Al Qaida’s affiliates in Syria come under increased attacks

50 militants of terror group killed since beginning of the year

The convoy of vehicles was driving on a dirt road in northwestern Syria when the aerial attack by the US-led coalition struck, turning the vehicles into balls of fire and the people inside into unrecognisable charred corpses.

Among the eight dead was Khattab Al Qahtani, a senior Al Qaida official with reported ties to Osama Bin Laden, as well as a Syrian Al Qaida commander from the country’s east and a militant belonging to the Turkistan Islamic Party.

The New Year’s Day attack was the first in a wave of air strikes that has targeted Al Qaida’s affiliate in Syria at an unprecedented rate, killing more than 50 militants allied with the international terror group since the beginning of the year.

In the throes of a brutal civil war now in its sixth year, Syria has one of the largest and most active concentrations of Al Qaida fighters in the world. The US-led coalition has been targeting the extremist group for years, hunting some of its most senior officials, including members of the so-called Khorasan group, which Washington describes as an internal branch of Al Qaida that plans attacks against Western interests.

Analysts say that since Al Qaida began recruiting hundreds of fighters in Syria to expand its role in the country’s civil war against President Bashar Al Assad’s forces, agents might have infiltrated the group, which has also become more visible, setting up command centres and other outposts around northern Syria, making it easier to target.

“Had it not been for their agents they wouldn’t have been able to do anything,” a local Al Qaida commander told The Associated Press via text message from northern Syria.

The stepped-up attacks could also be linked to a ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey that went into effect on December 30, and excludes Daesh and Syria’s Al Qaida affiliate, known as the Fatah Al Sham Front.

Turkey and Russia back rival sides in the Syrian conflict and their new push to try to end the war includes talks between the Syrian government and the opposition to be held later this month in Kazakhstan.

The intensified attacks also come at a time when Daesh, an Al Qaida rival, is under intense pressure and losing territory in Iraq and Syria. Iraqi forces are on the offensive in the northern city of Mosul, the main stronghold of Daesh in Iraq, while USbacked Kurdish-led fighters are marching toward the Syrian city of Raqqa, Daesh’s de facto capital.

“Daesh is on the verge of collapse and this is diverting the attention toward Al Qaida,” said Dana Jalal, a Swedenbased expert on Islamist militancy. “The new Russian-Turkish alliance is also leading to fresh intelligence information.”

Jalal said Turkey is now sharing intelligence about the Al Qaida affiliate with Russia, as well as the US-led coalition. Turkey has been a main point for foreign fighters to cross into Syria and borders the country’s northern Idlib province, where thousands of Fatah Al Sham fighters are based.

Reflecting the intensity of the attacks, the group distributed a list last week of suggested ways for its fighters to avoid being targeted by air strikes, urging total “electronic silence,” the use of camouflage and devices that disrupt the frequency used to control drones and only using buildings “with multiple exits.” was carried by the SITE Intelligence Group, a US group that monitors militant internet traffic.