In the first known video statement ever to show his face, the leader of the Nusra Front, Mohamad al-Golani, announced that the group would re-form under a new name, with “no ties with any foreign party”.
The move was being made “to remove the excuse used by the international community — spearheaded by America and Russia — to bombard and displace Muslims in the Levant: that they are targeting the Nusra Front which is associated with Al Qaeda,” he said. The group would now be called Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.
Golani appeared in the video flanked by two other Nusra Front figures, in front of Jabhat Fatah al Sham’s new white flag. Nusra Front’s old flag was black, the color used by ultra-hardline jihadist groups such as Al Qaeda and Islamic State.
Earlier on Thursday, bin Laden’s successor as al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, announced that he was giving the Nusra Front his blessing to break away. In his message, Golani thanked Zawahri for putting the interests of the Syrian people ahead of organizational interests.
The move appeared to be an attempt to appeal to Syrians who have long had deep misgivings about Nusra’s links with al Qaeda and the significant presence of foreign jihadists among its ranks, which set it apart from Western-backed rebel groups.
It could alter the strategic alignment on the ground in Syria if the renamed Nusra gains acceptance among other rebel groups fighting against President Bashar al-Assad.
But Assad and his Russian allies are unlikely to accept the rebranding as requiring them to halt military operations that have put the Syrian leader in the strongest position on the battlefield for years.
The Nusra Front, long one of the most powerful rebel forces in Syria’s five-year, multi-sided civil war, was excluded along with Islamic State from a U.S. and Russian-backed ceasefire this year, a loophole other rebels blamed for the truce’s collapse.
Nusra is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and United Nations. Assad’s other opponents have long said its presence gave the government and its Russian allies a pretext to abandon the truce and launch advances under the cover of anti-terrorist operations permitted under the ceasefire.
ALEPPO SIEGE TIGHTENS
The Nusra announcement came as Syria’s government and its Russian allies launched what they called a “humanitarian operation” in the rebel-held sector of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war, which government forces have held under effective siege since early July.
Although Moscow and Damascus described their new plans for rebel-held Aleppo as an operation to aid people trapped there, Western countries are worried that the real aim is to depopulate the area ahead of an offensive to storm it.
Aleppo has been divided into rebel and government zones for years. Asserting full control would be the biggest victory for Assad’s government so far, and a potential turning point in a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands, spawned the world’s worst refugee crisis and drawn in most regional and world powers.
Rebel-held parts of Aleppo have been bombarded since Wednesday with air-dropped leaflets telling civilians they would be given safe passage out and providing maps to exit routes designated as safe corridors. On Thursday, Assad ordered rebel fighters in the city to surrender within three months.
Around 250,000 civilians are believed to be trapped in the rebel zone of Aleppo. The United Nations says food supplies will run out within weeks.
Assad said rebels who surrender within three months would be given an amnesty. State television quoted the governor of Aleppo as saying three humanitarian corridors would be established so residents could safely leave.
Russia said a fourth corridor would be set up in the north of the city for surrendering rebels, near the Castello Road, the main land route into the rebel sector, most of which the army seized to complete its encirclement.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said: “On behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, today, (we will) start how do i get a nice girl to like me large-scale humanitarian operation together with the Syrian government to help civilians in Aleppo.”
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said helicopters over rebel-held areas dropped baby diapers and meal packs that had Russian-language labels.
“If it is a genuine humanitarian proposal then clearly it will be accompanied by an end to the bombing campaign and by Russian support for other aspects of this comprehensive approach to the humanitarian situation in Aleppo,