The commander of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front in Syria said Wednesday his group was instructed not to attack Western targets, but instead to focus on toppling the Assad regime “and its allies, like Hezbollah.”
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, in only his second interview since the jihadist group emerged into the limelight in 2012, told Al-Jazeera that “the instructions that we have are not to use al-Sham (Syria) as a base to launch attacks on the West or Europe, so as not to muddy the current war,” according to the Telegraph newspaper.
Those instructions ostensibly came from al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who inherited the leadership of the group after the death of Osama bin Laden. (READ MORE)
