Leader of Al-Qaida Aims to Take Damascus; Denies Planning Attacks Abroad

The leader of al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria said his group was focused on capturing the Syrian capital of Damascus and ousting the regime, and that it would not use Syria as a launching pad to coordinate attacks against the West, Agence France-Press reports.

“We will continue our focus on Damascus and on toppling this regime,” Jabhat al-Nusra’s Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said in only his second interview with news channel Al Jazeera during more than four years of conflict in Syria.

“Our mission in Syria is the downfall of the regime, its symbols, and its allies, like Hezbollah,” Jolani said, referring to the Lebanese Shia Hezbollah movement, which backs Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

“I assure you, Assad’s fall won’t take a long time.”

Jolani said Hezbollah knew its fate was linked to the Syrian president and its efforts to save him were useless.

“As soon as Bashar is defeated, it will be the end for Hezbollah,” he added.

The interview follows significant losses by the Assad government to a coalition of rebel groups that includes Jabhat al-Nusra. The rebel forces recently seized the city of Idlib and the town of Jisr al-Shughour, bringing them closer to government-held coastal areas that are home to Syrian minorities including Alawites, the offshoot of Shiite Islam to which the Assad clan belongs. Addressing the Alawite community, Jolani said his group would protect Syrian minorities that renounced the Syrian regime. “If they drop weapons, disavow Assad, do not send their men to fight for him and return to Islam, then they are our brothers,” he said.

Jolani also denied the existence of the ‘Khorasan Group in Syria,’ which has been the target of U.S.-led strikes and is said to have been tasked with plotting foreign attacks.

“We only heard about this name when the Americans said it,” he said, adding, “Of course the Americans claim that there are efforts to hit America, that we are a threat to America, but they have not proven anything.”

Nevertheless, if American strikes on the group continue, he said, “all the options are open, and it is the right of any person to defend himself.” “The hourlong interview, recorded recently by Al Jazeera television in northern Syria, appeared to be an effort by one of Syria’s most powerful rebel factions to market itself to Syrians, and to the wider Arab world,” the New York Times concludes.

Kurdish Forces Retake Assyrian Christian Villages from the Islamic State

Kurdish forces have driven the Islamic State from more than a dozen Assyrian Christian villages that the militants had captured in northeastern Syria, the BBC reports.

“Following a 10-day offensive, Kurdish fighters took control early this week of 14 Assyrian villages that IS had controlled since February,” said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Thousands of Christians in Syria were forced to flee after ISIS launched an assault in the northeastern province of Hassakeh in February, taking hundreds of Assyrians hostage.

About 200 people from the villages are thought to remain in IS captivity.

ISIS has expelled and purged Christians from its self-declared caliphate for over a year, destroying and looting churches, forcing some to pay a jizya [tax] to ISIS, and murdering or kidnapping others.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that Kurdish forces took control of the strategic village of Al-Mabrukah, southwest of the strategic town of Ras al-Ayn on the Syrian-Turkish border.

“The Kurdish advance could also open the road towards Tal Abyad, a border town used by ISIS as a gateway from Turkey,” Agence France-Presse writes, citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syria Wants Coordination with Iraq in Fight Against Islamic State

The Syrian Government wants more coordination with Iraq in the fight against the Islamic State, days after the group seized a border crossing with Iraq and overran the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, Reuters reports.

Iraq and Syria both understand that they must work together to fight ISIS, but “the coordination has not reached the threat level we are facing,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said, adding that security coordination between the Syrian and Iraqi armies “has not reached the desired levels.”

Speaking at a press conference in Damascus, Walid al-Moallem said that the United States did not do enough to prevent the ancient town of Palmyra in Syria or the province of Anbar in Iraq from falling to ISIS.

Walid al-Moallem said the U.S.-led coalition was active in preventing the Kurdish town of Kobani from falling to ISIS but that the support seems to have “evaporated” after that.

The Syrian official also accused Turkey of funding or supporting terrorist groups active in Syria, and for acts of aggression and for violating Syrian airspace.

He also dismissed comments by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Tuesday in which he said the international coalition fighting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq needed to be reinforced very quickly to avoid more massacres and further partition of the two countries.

“Our people are able to repel any attack and prevent any attempt to partition Syria,” Moallem said.

Recommended Reads

• Reuters: Emboldened in Syria and Iraq, Islamic State May be Reaching Limits of Expansion
• The New York Times: Al-Qaida’s Branch in Syria Denies Planning Attacks Abroad
• The Guardian: U.K. Schoolgirls Lured to Syria by ISIS ‘Have Made Contact with Their Families’
• Associated Press: U.N.: Syria Forces Blamed for 14 Attacks on Medical Facilities