Al-Qaeda Disavows ISIL in Syria

Local Editor

Al-Qaeda has disavowed the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), whose members have been locked in deadly clashes with Syrian armed opposition, according to a statement posted on jihadist websites.

Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri had already ordered the group in May 2013 to disband and return to Iraq, and announced that another jihadist group, the al-Nusra Front, was Al-Qaeda's official branch in war-torn Syria.
"Al-Qaeda announces it is not linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, as it was not informed of its creation... (and) did not accept it," the group said in a late Sunday statement.
ISIL "is not a branch of al-Qaeda, has no links to it, and the group is not responsible for its acts," it added.

The repudiation came after the failure of repeated efforts by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to heal a dispute between ISIL and another group, Jabhat al-Nusra that has erupted in fighting in parts of rebel-held northern Syria.

"Clearly Zawahiri believes that ISIL is a liability to the al-Qaeda brand," said Aaron Zelin, who tracks jihadi movements at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy. "They are not playing nice with other groups and they are acting as a sovereign state, aggravating other rebels and hurting the effort against the regime."
Although Jabhat al-Nusra is now the sole al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, it is ISIL that is more aggressively pursuing the al-Qaeda agenda of establishing an Islamic caliphate, setting up the institutions of state that enable it to administer the areas it controls, he said.

Source: Websites, edited by website team