Stop infighting, Qaeda chief tells Syria islamists
25 Jan 2014 4:40 AM IST
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on rebels in Syria to stop fighting each other as a faction linked to his group pushed rival insurgents from a northern town on Thursday.
The small but powerful Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been caught up in clashes with other insurgents in Syria in recent weeks, often triggered by disputes over authority and territory.
About 1,400 people have died in the infighting over the last 20 days, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday. Some 190 of them were civilians caught in the crossfire or executed, it said. The internecine fighting is the worst to break out during the nearly three-year revolt against President Bashar al-Assad and has further divided an already fractured opposition.
Zawahri urged the rebels to set up a committee to sort out their differences, according to an audio recording released on Islamist websites. ‘Our hearts and the hearts of the (Muslim) nation, which hangs its hopes on you, have bled for the infighting that has spread between the ranks of those waging jihad for Islam,’ Zawahri said in the five-minute recording.
The small but powerful Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been caught up in clashes with other insurgents in Syria in recent weeks, often triggered by disputes over authority and territory.
About 1,400 people have died in the infighting over the last 20 days, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday. Some 190 of them were civilians caught in the crossfire or executed, it said. The internecine fighting is the worst to break out during the nearly three-year revolt against President Bashar al-Assad and has further divided an already fractured opposition.
Zawahri urged the rebels to set up a committee to sort out their differences, according to an audio recording released on Islamist websites. ‘Our hearts and the hearts of the (Muslim) nation, which hangs its hopes on you, have bled for the infighting that has spread between the ranks of those waging jihad for Islam,’ Zawahri said in the five-minute recording.
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