part of the nation" and avoid "any action that could lead to the oppression of jihadists, Muslims or non-Muslims."

Clashes between ISIL and other rebel groups in Syria has thought to have led to more than 2000 deaths this year alone. The Al-Nusra front is now the only Al-Qaeda affiliate recognised by the leadership, in Syria.

Alan Fraser, a Middle East and North Africa specialist with British risk consultancy AKE Group, said the disputes were nothing new. "Jihadist groups have always been prone to division and infighting, as there is generally a lot more at stake than just ideological issues," he said, speaking to AFP.

"There have always been tensions between and within groups over the extent of their extremism and the lengths they will go to seek funding and to impose their beliefs on local populations…even within Al-Qaeda, there are significant internal disagreements".

Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut, said inter-jihadist conflict has harmed the rebel cause.

Speaking to AFP, she said that "divisions have diverted certain groups' energies away from fighting the Assad regime, as is the case of Al-Nusra Front, which today is deeply involved in confrontations" and warned that “the Assad regime is benefiting from infighting among jihadist groups, as they are doing the job for Assad."

Various commentators have suggested that Assad consciously released extremist Islamist prisoners after the start of the Syria uprising in order to discredit the opposition and provide justification for dismissing them as “terrorists”. One unnamed intelligence source, speaking to the British Daily Telegraph in January said that Assad had cooperated with Al-Qaeda operatives and that his “vow to strike terrorism with an iron fist is nothing more than bare-faced hypocrisy. At the same time as peddling a triumphant narrative about the fight against terrorism, his regime has made deals to serve its own interests and ensure its survival.”