Al-Nusra’s Leader: Erdogan Plans to Strengthen ISIL

[valley ranch]

http://media.farsnews.com/media/Uploaded/Files/Images/1394/09/19/13940919000392_PhotoI.jpg







Abu Muhammad al-Julani, the leader of the Jabhat al-Nusra militant group on Saturday said in an interview aired by Arab TV channel Orient News (Dubai, UAE) that Turkey’s goal is to create a so-called “security zone” on the North of the Syrian Arab Republic.

Al-Julani's face was covered during the interview. The militant group's leader directly accused the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of planning to strengthen the ISIL by establishing a buffer zone, Sputnik said.
"Turkey's actions will Let ISIL expand its influence in border zones," Abu Muhammad claimed.
The ringleader stressed that despite being a member of the US-led coalition, Ankara primarily targets Kurdish forces for bombing rather than ISIL in the North of Syria. And the Kurdish militia is one of the main forces fighting against ISIL terrorists on the ground in Syria.
He also condemned his allies from Ahrar al-Sham insurgent group for participating in a recent "Syrian opposition" conference in Riyadh and called the forum a "conspiration".
"Whatever decisions they made, they won't be realized," al-Julani claimed.
The ISIL terrorist group controls vast territories of Syria and Iraq and is currently considered to be one the main threats to global security.
The Russian Ministry of Defense previously provided evidence that Turkey is involved in an illicit oil trade with ISIL and selling stolen Syrian and Iraqi oil. Satellite and drone images showed hundreds and hundreds of oil trucks moving from ISIL-held territory to Turkey to reach their destination at Turkish refineries and ports controlled by Recep Erdogan's family.
The al-Nusra Front terrorist group, which is affiliated with al-Qaeda, is also unlawful and is prohibited from activities in Russian territory.

[Peter1469]

I have read several articles that discuss how much the Sunnis resent Russia for joining the fight.

[waltky]

Is all al-Nusra's fault...
:angry:
Russia blames Nusra Front for wrecking planned truce in Syria's Aleppo
May 4, 2016 - The Russian Defence Ministry on Wednesday said an upsurge in violence by Nusra Front militants had thwarted plans to extend a truce to the Syrian city of Aleppo the previous day, Russian news agencies reported.


Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested on Tuesday after meeting U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura that a deal covering Aleppo was close, saying Russian and U.S. military personnel might announce a decision "in the coming hours". But such a local truce, also known as "a regime of calm," never materialized. "As a result of attacks by the Nusra Front on the Az Zagra quarters, and heavy shelling by Hellfire rocket systems of other residential areas which caused numerous deaths among civilians, the introduction of a 'regime of calm' in Aleppo was disrupted," Russian news agencies quoted Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying on Wednesday.

Aleppo has been the scene of the worst surge in fighting in recent days, wrecking the first major ceasefire of the five-year-old civil war, sponsored by the United States and Russia, which had held since February. Russia and U.S. military officers were now holding "active consultations" with Syria's government leadership and the "moderate opposition" on how to introduce a "regime of calm" in Aleppo as soon as possible, Konashenkov said.

The ceasefire in Aleppo and its suburbs was originally planned to last for 24 hours and to be later extended for a further two days, he was cited as saying. Rebel fighters launched an assault in Aleppo on Tuesday, firing rockets on a hospital. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group that monitors the conflict, said rebel rockets had killed 19 people in government-held territory, including an unspecified number at the al-Dabit hospital.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-says-planned-truce-syrias-aleppo-disrupted-nusra-112120532.html?ref=gs

[SemiteArt]

There is a massacre in Aleppo. Russians and Assad keep massacring people.

[waltky]

Why did the Nusra Front break from al-Qaeda?...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/confused.gif
What drove Syria's Nusra Front to detach itself from al-Qaeda?
Fri, 29 Jul 2016 - Syrian jihadists Jabhat al-Nusra's decision to detach itself from al-Qaeda could end up strengthening the group, says David Roberts of King's College, London.


Jabhat al-Nusra, one of the more powerful jihadist groups in Syria, has rebranded itself. It officially announced its separation from al-Qaeda and "any other external entity" in a video broadcast on 28 July 2016. The group changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (Front for the Conquest of Syria/the Levant) and its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, was seen with his face uncovered for the first time. Al-Nusra has, since 2012, been one of the largest and most influential groupings in the Syrian conflict. Its ranks have long been dominated by Syrians, although the higher echelons are more international, and it has tended to focus more on ousting President Bashar al-Assad in Syria than on wider, international goals.


http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/452A/production/_90560771_6f03a3e7-0343-4f55-91fd-c560ed46fd27.jpg
Al-Nusra supporters in Aleppo

This was part of the reason that Nusra refused Isis' (the previous incarnation of the so-called Islamic State) attempts to merge the two groups in 2013. The twin lures of a Syria-focus (as opposed to an internationalist concept threatening Western and other Middle Eastern states) and relative cohesiveness and strength in pursuing its goals have long made it a key player. As such, it attracted significant support from those who wanted to harness the group's strength against Mr Assad. Qatar and Turkey are long rumoured to have supported the group. Neither seek to support its extremism out of choice. Rather, they see Nusra as too important to ignore and thus a "least worst" option. And both have arguably sought to convince the group to de-link itself from al-Qaeda to make it more palatable.

Broader appeal

Jabhat's leadership has key local and international audiences to win over with this rebranding. Without the al-Qaeda tag and with a new name, Jabhat hopes to ditch its previous reputation for brutality and start afresh. There is, however, no reason to expect that it will change the tactics or the strategic goals that earned it renown as a dangerous group. Nevertheless, this fig-leaf of cover - that the group officially renounced its al-Qaeda affiliation - may be enough for it to obtain more external support. The group also seeks to eschew its al-Qaeda affiliation as a way to remove itself from the target list for US and Russian air strikes.

There is no chance whatsoever that this rebranding will affect Russia's calculations, and initial comments from the US administration suggest that the US will continue as before too. In reality, Jabhat probably does not really expect a change in targeting policy. But now that it has explicitly and exclusively committed to the Syrian jihad, it will use future air strikes to "prove" that the US and the international community are against this goal and in fact seek to defend the Assad government in Damascus.

Pragmatic logic (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-36922079)