Al-Nusra Front fighter: 'What you saw in Paris is a retaliation'

Ahmed Shaheed, a fighter with al-Nusra Front - al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria - told Middle East Eye that the attacks in Paris were to be expected following France's bombing of Islamic State in Syria.

“What you saw in Paris is a retaliation," he wrote in a message to MEE. “So don’t cry about it. If a country chooses to bomb someone expect to get a retaliation. Simple.”

Shaheed, who is originally Australian, is believed to be based in Aleppo, though this has not been independently verified.

Despite Nusra's longstanding rivalry with Islamic State (IS), Shaheed said they would stand with them against "tyrants".

“Listen, IS fought a 10-year guerrilla war with a full American invasion and still remained a resistance, no matter how much you bomb or how much you try, whether IS are weak or strong, they will always be a threat if the West doesn’t stop its aggression," he wrote.

“Now you have two groups competing with each other at who can do most damage to the West. Haha."

Al-Qaeda have traditionally been seen as more willing to attack targets in the West than IS, who have primarily concerned themselves with building a power base in Iraq and Syria.

January's attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris was carried out by militants with links to the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

In response to a question about possible similar attacks by Nusra on the West, Shaheed said he was just a "simple soldier".

“I don’t know what Nusra has planned - I know one thing, though. If the West keeps supporting dictators against the Muslims and keeps bombing them then expect the same if not worse," he told MEE.

However, he said that it was a "good thing" that such attacks by IS were overshadowing Nusra's activities, as it prevented the media from publishing "biased narratives" about the group.