Al Nusra withdraws from Homs

[Bleipriester]

Awaiting the SAA´s assault Al Nusra has announced to handover all parts of the city of Homs it controls. The Syrian government offered a free deportation of the terrorists together with their weapons. This not only a measure that aims to elate the terrorists to give up but also a message that tells the terrorists they have no chance wherever they go. An Al Nusra communique about this can be read here:


NUSRA ANNOUNCES HANDOVER OF ALL OLD HOMS TO SAA | Syrian Perspective


See also:
http://www.usmessageboard.com/middle-east-general/334787-isis-withdraws-from-aleppo.html

 

[waltky]

Why did the Nusra Front break from al-Qaeda?...

What drove Syria's Nusra Front to detach itself from al-Qaeda?
Fri, 29 Jul 2016 - Syrian jihadists Jabhat al-Nusra's decision to detach itself from al-Qaeda could end up strengthening the group, says David Roberts of King's College, London.

Jabhat al-Nusra, one of the more powerful jihadist groups in Syria, has rebranded itself. It officially announced its separation from al-Qaeda and "any other external entity" in a video broadcast on 28 July 2016. The group changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (Front for the Conquest of Syria/the Levant) and its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, was seen with his face uncovered for the first time. Al-Nusra has, since 2012, been one of the largest and most influential groupings in the Syrian conflict. Its ranks have long been dominated by Syrians, although the higher echelons are more international, and it has tended to focus more on ousting President Bashar al-Assad in Syria than on wider, international goals.

Al-Nusra supporters in Aleppo​

This was part of the reason that Nusra refused Isis' (the previous incarnation of the so-called Islamic State) attempts to merge the two groups in 2013. The twin lures of a Syria-focus (as opposed to an internationalist concept threatening Western and other Middle Eastern states) and relative cohesiveness and strength in pursuing its goals have long made it a key player. As such, it attracted significant support from those who wanted to harness the group's strength against Mr Assad. Qatar and Turkey are long rumoured to have supported the group. Neither seek to support its extremism out of choice. Rather, they see Nusra as too important to ignore and thus a "least worst" option. And both have arguably sought to convince the group to de-link itself from al-Qaeda to make it more palatable.

Broader appeal

Jabhat's leadership has key local and international audiences to win over with this rebranding. Without the al-Qaeda tag and with a new name, Jabhat hopes to ditch its previous reputation for brutality and start afresh. There is, however, no reason to expect that it will change the tactics or the strategic goals that earned it renown as a dangerous group. Nevertheless, this fig-leaf of cover - that the group officially renounced its al-Qaeda affiliation - may be enough for it to obtain more external support. The group also seeks to eschew its al-Qaeda affiliation as a way to remove itself from the target list for US and Russian air strikes.

There is no chance whatsoever that this rebranding will affect Russia's calculations, and initial comments from the US administration suggest that the US will continue as before too. In reality, Jabhat probably does not really expect a change in targeting policy. But now that it has explicitly and exclusively committed to the Syrian jihad, it will use future air strikes to "prove" that the US and the international community are against this goal and in fact seek to defend the Assad government in Damascus.

Pragmatic logic