Islamists forge Syria’s biggest rebel alliance

BEIRUT (AFP) ― Islamists fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad forged Syria’s largest rebel alliance Friday and pledged to work toward an Islamic state, as rebels seized a town on the Lebanese border.

The merger of the six groups comes after repeated calls for unity from opposition fighters and their foreign backers, following advances by regime forces around Syria’s main cities of Damascus and Aleppo.

“The ‘Islamic Front’ is an independent military and social force that is aimed at bringing down Assad’s regime in Syria and at replacing it with a just Islamic state,” a statement said.

Earlier, a rebel spokesman, Abu Firas, declared “the complete merger of the major military factions fighting in Syria.”

Speaking to AFP via the Internet from the northern province of Aleppo, Abu Firas said the Front, bringing together tens of thousands of rebels, would have “one policy and one military command.”

Among those joining are Aleppo’s biggest fighting force, Liwa al-Tawhid, the Salafist Ahrar al-Sham and the Army of Islam, which is concentrated around Damascus.

Creation of the joint force followed criticism from opposition sources and experts partly attributing recent rebel battleground losses to disunity.

But it threatens to undermine the foreign-based leadership of the mainstream Free Syrian Army, which has gradually lost credibility over its inability to secure weapons demanded by fighters. Aron Lund, an expert on the 32-month conflict, described as significant the amalgamation of mainstream and hardline Islamists, excluding any al-Qaida factions.