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| Syrian terrorist group vows allegiance to Al-Qaeda |
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.jpg) The leader of a terrorist group fighting on the side of Syria's foreign-sponsored rebels has for the first time pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda and the terror network's No. 1, Ayman al-Zawahri.
In an audio message on Wednesday, Abu Mohammad al-Golani also confirms ties with Al-Qaeda's Iraq branch but says that he wasn't consulted ahead of an announcement on the two groups' merger.
Al-Qaeda's branch in Iraq on Tuesday announced it joined forces with the Syrian group, and that the new union will be called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
But al-Golani says the announcement was premature and that his Jabhat al-Nusra, or al-Nusra Front, will continue to use its own name.
His message was first reported by the SITE monitoring service for militant groups.
It's unclear if al-Golani is denying the merger.
Al-Nusra Front, which announced its creation in a January 2012 video, is a magnet for foreign fighters seeking to take part in the insurgency against the Syrian government.
The New York Times reported last month the CIA was helping Arab states and Turkey to boost arms shipments to Syria's rebels.
Asked on Tuesday if the United States was stepping up its military options in Syria, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said such moves would be "part of our discussions this week in Washington".
Kerry also said he would meet with the Syrian opposition in London, in remarks to journalists shortly before he departed Israel for the British capital.
"We will be discussing various means about having an impact on President Assad's calculations about where the battlefield is going," said the top U.S. diplomat.
"We are left with no choice but to try find ways to get him to think differently about what lies in the future."
In March, France and Britain argued that scrapping an EU arms embargo for Syria would tilt the balance on the ground and help prompt a political settlement of the conflict.
No group claimed responsibility for Monday's bombing in Damascus.
Meanwhile, the United Nations said that aid operations for Syrian refugees have reached breaking point in the face of a massive funding shortfall, amid fears the number of people fleeing the conflict could triple.
The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of soldiers and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
Several international human rights organizations have accused foreign-sponsored militants of committing war crimes in Syria.
In an interview recently broadcast on Turkish television, President Assad said that if the militants fighting against the Syrian government take power in his country they could destabilize the entire Middle East for decades.
“If the unrest in Syria leads to the partitioning of the country, or if the terrorist forces take control… the situation will inevitably spill over into neighboring countries and create a domino effect throughout the Middle East and beyond,” he added.
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