Syria Islamists seek truce with Isis after being targeted by US

US-led coalition strikes in Syria aimed at weakening radical Islamists may bring together previously warring hardline groups, who increasingly perceive the west as a shared enemy.

Fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, and other Islamist groups say they are trying to negotiate a truce with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), whose lightning advance across a third of both Iraq and Syria was the casus belli for foreign air strikes in the region.

Before the strikes, the two jihadi forces had been at war for nearly a year over divergent strategies and competition for resources. These clashes helped more moderate rebel forces trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad regain some of the influence they had lost, as Islamists came to dominate the opposition in Syria’s three-year conflict.

When the US air strikes last week targeted not only Isis but Nusra, the group’s fighters and some radical Islamist scholars began to push for improved relations in the face of what they call a “war on Islam”.

“Most Nusra fighters want to end the fighting with Isis so there can be complete focus on Assad and the west,” said a source close to the Nusra leadership.

The Obama administration said the decision to broaden air strikes to include an alleged al-Qaeda linked terrorist cell, which it labelled the “Khorasan group”, rather than just Isis, was taken because of the direct threat that the group presented to the US.

US officials played down the prospect of a rapprochement between Isis and Nusra, saying that the split between the two groups had been rancorous and would not be easily patched up.

Analysts also say divisions between Nusra and Isis are too deep to form a real alliance. “If you look at both al-Qaeda Central and Islamic State messages recently, you can’t see any way of them merging or re-coalescing,” said Aaron Zelin, of the Washington Institute, who argued a truce may be symbolic.

But moderate rebels on the ground fear Washington’s decision to widen its attacks could not only weaken them, but create a larger pool of fighters who believe the west – and its partners on the ground – are their enemy as much as Mr Assad.

Nusra fighters insist they had no interest in foreign attacks before the coalition strikes. But since then the group appears to have shifted its position: Jabhat al-Nusra’s leader, known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, recently put out a statement warning western civilians to demand an end to strikes to avoid becoming victims of attacks in their own countries.

Nusra fighters have been a critical partner to other rebels fighting to end four decades of Assad family rule. Their targeting by the US outraged some opposition forces.

Analyst Aron Lund, editor of Syria in Crisis for the Carnegie Endowment, notes that Nusra has fought Isis but been careful not to target most opposition forces on the ground. That could change quickly as strikes continue.

“They’ll be wary of these pro-US factions. They realise the US seeks to support the rebels against Isis and later clear out Jabhat al-Nusra,” he said.

Opposition activists complain the strikes on Nusra have left civilians facing daily air raids from both Syrian forces and the coalition, and say sympathy on the ground has grown for both Nusra and Isis.

“People began calling it a war on Sunni Muslims, not just Isis . . . Locals here are showing sympathy to Isis they did not feel before,” said an activist in the Isis-controlled province of Deir Ezzor.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group, says dozens of fighters have abandoned former units to join Isis in recent weeks. Militants from Ahrar al-Sham, a hardline opposition group, also complain they and many Islamist units are losing fighters.

“There were always a few leaving to join Isis, but it’s gotten a lot faster now, it has created an emotional wave,” said one Ahrar fighter. “They started to think Isis must be right.”

Fighters from Ahrar and Nusra insist they are only interested in a truce in order to fight the US-led strikes.

“There will be a truce . . . it does not mean we will fight under their leadership or align with them, just that we will pursue our shared interest against the coalition,” said a Nusra commander.

US officials argue such efforts will have little impact on their battle against Isis. “They [Isis] were born of al-Qaeda and al-Nusra is an offshoot of al-Qaeda,” said Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman. “So in our minds, from a military perspective, they are very much one and the same.”

Nusra fighters say there is little they can do about the strikes, but hint that they could start targeting rebels who were “collaborating” with the US coalition.

In southern Syria, moderate fighters who once tolerated and sometimes worked with Nusra forces, fear losing ground should there be an emergence of a new front with the al-Qaeda affiliate.

“If it came to blows with Jabhat al-Nusra we would be defeated,” said Assad al-Zoubi, commander of Supreme Military Council in Southern Syria. “There’s no doubt about it.”

Additional reporting by John Reed in Amman