Syria's Nusra Front backs Paris attacks, despite opposition to Islamic State

Al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, has broken with other Syrian opposition groups to express support for Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris, despite the group’s official hostility to the Islamic State (IS).

“We are happy if a deviant sect successfully executes an operation against the Kufaar (infidels)” read a statement released by the group (from a Twitter account since deleted) over the weekend, adding it would have preferred that al-Nusra had carried out such an attack.

“Scholars like Ibn Taymiyyah have explained this topic: we choose the most guided from two sides.”

Another al-Nusra spokesperson also praised the earlier attacks in Beirut, while cautioning against support for IS.

“I am still saying that ISIS are a riding mount of the tyrants and that they are the dogs of hellfire,” wrote a spokesperson, Sheikh Abu Mariyah al-Qahtani, on Monday, using an alternative acronym for IS.

“And that they are the ones who ruined the jihad in Iraq and Syria. And that they kill the Sunnis. But I was happy with their strikes against Hizbu Shaytaan,” he said, referring to Hezbollah – members of whom were based in the Beirut district that was bombed on Thursday – with the Arabic word for Satan.

The remarks have contrasted sharply with statements by other major rebel groups fighting in Syria, Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam, who both condemned the attacks on Friday, which claimed as many as 132 lives …. http://www.middleeasteye.net