Nusra Front a legitimate target despite Syria rebrand, says US

Nusra Front's rebranding in Syria is nothing more than a name change and the group remains a legitimate target committed to a "terrorist agenda", US military commanders have told Middle East Eye.

The group last week announced it was breaking its links with al-Qaeda, and changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, in an apparent attempt to integrate with the Syrian revolution and, according to some, avoid US air strikes.

The group’s leader, Abu Mohamed al-Golani, said the move was aimed at “removing [the] excuse used by [the] international community to bombard Muslims in the Levant”, in comment that came less than two weeks after a US-Russia deal to coordinate strikes against the group

However the US Central Command, or CENTCOM, told MEE that the group remained a “legitimate threat” and was still clearly linked to al-Qaeda.

“The position of the United States on Nusra has not changed, and Nusra fighters remain a legitimate threat. They may have changed the name, but from all appearances they are still committed to advancing al-Qaeda’s core ideology and terrorist agenda.”

Last week MEE reported concerns from security analysts over the extent to which Nusra has actually split from al-Qaeda, after it emerged that the Syrian group’s leader announced the move while flanked by a veteran al-Qaeda figure.

In spite of claiming to have dissolved formal links to al-Qaeda, the Nusra leader appeared in the video next to Ahmed Salameh Mabrouk, an Egyptian militant who has long-standing connections to al-Qaeda and its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Mabrouk has been one of Zawahiri’s closest aides since the 1990s and has operated for al-Qaeda in Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Russia and Azerbaijan, according to analysts at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an American think-tank known for hawkish views on Iran.

US forces have carried out a number of strikes against Nusra and in April, a US military strike killed then Nusra Front leader Abu Frias al-Suri. The veteran al-Qaeda fighter was killed when US forces hit a meeting of high-level al-Qaeda officials in northwest Syria.

In an online statement after the strike, Nusra Front said Firas was killed by the “Arab-crusader coalition” led by the United States.

Last month, French President Francois Hollande called for international action against Nusra in Syria, warning that the recent losses sustained by Islamic State could embolden the group.

However the US and Russia are currently the only major powers launching air strikes against the group. The two powers agreed last month to cooperate in Syria against Nusra in an effort to “restore the cessation of hostilities, significantly reduce the violence and help create the space for a genuine and credible political transition”.

The proposals sparked a rift within the highest levels of the Obama administration, and Nusra Front’s claims that it has distanced itself from al-Qaeda could spell trouble for any planned joint US-Russian operation against the militants.

The British military is not involved in air strikes on Nusra, being solely focusing on the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, however a government source told MEE that the group remained a “terrorist organisation” despite its name change.

Analysts have also suggested that the claimed split from al-Qaeda could make it harder for the international community to argue against foreign countries such as Turkey and Qatar doing more to arm and fund the rebels.