(Washington Times) Shaun Waterman - The Syrian extremist militia Jabhat al-Nusra is a branch of al-Qaeda's coalition in Iraq and has been all along, the umbrella group Islamic State of Iraq acknowledged Tuesday. "It's now time to declare in front of the people of the Levant and world that Jabhat al-Nusrah is but an extension of the Islamic State of Iraq and part of it," said an audio message from the emir of the Iraqi coalition group, Abu Bakr al-Hussayni al-Qurayshi al-Baghdadi. "This is major news," declared Peter Bergen, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. "It means al-Qaeda is confident enough about its position in Syria to go public," said Aaron Zelin, editor of the blog Jihadology.
2013-04-11 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive