The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Islamic State ignores al-Qaida’s call to reunite

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Al-Qaida is using U.S. airstrikes in Syria as a reason to extend an olive branche to the renegade Islamic State group, saying the two should stop feuding and join forces to attack western targets, a reunification that intelligence analysts say would allow al-Qaida to capitalize on the younger group’s ruthless advance across the region. Analysts are watching al-Qaida’s repeated overtures, and while a full reconciliation is not expected soon – if ever – there is evidence the two groups have curtailed their infighting and are co-operating on the Syrian battlefield, according to activists on the ground, U.S. officials and experts who monitor jihadist messages.

Al-Qaida is saying, “Let’s just have a truce in Syria,” said Tom Joscelyn, who tracks terrorist groups for the Long War Journal. “That is what’s underway now. … What we have seen is that local commanders are entering into local truces. There are definitely areas where the two groups are not fighting.”

Islamic State has seized about a third of Iraq and Syrian territory and is terrorizing civilians to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Their advances led to airstrikes by the United States and a coalition of western and Gulf countries in both Iraq and Syria.

The extremists were kicked out of al-Qaida in May after disobeying its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. So far, Islamic State has not publicly responded to al-Qaida’s calls to reunite – the most recent on Oct. 17 from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen-based offshoot that denounced the airstrikes and called on rival militant groups to stop their infighting and together train their sights on the West.

Reconciling with al-Qaida senior leadership would let Islamic State benefit from al-Qaida’s broad international network but would leave it restrained in carrying out its own attacks. For its part, al-Qaida would get a boost from Islamic State’s new-found popularity in jihadist circles, which has provided an influx of new recruits and money. The U.S. Treasury Department said last week Islamic State has made about $1 million a day from selling oil on the black market.

One school of thought is that if the two groups continue to spend time and resources fighting each other, it diminishes the terrorist threat to the West. Experts tracking terrorist networks say, however, that continued infighting also could incite a competition over who would be the first to launch a new attack against the West.

Jihadist groups across the world have rushed to proclaim a new allegiance to Islamic State, either out of fear or because they want to be with the winning team. But Joscelyn notes that they are all “B-listers,” not main line al-Qaida affiliates.

“The Islamic State is the strongest jihadist group in Iraq and Syria, but the evidence thus far says that al-Qaida is much stronger everywhere else,” he said. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists around Syria, also said Islamic State and the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, have stopped fighting in parts of the country since the airstrikes began there Sept. 23.

 

 

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