Al-Nusra Front

Al-Nusra Front   (Islamic terrorism)

Al-Nusra Front (ANF), also known successively as Jabhat al-Nusra li-ahl al-Sham (JN), Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), became the al-Qaeda franchise in Syria and one of the country's most powerful jihadi groups.

At the beginning of 2012, ANF was one amongst many Syrian jihadi groups fighting against the regime of Bashar al-Assad and striving to eventually establish a Sunni Islamic State in Syria. However, the impact of ISIS' Caliphate declaration in June 2014, a divisive move in the global jihadi community, cannot be underestimated in its effect on the tactics, organisation and rhetoric of its former ally Jabhat al-Nusra.

JN was formed in 2011 as a Syrian vanguard of Islamic State of Iraq (ISI, formerly al-Qaeda in Iraq), when the group's emir Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, then leader of ISIS, sent Abu Mohammad al-Julani to manage and bring together disparate jihadi groups in the region. The Syrian al-Julani, whose nom de guerre is a reference to the Golan Heights, was at one point held at Camp Bucca in Iraq by the US military.

Weapons shipments

In 2017, Dilyana Gaytandzhieva documented the clandestine shipping of armaments from the US to Syria using diplomatic flights, some of which she claimed were directed to Al-Nusra.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Joe Biden	“Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria. The Turks were great friends, and I have a great relationship with Erdogan, [who] I just spent a lot of time with, [and] the Saudis, the Emirates, etcetera. What were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad, and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad – except that the people who were being supplied, [they] were al-Nusra, and al-Qaeda, and the extremist elements of jihadis who were coming from other parts of the world. Now, you think I'm exaggerating? Take a look. Where did all of this go? So now that's happening, all of a sudden, everybody is awakened because this outfit called ISIL, which was al-Qaeda in Iraq, when they were essentially thrown out of Iraq, found open space and territory in [eastern] Syria, [and they] work with al-Nusra, who we declared a terrorist group early on. And we could not convince our colleagues to stop supplying them. So what happened? Now, all of a sudden – I don't want to be too facetious – but they have seen the lord. Now we have ... been able to put together a coalition of our Sunni neighbors, because America can't once again go into a Muslim nation and be the aggressor. It has to be led by Sunnis. To go and attack a Sunni organization. And so what do we have for the first time? President Erdoğan told me, he is an old friend, said you were right, we let too many people through, now we are trying to seal the border.”	Joe Biden The Washington Post	2014
Saudi Arabia	“Saudi Arabia is the Arab world’s leading state sponsor of terror. It backs ISIS, al-Qaeda, its al-Nusra offshoot and other terrorist groups – supplying them with weapons (including CWs), munitions, funding and other material support.”	Stephen Lendman	27 November 2017

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Dropping bombs on behalf of Al Qaeda	article	9 April 2017	Peter Hitchens	On Friday morning 7 April 2017 the United States Navy launched 59 cruise missiles on behalf of Al Qaeda
Document:Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq	Article	3 June 2015	Seumas Milne	American forces bomb one set of rebels while backing another in Syria, and mount what are effectively joint military operations with Iran against ISIS in Iraq while supporting Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen
Document:Who has Committed the Recent Gas Attack in Syria	Article	6 April 2017	Jean Périer	The plan to incriminate the Syrian government for the use of chemical weapons was finalised at a meeting in an Israeli army camp deep inside the occupied territory of the Golan Heights attended by leaders of a number of terrorist groups sponsored by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Turkey, Israel, France, UK and the United States.

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