The death of a high-profile commander of Al-Qa’ida’s presence in Syria marks a significant development in the escalating tensions between the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) and more extremist Islamic groups fighting as part of the opposition forces.
Abu-Abdallah Al-Libi, the top-ranking rebel officer of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) and Al-Sham (ISIS) units in the Dana area of the Idlib province, was killed in his car.
The FSA has denied responsibility. Another ISIS commander was reported to have been killed in the Latakia province in recent days.
Intra-rebel violence has been escalating across northern and eastern Syria. A tentative peace deal was brokered in the border town of Azaz after clashes broke out between ISI fighters and the Northern Storm Brigade, which controls the town and the Bab Al-Salam border crossing with Turkey, less than two miles up the road.
The dispute in Azaz is said to have started over an attempt by ISI to arrest a German doctor, after which the jihadist group tried to take control of the town.
A ceasefire was called after intense clashes and the arrival of the FSA-affiliated Islamist umbrella brigade Liwa Al-Tahweed, which brokered peace talks between the sides. Azaz and the nearby border crossing is a crucial supply line into the city of Aleppo and the surrounding countryside.
Since the incident, activists in the town have launched a campaign against the Al-Qa’ida group with a clear message: “ISI doesn’t represent me.”
One said on Twitter: “Now we know that ISI is an enemy to the FSA, so support the FSA & show ur [sic] opposition to the ISI.”
There has long been an uncomfortable marriage-of-convenience between more moderate rebel groups and the extreme elements of the insurgency. In quiet moments, most FSA commanders will explain that the war against the Islamists will be the next battle waged within the country.
The friction is based on a fundamental difference in motivation: The Free Army fights for the original revolutionary goal of toppling Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and implementing a democratic state while ISI struggles for the creation of an Islamic state within Syria.
In the meantime, the better-armed and better-trained Islamist groups have proved to be valuable allies for the original opposition fighters on the frontlines against Assad’s government forces. The battle for control of the Menagh Air Base near Azaz was waged by FSA troops for nearly nine months before the Islamist groups brought in their forces and, with the help of “Martyr Operations,” or suicide bombings, managed to take the airport in a matter of weeks.
ISI has seemingly been emboldened by the success of the diplomatic process on chemical weapons and the subsequent halting of imminent United States air strikes. Extremist groups had been concerned such strikes would target their bases. This is in stark contrast to the loss of morale of FSA groups, now attuned to the fact that public sympathies in the US are not on the side of arming even the most moderate rebels.
Against this backdrop, ISI brought tensions between the disparate rebel groups from whispered disapprovals to outright opposition when they issued a statement early last week declaring war against the so-called “moderate” rebels, beginning with the FSA-aligned Farouq Brigades in Aleppo.
Since then, skirmishes have taken place across northern and eastern Syria. In Deir Ez-Ezour, in the far eastern part of the country, ISI stormed the headquarters of an FSA brigade and took dozens of hostages.
Even the ideologically-obvious alliance between ISI and other extreme Islamist groups like Jabhat Al-Nusra and Ahrar Al-Sham is strained. Jabhat Al-Nusra, identified by the US as a terrorist group for its association with Al-Qa’ida, has garnered popular support within Syrian communities, something ISI has for the most part failed to do.
In a controversial move, ISI attacked the headquarters of Jabhat Al-Nusra in the Hasaka province, where the group had been leading an offensive against Kurdish forces in the area.
The Kurdish National Council has joined the Syrian National Council, the recognized opposition alliance, officially aligning themselves with moderate organizations, although their conflict with Jabhat Al-Nusra pre-dates this new pact.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the London-based organization that has been monitoring the conflict, outlined the fractured and confusing state of play, saying, “It is worth noting the fighters from both the ISI and Al-Nusra have been clashing alongside one another with [Kurdish rebel] YPG fighters in several areas of Reef Al-Hasaka and Reef Tal Abiad city of Al-Raqqa.”
In recent days, all FSA brigades in Al-Raqqa joined the ranks of Jabhat Al-Nusra.
The rebel Islamist Ahrar Al-Sham draws disapproval from Islamist hardliners for its more moderate approach, such as allowing recruits to smoke cigarettes.
As relations between the Islamist groups continue to fracture, whether Ahrar pledges allegiance to ISI or Jabhat Al-Nusra will be an important development.
How, exactly, the on-going and rapidly escalating problems between the increasingly fractured Syrian opposition will develop remains to be seen, but the coming weeks and months will be a critical time in the course of the war.