Al-Qaeda’s general command said yesterday that it has no links with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in an apparent attempt to assert authority over the Islamist militant groups involved in Syria’s civil war.
Small but powerful, ISIL has been caught up in battles with other Islamist insurgents often triggered by disputes over authority and territory and has clashed with secular rebels.
The internecine fighting — among the bloodiest in the three-year conflict — has undermined the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and dismayed Western powers pushing for peace talks.
Photo: AFP
Rebel-on-rebel violence in Syria has killed at least 1,800 this year alone.
ISIL follows al Qaeda’s hard-line ideology and, until now, the two groups were widely believed to be linked.
However, organizations that have clashed with ISIL include Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s official Syrian wing, which is led by al-Qaeda chief Ayman Zawahri.
In a message posted on jihadi Web sites yesterday, the al-Qaeda General Command said ISIL “is not a branch of the al Qaeda group ... [al-Qaeda] does not have an organizational relationship with it and is not the group responsible for their actions.”
In April last year, ISIL head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi tried to merge ISIL with Jabhat al-Nusra, defying orders from Zawahri and causing a rift.
Brookings Doha Center visiting fellow Charles Lister said that the al-Qaeda statement “represents an attempt by al-Qaeda to definitively reassert some level of authority over the jihad in Syria” following a month of fighting and ISIL disobedience.
“This represents a strong and forthright move by [al-Qaeda] and will undoubtedly serve to further consolidate Jabhat al-Nusra’s role as al-Qaeda’s official presence in Syria,” Lister added.
Meanwhile, Syrian forces bombarded Aleppo with barrel bombs and air raids for a second day on Sunday, with scores of people killed in 48 hours after peace talks ended inconclusively, a monitor said.
At least 36 people were killed on Sunday’s attacks alone in Syria’s second city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said, after reporting 85 deaths he previous day.
On Sunday, regime warplanes pounded rebel-held districts in eastern Aleppo, with helicopters dropping the controversial makeshift barrel bombs denounced by rights groups as indiscriminate.
SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman said that 21 people were killed in three waves of barrel bomb attacks on the Tareq al-Bab district, including 13 children.
Another 15 people died in separate air raids and barrel bomb strikes in the divided city.
Additionally, at least 16 Syrian rebels were killed in a double bomb attack carried out by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, SOHR said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was