Audio: Al-Golani pleads for infighting to stop

The shadowy leader of one of Syria's most powerful rebel groups pleaded with his comrades to stop the spread of rebel infighting in opposition-held territories, warning it threatened to upend gains made against Syrian government forces.

The rare recording by Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the head of the extremist Nusra Front, underscored the seriousness of the clashes between a chaotic mix of Syrian rebel brigades against fighters of the al-Qaida linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

"The foreigners and supporters will pay the price for losing this great jihadi fighting field," said al-Golani in the recording uploaded to a militant website, referring to foreign and local rebels. "The (Assad) regime will revive itself after it was close to disappearing. The West and the Shiites will find a place to enter into this battle," he said.

The infighting began Friday, after residents reported that the extremist fighters tortured and killed a popular doctor in the northern city of Aleppo.

It spread from the northern province of Aleppo to nearby Idlib, then to the eastern province of Raqqa, a stronghold for the Islamic State in Iraq, in what was the most serious rebel infighting since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011.

The clashes against radical extremists add another layer of complexity to the Syrian conflict, less than three weeks ahead of a planned international peace conference to try to resolve the civil war.

The Nusra Front and its rival al-Qaida linked group, also known as ISIL, are ideologically similar: both are extreme Islamic groups, loyal to al-Qaida. But the Nusra Front is dominated by Syrian fighters, and sees its first priority as overthrowing Assad. ISIL sees itself as trying to build Islamic rule.


For the full audio recording, click on the image above