The ISIS-Nusra schism

Nusra’s affiliation to both al-Qaida and ISIS became public in 2013. Baghdadi argued the ties between Nusra and ISIS should be made public; Jolani demurred and said that he was in Syria on the authority of al-Qaida leader Zawahiri, who had forbidden him from announcing their official presence in Syria. Despite Jolani’s objections, on 9 April 2013, Baghdadi announced that Nusra was an Islamic State affiliate and that it would now form part of a newly created Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.[1] Jolani publicly rejected the move, instead pledging his allegiance to Zawahiri and al-Qaida central. Eventually, the dispute led Zawahiri to expel ISIS from al-Qaida altogether.[2] ISIS and Nusra also disagreed on priorities, with Nusra intending to concentrate on Assad’s forces and ISIS pursuing a broader regional agenda.[3]

The dispute with Nusra and ISIS’ unwillingness to compromise with anyone that did not share its ultra-conservative Salafi-jihadist ideology put ISIS at odds with other Syrian opposition groups. It did not take long for those differences to turn violent.[4] In August 2013, ISIS pushed out Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham from northeast Syria’s Raqqa—the first provincial capital seized by the opposition from government forces—before ISIS laid siege to opposition forces around al-Bab and clashed with rebels elsewhere around Deir Ezzor and Albu Kamal.[5] In early 2014, Nusra, the FSA, and the Islamic Front (a coalition including Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham) fought a violent, month-long campaign against ISIS that left thousands dead, according to conflict monitors.[6] It ended with ISIS being pushed out of Idlib and Aleppo, but in control of positions around Raqqa, Deir Ezzor and rural areas in Syria’s east.[7] When ISIS allegedly killed Ahrar al-Sham commander Abu Khaled al-Souri, a Zawahiri “delegate” in Syria, the al-Qaida leader finally cut off all remaining ties with ISIS.[8]

---