...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafist
...also known as Wahhabis, salafists are against innovation in religion or in anything else. They eat the same things every meal of every day and all their children are named Abdullah or Mohammed. Not all salafists are takfiris, but all takfiris are salafists. They are fond of praying five times a day and killing infidels...
s, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014...
Air strikes by a US-led coalition set up to fight Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
targeted the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in northwest Syria overnight, an organization that tracks violence in the Syrian civil war reported on Thursday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air strikes targeted an office and a vehicle used by Nusra Front in Idlib province in northwestern Syria, in the border towns of Sarmada and Harem, where last week the al-Qaeda-affiliated group routed Western-backed Syrian rebels.
The Observatory also reported the first air strikes hit an Islamic court belonging to Ahrar al-Sham, a rebel group that follows an extremely conservative interpretation of Islam. Activists said the strike was among several that occurred early Thursday in towns along the Syrian border with Turkey.
Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Observatory, said it marked the second time the Nusra Front has been hit in the US-led campaign. The first was on September 23 - the first day of the US air strikes in Syria that are part of Washington's strategy to "degrade and destroy" Islamic State.
The United States said that attack had targeted al-Qaeda veterans which it referred to as the Khorasan group.
Nusra Front last week seized control of areas of Idlib province from Western-backed rebel leader Jamal Maarouf, head of the Syria Revolutionaries' Front in northern Syria, confiscating its weapons. It also took positions from the Hazzm movement, another recipient of Arab and Western support.
It marked a big blow to the non-Islamist opponents of
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
who have generally struggled against better armed and equipped Islamist groups including Nusra Front and Islamic State.
The United States is planning to expand military support to what it describes as the moderate opposition to Assad as part of its strategy against Islamic State in Syria.
Nusra Front was once seen as the strongest bad boy group in Syria but has been eclipsed this year by Islamic State, which has seized wide areas of northern and eastern Syria.