Jul 10, 2015

Factions affiliated to the Army of Conquest have yet to agree on a unified approach to manage the province of Idlib, months after taking over it. This [lack of agreement] was exploited by Jabhat al-Nusra to fulfill its ambition of establishing an emirate of its own, ruled and managed solely by it.

Jabhat al-Nusra knows that the only competitor that threatens its dream of building an emirate is the so-called “Sharia authority for managing the liberated areas in Idlib.” Therefore, it sought, from the outset, to target this authority, either by assassinating some of its leaders or by dismantling the institutional system governing its operations. The most important point in this respect giving this competition a deeper dimension is that the party dominating the Sharia authority is Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement, which is supposed to be one of Jabhat al-Nusra’s closest allies.

The last chapter of these attempts was the attack by Jabhat al-Nusra and its ally, Jund al-Aqsa, on three Free Police stations affiliated with the Sharia authority. A military force with SUVs and heavy machine guns affiliated to the two above mentioned factions stormed the Sharia Court building and Kafr Nabl police station in Jabal al-Zawiya on July 8, concurrently with a similar attack on two police stations in Khan Shaykhun city and the town of Kafr Sajna in the countryside of Idlib.

Activists from the town of Kafr Nabl said that the raid was a show of force, suggesting that the primary objective is to show off the power of Jabhat al-Nusra and its intransigence toward any defying party, regardless of its position and the authority with which it is affiliated.

According to these activists, the joint force [between Jabhat al-Nusra and its ally Jund al-Aqsa] raided the Kafr Nabl police station and the Sharia court affiliated with the authority and cordoned off the area after closing down all surrounding shops. They also stated that the force members arrested all those present in the building — including security members and judges — in a humiliating manner and confiscated the station and the court’s equipment, including cars and bikes. The force also arrested a number of people in the city and dispatched vehicles armed with machine guns in the streets. Abdel Nasser Salloum, a member of the local council in Kafr Nabl and judge Ayman al-Bayoush, president of the Sharia court were among those who were arrested. Moreover, some of the residents stated that the arrest campaign is still ongoing and the true number of those who were arrested cannot be determined.