Analysis - Al Qaeda’s Syria rift may lead to open conflict among jihadis | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/24/us-syria-crisis-qaeda-analysis-idUSBRE95N0U020130624
Trouble has been brewing since April over what Syria’s Nusra Front regards as a power grab by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq. Now, Baghdadi’s insistence that he will keep fighting as head of a united jihadi brigade in Syria, defying orders from al Qaeda chief Ayman Zawahri, has brought the two groups close to turning on each other.
“Tension is increasing, it is about to reach boiling point. Both sides are saying they are right. A clash between them could occur soon and if it happens, it will be ugly,” said a senior rebel commander in Damascus who is following the dispute.
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In April Baghdadi announced his Islamic State of Iraq was merging with the Nusra Front, which has staged some of the deadliest attacks on Assad’s forces.
This apparently unilateral move opened up bitter and public rifts with the Nusra Front leadership - which resisted what it saw as his bid for overall power - and with Zawahri, the global al Qaeda leader who instructed him to put the merger on hold in an apparent attempt to settle the row.
Baghdadi dismissed the demand from Zawahri, who has headed al Qaeda since U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. The merged Islamic state of Iraq and Levant “is staying as long as we have a pulse and an eye that blinks... We will not compromise over its existence,” Baghdadi responded earlier this month.
“After consultation I decided to (follow) the order from God over the order that opposes it,” he added in an audio message.
Nusra fighters, other rebels and Islamic sources reacted by saying Baghdadi had effectively severed his al Qaeda links.
“He rejected the ruling of Sheikh Zawahri and therefore he is no longer a brother of al Qaeda,” said a senior Nusra commander. “After Sheikh Zawahri ruled in our favor, the State (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant) is illegitimate.”
