BEIRUT: A major coalition of Islamist rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar Al Assad has denounced Al Nusra Front’s pledge of allegiance to Al Qaeda, urging insurgents to unite behind moderate Islam.
“When we in Syria launched our war against the sectarian regime, we did not do so for the sake of allegiance to a man here or another there,” said the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front (SILF) in a statement. It also rejected “imposing anything on (Syria’s) fighters and the people that they were not willing” to accept, said the statement posted on Facebook.
The SILF comprises some 20 rebel groups, and is represented in the mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army’s command council.
It includes Liwa Al Tawhid, Suqour Al Sham, Liwa Al Islam and the Farouk brigade, which are among the opposition’s most prominent insurgent forces.
The statement followed a raging debate among rebels and activists over a surprise announcement by Al Nusra leader Abu Mohammed Al Jawlani of allegiance to Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahiri.
“We have no need for imported ideologies or a new understanding of Islam,” said the SILF, in an unequivocal attack on Al Qaeda extremism. “We should not be chasing power or positions,” it added, criticising Al Nusra for “putting the cart before the horse” by prematurely adopting a call for an Islamic state in Syria.
It also lashed out against a reported merger of Al-Nusra with Al Qaeda’s Islamic State in Iraq, announced by the latter’s leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.
The group was “surprised and dismayed” at Baghdadi’s statement, said the SILF, saying it learned of it “through the media”.
Meanwhile, Israel’s army fired artillery into Syria yesterday night after gunshots and shells were directed at soldiers on the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights, the military said. “A short while ago, artillery and shots were fired at IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers along the security fence between Israel and Syria,” it said in a statement. “No soldiers were injured and no damage was caused.”AFP
