Al-Qaida Chief Says ISIS Caliphate Is ‘Illegitimate’

The head of Syria’s al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra called the self-proclaimed caliphate of Islamic State “illegitimate” on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports.

In his second appearance on Al Jazeera, Jabhat al-Nusra chief Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said the group had strayed from Islam and that he did not foresee a reconciliation between the two jihadist groups soon.

“They announced a caliphate, but the scholars rejected it as illegitimate. It is not based on Islamic law,” Jolani said.

Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State are currently the two most powerful groups battling government forces in Syria. The groups have fought each other since a split in 2013. Following the split, ISIS declared a caliphate spanning across Syria and Iraq in June 2014.

“There is no solution between us and them in the meantime, or in the foreseeable future. We hope they repent to God and return to their senses… if not then there is nothing but fighting between us,” Abu Mohammed al-Jolani told Al Jazeera.

His television interview comes on the heels of several major victories for Jabhat al-Nusra as the group slowly consolidates its influence in the northwestern corner of Syria. In recent months, Jabhat al-Nusra along with other rebel groups seized several major government posts in Idlib, including the provincial capital and the town of Jisr al-Shughour, bringing rebel groups closer to government-held coastal areas north of the capital.

Last week, Jolani 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.

“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.

In March, reports suggested that leaders of Syria’s al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra are contemplating severing ties with al-Qaida to establish a new entity with the support of Gulf States trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad from power.

However, “in last week’s installment Jolani had made clear he took orders from al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, who had told him to focus Nusra’s fight on Syria. This week he evaded a question about whether Nusra was thinking of splitting from al-Qaida,” Reuters writes.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah gained ground against insurgents including Jabhat al-Nusra near the Lebanon-Syria border, as part of its offensive to clear the area of insurgents.

Hezbollah said in a statement that its fighters had seized three hilltops east of the Lebanese town of Arsal, the scene of an offensive last August by Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State.

Syrian Troops Repel Islamic State Attack in Northeastern Syria

Syrian troops battled on Wednesday to repel an attack by the Islamic State on the predominately Kurdish city of Hassakeh in northeastern Syria, Reuters reports.

The push is a reported attempted to reverse some of the advances made recently by Kurdish forces in the area.

Syrian Kurdish fighters backed by U.S.-led airstrikes have captured dozens of towns and villages in Hassakeh and are inching closer to Tel Abyad, a major Islamic State-held border town near Turkey.

“Islamic State now appears intent on making up for those losses by storming government-held areas of Hassakeh city, where it sees Syrian troops as a weaker adversary than the Kurds,” a YPG spokesman and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters.

Hassakeh city is currently ruled by government forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and a Kurdish administration ruled by the YPG, which has received air support from a U.S.-led alliance against the Islamic State.

Syrian State TV reported ISIS is battling for control of a juvenile prison in Hassakeh’s southern edge and have so far used car bombs to attack government forces.

Activists also reported intense clashes on Wednesday in the northern Aleppo province between Islamic State fighters and other insurgent groups including Jabhat al-Nusra.

The Islamic State began an offensive in the area recently where it has captured several towns and villages. The group is reportedly advancing toward the town of Azaz near the Turkish border, threatening to cut off key rebel supply routes to Aleppo.

Russia Backs Efforts to Assign Blame for Chlorine Attacks in Syria

Russia has lent its support to efforts to uncover culpability behind a wave of reported chlorine attacks in Syria that the West blames on the Syrian regime, a Security Council diplomat claimed.

“We support the need to find those people who are behind it,” Vitaly Churkin said.

The United States is spearheading an effort to attribute blame for chlorine attacks in Syria, opening a path for action following reports of continued chemical attacks.

Activists have reported several chemical attacks since the U.N. resolution passed last month condemning the use of chemical weapons including chlorine in Syria and threatened action in the case of new violation.

The U.N. Security Council, which remains badly divided on Syria, has been unable to follow up on a resolution because no one has had a mandate to assign blame.

The U.S., along with France and Britain, has repeatedly accused the Syrian government of conducting such attacks – a charge that Damascus denies. The U.S., France and Britain say that the Syrian military is the only force involved in the conflict that has helicopters to deliver the toxic weapons.

Russia, a top ally of the Syrian regime and a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, has repeatedly said that there is insufficient evidence to assign culpability to the Syrian regime.

“A Security Council diplomat said that while Russia supported efforts to uncover those behind the chlorine attacks, it was insisting on a “softer way” through the U.N. chemical weapons’ watchdog OPCW,” Agence France-Presse writes. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has already established that chlorine gas has been used in attacks in Syria, but thus far has not assigned blame for the attacks.

Recommended Reads

• Reuters: Al-Qaida’s Wing Sees No Peace with Islamic State Soon: TV
• The Washington Post: U.S. Faces Challenges in Building Up Syrian Training Program
• Agence France-Presse: Jordan Stranding Hundreds of Syria Refugees in Desert: HRW
• The Washington Post: Syria Using Chemical Weapons in Growing Number of Attacks
• Reuters: Hezbollah Widens Offensive in Syria Border Area, Seizes Hilltops