US blacklists Syrian Islamist rebel group as al Qaeda affiliate

The Jabhat al-Nusra group fighting with the Syrian rebels against the Assad regime has been designated by the US “a foreign terrorist organization” and affiliate of al Qaeda in Iraq,  in an order released Tuesday by the State Department. The group advocates an Islamic state in Syria and is accused by other rebel factions of indiscriminate tactics in the bloody civil war. DEBKAfile: Jabhat constitutes app. one tenth of rebel strength. Fighting mainly in the Aleppo region, it is better armed than other groups. In Syria, 29 opposition groups have signed a petition calling for mass demonstrations in support of Jabhat al-Nusra under the slogan "No to American intervention, for we are all Jabhat al-Nusra."