In a new audio message released today, al-Qaeda’s Syrian faction leader, Abu Mohamad al-Golani is calling for his forces to escalate attacks against Syria’s Alawite minority, the religious group to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.
“There is no choice but to escalate the battle and to target Alawite towns and villages in Latakia,” Golani said, calling for “daily” attacks against them, saying the attacks will defeat both the Assad government and their Russian allies, who he called “Christian crusaders.”
Linking the attacks to Russian involvement in the war suggests the new audio message is of very recent manufacture, though of course al-Qaeda has been attacking Latakia, trying to establish a foothold in the area, for months now, with limited success.
Al-Qaeda, backed by other Islamist factions, seized materially all of the Idlib Province over the summer, and has since been trying to expand westward toward the Latakia coast, though significant military resistance has largely kept them out of the area.
Logical. Putin is interested only in his naval base, so the way to beat him is to attack in that direction. And, of course, the religious element is there. We may yet since a line-up of Putin, Assad and the Kurds against everybody else.