Syrian Nusra Front announces split from al-Qaeda

Syrian jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the Nusra Front, has announced it has split from al-Qaeda.

Leader Abu Mohammed al-Julani, in his first recorded message, said its new name would be Jabhat Fateh al-Sham [Front for the Conquest of Syria].
It is understood the group hopes to form closer alliances with other Islamist groups fighting in Syria.
Al-Qaeda's second-in-command had previously given the group's backing to the move.
In the recording aired by al-Jazeera's Arabic news channel, Mr al-Julani thanked the "commanders of al-Qaeda for having understood the need to break ties".
He said the decision was made to "expose the deception of the international community, namely the US and Russia, in their relentless bombardment and displacement of the Muslim masses of Syria under the pretext of bombing al-Nusra Front".
The new group "will have no links whatsoever with foreign parties", he added.
Analysts say the Nusra Front decided to rebrand itself after the US and Russia stepped up their military efforts against the group.

Last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov said they had agreed on "concrete steps" to tackle jihadist groups like the Nusra Front and the so-called Islamic State (IS).
The US has listed the Nusra Front as a terrorist organisation and it was excluded from February's cessation of hostilities agreement.
In an announcement earlier on Thursday, al-Qaeda's second in command, Ahmed Hassan Abu al-Khayr, said the organisation had instructed "the leadership of the Nusra Front to go ahead with what protects the interests of Islam and Muslims and what protects jihad" in Syria.
The message included a brief comment from al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri saying: "The brotherhood of Islam is stronger than any organisational links that change and go away."
Al-Nusra first announced its existence in a video posted online in early 2012, some months after the Syrian civil war began.
It has been claimed that Qatar has relatively close ties with the group, probably through intermediaries.
In April 2013, al-Nusra refused to join forces with IS and pledged allegiance instead to al-Qaeda.
Clashes broke out between the two groups and al-Nusra was pushed out of its base in Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria.
Observers say the group numbers between 5,000 and 10,000 fighters, the vast majority of them Syrian.

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