| New York Times | - |
ISTANBUL
- Al Qaeda's central leadership has officially cut ties with a powerful
jihadist group that has flourished in the chaos of the civil war in Syria and that rushed to build an Islamic state on its own terms, antagonizing the wider rebel movement.
ISTANBUL
— Al Qaeda’s central leadership has officially cut ties with a powerful
jihadist group that has flourished in the chaos of the civil war in
Syria and that rushed to build an Islamic state on its own terms,
antagonizing the wider rebel movement.
The
animosity between the group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or
ISIS, and other rebel groups has fueled the deadliest infighting yet
between the foes of President Bashar al-Assad and sapped their campaign
to depose him.
Though
the isolation of the group could lead to greater unity among other
rebel forces, it is unlikely to assuage fears in the United States and
elsewhere about the increasing power of extremists in Syria.
The
break between Al Qaeda and ISIS, announced late Sunday on jihadist
websites, actually served both sides, according to William McCants, a
scholar of militant Islam at the Brookings Institution. Al Qaeda cut
ties with a group that was besmirching the Al Qaeda name among other
militants, while ISIS boosted its image as a force to reckon with.
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“ISIS
is now officially the biggest and baddest global jihadi group on the
planet,” Mr. McCants said. “Nothing says ‘hard-core’ like being cast out
by Al Qaeda.”
The
rise of the group has largely reflected what many analysts see as the
diminished clout of the original Al Qaeda organization and the rise of affiliates and other militant groups that share its ideology but run their own affairs.
Rifts
between Al Qaeda and ISIS emerged last year, when the Qaeda leader,
Ayman al-Zawahri, ordered it to withdraw from Syria and leave the
insurgency there to be run by the official Al Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra
Front. ISIS refused.
Its
haste to seize resources like oil fields and border crossings brought
it into conflict with other rebels, and widespread clashes between the
sides in recent weeks have left thousands dead across northern and
eastern Syria, according to partisan activist groups. That violence has
led to harsh criticisms of ISIS from other rebel leaders who consider
the group just as dangerous as Mr. Assad.
On
Monday, an ISIS bomber detonated himself at a rebel base in northern
Syria, killing 16 fighters and wounding 20, activists said.
Such
attacks have led an influential Saudi cleric who is based in Syria and
was once close to the group to disown it and call on its fighters to
defect.
In a video
posted online on Sunday, the cleric, Abdullah al-Muheiseni, said that
one of the group’s suicide attacks had killed a 12-year-old boy. Another
destroyed a water facility and killed a civilian man.
“That brother who blew himself up, what is his destiny now before the Almighty God?” Sheikh Muheiseni said.
In
a written statement posted on jihadist forums, Al Qaeda accused ISIS of
not working with other groups, naming its own leaders and trying to
impose authority on the wider community.
The
statement called on all groups in Syria to work together to spare the
blood of Muslims and to remain loyal to the teachings of Osama bin
Laden.
American
intelligence and counterterrorism analysts said that the group’s
increasing economic independence — largely through revenue from
commandeered oil fields, border tolls, extortion and granary sales — has
allowed it to thrive without links to Qaeda leaders in Pakistan.
“Although
the Al Qaeda brand still carries weight among jihadists worldwide, ISIS
has never been dependent on the Al Qaeda core for resources or
direction, so the tangible impact of the decision may not be that
significant,” a counterterrorism official said.
The
official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak about
intelligence reports, said that Al Qaeda’s official Syrian affiliate,
the Nusra Front, is now likely to try to benefit from its exclusive
Qaeda credentials.
Inside
Syria, however, those credentials appeared to be less significant than
Nusra’s efforts to maintain good relations with other rebel groups.
“We
have no problems with Nusra and we fight with them sometimes in the
same trench,” a rebel fighter, Nader Ramandan, said in a Skype
conversation from northern Idlib Province. While he disagreed with
Nusra’s ideology, he said, he did not consider the group a threat and
hoped it would help get rid of ISIS.
Nearly
three years of civil war in Syria have left more than 130,000 people
dead and destabilized neighboring countries. On Monday, a suicide bomber
blew himself up in a bus south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, killing
himself and wounding other passengers. The bombing was the latest in a
series of attacks that have targeted civilian areas across Lebanon.
Also
on Monday, at least 30 people, including 13 children and three women,
were killed in aerial bombardments by the Syrian government in the
northern city of Aleppo, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights. Similar attacks have killed scores of people in the
city in recent days.
International
efforts have so far failed to stop the war, and a first round of
international peace talks concluded in Geneva last week with no concrete
progress.
In
what appeared to be a concession to the Syrian government, the United
Nations announced on Monday that the deputy to Lakhdar Brahimi, the
United Nations special envoy for Syria, was resigning, effective this
week.
The
deputy, Nasser al-Kidwa, a former foreign minister of the Palestinian
Authority, is also the nephew of Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader
who died in 2004. Mr. Assad’s father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad,
was said to have despised Mr. Arafat, and Syrian officials objected to
Mr. Kidwa’s role in the talks.
A statement by the office of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, posted on the United Nations website, gave no reason for Mr. Kidwa’s departure.
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