Syria and the rise of Islamists

Syria crisis: Al-Nusra pledges allegiance to al-Qaeda

The leader of the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group fighting in Syria, has pledged allegiance to the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said the group's behaviour in Syria would not change as a result.

Al-Nusra claims to have carried out many suicide bombings and guerrilla attacks against state targets.

On Tuesday, al-Qaeda in Iraq announced a merger with al-Nusra, but Mr Jawlani said he had not been consulted on this.

Al-Nusra has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the US.

Debates among Western leaders over whether to arm Syria's rebels have often raised the concern of weapons ending up in the hands of groups such as al-Nusra.

"The sons of al-Nusra Front pledge allegiance to Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri," Mr Jawlani said in a recording released on Wednesday.

But Mr Jawlani said al-Nusra had not been consulted on the merger with al-Qaeda in Iraq and insisted his group would not change its stance in Syria.

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Analysis

Jim MuirBBC News, Beirut

The al-Nusra Front clearly finds itself in an awkward position, caught between pragmatic realities on the ground in Syria and its ideological identity and affiliation as an al-Qaeda-related Salafi group ostensibly bent on installing an Islamic state in the region.

The al-Nusra leader's unequivocal public pledge of allegiance to Osama Bin Laden's successor Ayman al-Zawahiri came just three days after the latter called on jihadis to do everything possible to bring about an Islamic state in Syria, as a building-block for a wider caliphate.

That is a goal al-Nusra is generally keeping quiet about, as it seeks to win hearts and minds in the "liberated areas" and to keep the cooperation of other fighting groups dedicated to overthrowing the regime in the name of democracy.

Al-Nusra is aware that al-Qaeda is not a name to conjure with in Syria, which is presumably why it distanced itself from Tuesday's merger announcement from the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq.

The al-Nusra statement assured Syrians that the "good behaviour" they had experienced from the front on the ground would continue unchanged, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from neighbouring Lebanon.

Mr Jawlani said that the oath of allegiance to Zawahiri "will not change anything in its policies", our correspondent adds.

Controversial ties

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State in Iraq, which is the Iraqi wing of al-Qaeda, had said on Tuesday that his group would be joining with al-Nusra under the name The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

But Mr Jawlani said he only heard about the announcement from media and had no prior knowledge of it.

Correspondents say that although it is widely believed - and al-Nusra Front has acknowledged - that there are strong ties between it and the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda, it is clearly not something the group wants to highlight.

Al-Nusra is seen as trying to win the support of the population in rebel-held areas, and also to keep the goodwill of the other opposition groups who do not want to be associated with al-Qaeda.

Spokesmen for the Free Syrian Army, considered the main armed opposition group in Syria, reacted to Wednesday's statement by distancing themselves from al-Nusra.

"We don't support the ideology of al-Nusra," FSA spokesman Louay Meqdad told the AFP news agency.

"There has never been and there will never be a decision at the command level to coordinate with al-Nusra," Mr Meqdad went on, while admitting that there had been co-operation between FSA brigades and al-Nusra on "certain operations".

Also on Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the crisis in Syria will be at the "top of the agenda" when G8 foreign ministers meet in London this week.