(JNi.media) The leader of al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate al-Nusra Front, Abu Mohamad al-Golani, is calling for increased attacks against Syria’s Alawite minority, Reuters reported. Syrian President Bashar Assad is a member of the Alawite minority, which has been targeted in repeated al-Nusra attacks on Latakia province in western Syria, on the Turkish border, in 2013 and 2014.
“There is no choice but to escalate the battle and to target Alawite towns and villages in Latakia and I call on all factions to…daily hit their villages with hundreds of missiles as they do to Sunni cities and villages,” al-Golani said in an audio recording released late Monday.
Al-Golani’s message is seen as a response to Russia’s throwing its full military weight behind President Assad. With the Russian wind in its back, the Syrian military has been able to score victories against al-Nusra and take back some territory in the Hama province in western-central Syria following a Russian air strike.
Al-Golani has also called on Muslims in the Caucasus to attack Russian civilians and soldiers in retaliation for the air strikes in Syria, World Bulletin reported Tuesday. “If the Russian army kills the people of Syria, then kill their people. And if they kill our soldiers, then kill their soldiers. An eye for an eye,” al-Golani said.
He then promised that “the war in Syria will make the Russians forget the horrors that they found in Afghanistan. They will be shattered, with God’s permission, on Syria’s doorstep.”
Russia is claiming that its air strikes have been launched strictly against the ISIS forces, which are the enemies of Al-Nusra, but forces on the ground have begged to differ. The US-led coalition fighting ISIS by air in Syria has also targeted Al-Nusra on several occasions.
Al-Jolani asked Russian Muslims to set aside their differences until the war against Assad, the Russians and ISIS had been won. “Delay the disputes until the demise and smashing of the Western Crusader and Russian campaign on Syrian land,” he said.