Government air raids struck at least five medical facilities in the northern province of Aleppo, where violence has intensified in recent weeks amid a siege by government forces, Syrian opposition activists said Sunday.

The activists said the air raids began late Saturday night and continued until after midnight, killing at least five people across the city, including an infant.

The International Committee of the Red Cross tweeted after reports of the air raids on the provincial capital of Aleppo and the nearby town of Atareb: "Harrowing news: More hospitals hit in #Aleppo this morning. Civilians and hospitals are #notatarget."

Rival sides in Syria's five-year conflict have targeted hospitals and clinics in the past, mostly in the country's north.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four clinics were now out of service in the city of Aleppo, as was the fifth in the town Atareb to the west. It said five people had been killed in Aleppo city.

The Observatory said the clinics closed because they feared being targeted again.

Aleppo-based activist Baraa al-Halaby confirmed that five clinics were hit, adding that an infant was killed in a clinic in the Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo in the early hours of Sunday. He added that a blood bank was struck in Aleppo as well.

One of the facilities hit, Al-Bayan Hospital, posted several photographs on its Facebook page showing the damage to the building. A caption read that the hospital was subjected to "more than one airstrike by warplanes causing wide damage and completely putting the hospital out of service until further notice."

An amateur video posted online shows two nurses, one carrying a baby. They move past seven incubators — four with newborns inside — lining both sides of a room that appears undamaged. The camera then looks out over a balcony lined with sandbags, showing a dusty scene outside and one man running across an otherwise deserted street.

The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting of the events.

According to Physicians for Human Rights, 750 medical personnel have been killed in Syria so far, 698 of whom were killed in attacks carried out by government forces and their Russian allies. The group says that between 2011 and May this year, there were 373 attacks on 265 medical facilities.

"The deliberate targeting of hospitals is part of a strategy to either drive civilians to leave the country or ensure their suffering is severe if they remain in opposition-held areas," said Widney Brown, Director of Programs at Physicians for Human Rights.

"If they are wounded from attacks they may not be able to get lifesaving treatment. If they are sick, likewise," Brown said.

The activist al-Halaby said that later Sunday an air raid struck a store house that has some 10,000 food baskets that were to be used in case people become in need for food.

"They are targeting all vital public utilities," al-Halaby said by telephone.

Syrian government forces and their allies cut the main road into rebel-held parts of the country, known as the Castello road, last week — laying siege to opposition-held parts of Aleppo. The country's largest city and former commercial center, Aleppo has been contested since July 2012.

Residents have been reporting shortages of food in rebel-held parts of the city because of the siege.

On Sunday morning, scores of men, women and children stood in line in front of one of Aleppo's bakeries to buy bread amid a shortage of fruits and vegetables, al-Halaby said. He added that some bakeries have closed because of a lack of flour or diesel.

The U.N. warned earlier this month that nearly 300,000 people in rebel-held parts of Aleppo rely on the Castello road for travel, food and medicine.

The United Nations says there are nearly half a million people in besieged areas in Syria and an estimated 4.5 million Syrians are in a separate category called "hard to reach."

Pawel Krzysiek, the head of communications for the ICRC in Syria, said a 24-truck convoy entered the besieged rebel-held suburb of Moadamiyeh to deliver food for 40,000 people and essential health supplies for local facilities, in addition to non-food items and nutritional products.

Also in Damascus, state news agency SANA said two shells fired by insurgents hit two Damascus neighborhoods causing material damage without casualties.

Later Sunday, several shells struck central Damascus, killing at least five people and wounding 16, according to state TV and SANA.

SANA also quoted an unnamed foreign ministry official as saying that the government is ready for a new round of peace talks "without preconditions."

The U.N. special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Friday that he hopes to be able to hold new talks on Syria's conflict in Geneva in August as concerns mount over humanitarian access to Aleppo.

Russia and the United States have recently concluded bilateral talks on Syria, and de Mistura said it is important first to see how steps agreed upon there play out.

The foreign ministry official also welcomed the Russian-US talks that discussed ways of fighting the Islamic State group and al-Qaida's branch in Syria known as the Nusra Front.

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A 21-year-old Syrian refugee killed a woman with a machete and injured two other people on Sunday before being arrested in the southern German city of Reutlingen, a police spokesman said.

The asylum-seeking Syrian man had been involved in previous incidents causing injuries to other people, he said. The spokesman had no immediate information on when the man arrived in Germany, or when the previous incidents took place.

The assailant was apparently acting alone, the police official said. "There is no danger to anyone else at this time," he told Reuters. No further details were immediately available.

It was the fourth act of violence against civilians in western Europe - and the third in southern Germany - in 10 days.

On Friday, a deranged 18-year-old Iranian-German who was obsessed with mass killings shot dead nine people in Munich before turning his gun on himself as police approached.

On July 18, a 17-year-old youth who had sought asylum in Germany was shot dead by police after wounding four people from Hong Kong, some of them severely, with an axe on a train and injuring a local resident near the city of Wuerzburg.

Four days before, a Tunisian delivery man drove a large truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people.

The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for both the Wuerzburg and Nice attacks. German police said the Munich gunman had no connection with militant Islam or the issue of refugees in Germany.

SEE ALSO: German investigators: Munich gunman wrote manifesto, planned attack for at least a year

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The “middle-class terrorist” dubbed Jihadi Jack has said he has no plans to return to England in his first interview since travelling to Syria.

Oxford born Jack Letts, 20, travelled to Syria for “religious studies” after converting to Islam and was said to have joined terrorist group, ISIS.

In an interview from Syria with Channel 4 News, Mr Letts said he isn't worried about dying in Syria, adding that he missed some small home comforts like donuts and kebabs.

He also claimed he narrowly survived a bombing on an IS stronghold earlier this year.

He told Channel 4 news: “I am not worried, everyone is going to die in their day whether it’s by drone strike, whether you drown, a Muslim understands that his life is between the hands of Allah.”

In a clip from the interview below, Letts is asked if he is with ISIS. "I'm not nor do I agree with a lot of what they follow," he said, adding,"The group you mention I can't say they represent Islam."

Letts’ parents, who claim he had mental health issues, are due to stand trial this year over sending him £1700 for “terrorist activity”, a charge which they deny.

Letts said: “I don’t plan on going back to England, if my parents are going to get put in prison for sending me a bit of money then if I came back to England I don’t think I’d be very welcome.”

“But I don’t plan on coming back anyway, I don’t want to come back.”

But Letts did confess to missing small things from his life in England.

He added: “Not big things, small things like kebabs and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts but other than that not really.”

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My Council on Foreign Relations colleague Elliott Abrams wrote that President Obama’s inaction in Syria “will be a permanent stain on his presidency.” He’s right, and the evidence of the staggering cost of American inaction continues to grow on a daily basis.

The humanitarian cost is the starkest, with perhaps 400,000 people killed and millions more displaced from their homes or forced to flee the country as refugees. The body count continues to pile up as the Assad regime pounds Aleppo into oblivion. The government was reported to have bombed four hospitals on Saturday night with heavy civilian casualties.

The French government has accused the Assad regime of war crimes comparable to those committed in Sarajevo during the wars of Yugoslav succession and has called for an immediate humanitarian halt to the fight. The White House has also condemned the hospital bombings and renewed its call for Assad to step down. Given the president’s unwillingness to do anything to compel Assad, this is more empty verbiage that only further undermines American credibility.

The most effective way for the US, France, and others to save Syrian lives would be by declaring no-fly zones and doing more to help moderate rebels fight back. But that, clearly, is not in the cards. Instead, Secretary of State John Kerry is pursuing a fantastical plan to cooperate with Russia to fight ISIS.

Yes, this is the same Russian regime that recently bombed a base in southern Syria being used by moderate rebels and their partners in the British and American Special Operations Forces. And yes, this is the same Russian regime that has clearly indicated time and again that its only priority in Syria is to keep its allies in the murderous Assad regime in power.

Yet Kerry still proposes to share intelligence with the Russians in the naive hope that they will refrain from hitting moderate rebel groups and concentrate on ISIS and the al-Nusra Front. James Clapper, director of national intelligence, publicly warned against this plan, telling the Washington Post’s David Ignatius, “I’ve expressed my reservations about, for example, sharing intelligence with [the Russians] . . . which they desperately want, I think, to exploit — to learn what they can about our sources and methods and tactics and techniques and procedures.”

As long as the Obama administration continues naively pursuing the chimera of cooperation with Moscow, it will not do anything serious to stop the bloodletting in Syria. And that, in turn, means not only more deaths in Syria but also more oxygen for terrorist groups and more impetus for refugees to leave Syria–including dangerous and mentally disturbed individuals such as the man who detonated himself in Ansbach, Germany, and might have killed many more people.

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VIENTIANE/GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday he hoped to announce in early August details of a U.S. plan for closer military cooperation and intelligence sharing with Russia on Syria.

Kerry, speaking after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of a meeting of Southeast Asian nations in Laos, said there had been progress in recent days on moving forward with the plan.

The proposal would have Washington and Moscow share intelligence to coordinate air strikes against the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and prohibit the Syrian air force from attacking moderate rebel groups.

In Geneva, U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura said he aimed to convene a new round of Syria peace talks toward the end of August, quietly scrapping a previous Aug. 1 deadline while keeping some time pressure on the U.S.-Russia deal.

"Our aim, let me say very clearly, is to proceed with a third round of intra-Syrian talks toward the end of August," de Mistura told reporters after meeting U.S. Syria envoy Michael Ratney and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov.

De Mistura said he strongly hoped Lavrov and Kerry would make concrete and visible progress because that would improve the situation on the ground and the environment for the peace talks, although such progress was not a precondition for talks.

More details of the U.S.-Russia plan needed to be worked out in the next few days, he said.

Kerry has defended the proposal despite deep skepticism among top American military and intelligence officials, including Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, over working with Russia.

"My hope is that somewhere in early August we would be in a position to stand up in front of you and tell you what we're able to do with the hopes it can make a difference to lives of people in Syria and to the course of the war," Kerry told a news conference in the capital Vientiane.

QUESTIONS ABOUT TRANSPARENCY

During the discussions, he and Lavrov outlined the next stage of implementing the plan, including a series of technical-level meetings to address concerns by the U.S. military and intelligence community.

Kerry's State Department and White House allies say the plan is the best chance to limit the fighting that is driving thousands of Syrian civilians, with some trained Islamic State fighters mixed in, into exile in Europe, and preventing humanitarian aid from reaching tens of thousands more.

A senior Western diplomat said the lack of transparency of the U.S.-Russia talks was frustrating and - with increased targeting of civilians and hospitals on the ground - it was hard to foresee any deal.

"The Americans are risking a lot for a deal that is as unlikely to be honored as previous engagements the Russians have made," the diplomat said.

The meeting in Laos comes amid accusations that Russia is behind the hacking of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails released by Wikileaks on Friday.

Kerry said he raised the issue of the emails with Lavrov during their meeting. Earlier, Lavrov brushed aside the accusations that Russia was involved, saying: "I don't want to use four-letter words."

Cyber security experts and U.S. officials have said there is evidence that Russia engineered the release of the emails in order to influence the U.S. presidential election.

The FBI said it was investigating a cyber intrusion at the DNC, which has led to discord as the party's convention in Philadelphia opens on Monday to nominate former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton as its candidate.

SEE ALSO: US intelligence official: 'It isn't clear' why Kerry thinks US and Russia can work together in Syria

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High-level Islamist figures and sources close to Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria have confirmed over the past few days that the group will soon cut ties with Al-Qaeda. Multiple reports also have confirmed that the group’s consultative council (Majlis as-Shura) has recently voted to break away from the terror organization.

The sources justified the delay of the announcement due to unresolved issues within the group and opposition from some leaders over the move, as well as external pressure being applied by Jund al-Aqsa, a jihadist group operating in Syria. Although similar claims about Al-Nusra’s intention to sever ties with Al-Qaeda have been circulating since late 2013, experts familiar with this topic agree that unlike previous claims, there is growing circumstantial evidence that the group might actually follow through with the move.

“We’ve heard such claims before, but this one comes after Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi (an influential Jordanian-Palestinian Salafist) effectively gave his permission for such a move,” Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, tweeted yesterday in response to these reports. However, it is still not clear when this split might be announced and what impact the move will have on Al-Nusra in particular and on the dynamics of the conflict in Syria in general.

Jabhat al-Nusra was established in Syria in late 2011 and quickly gained notoriety for its military exploits against the Assad regime. In December 2012, the group was designated a terrorist organization by the US due to its affiliation with Al-Qaeda in Iraq, whose members would later go on to form the core of ISIS. Nonetheless, Al-Nusra continued to increase its influence and root itself within Syrian society while suspected ties between the group and Al-Qaeda remained unconfirmed speculations.

However, Syrian opposition groups began pressuring Al-Nusra to distance itself from Al-Qaeda after the former pledged its allegiance to Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in April 2013. Regional countries, namely Turkey and Qatar, were also reportedly involved in attempts to persuade Al-Nusra to sever ties with Al-Qaeda, but the group remained loyal.

However, it seems that recent developments in Syria may be finally changing the group’s calculus.  “Al-Nusra may distance itself from Al-Qaeda because it feels that the creation of the proposed US-Russian air coalition to specifically target them is imminent. The group is also trying to regain the community support it has been losing in Syria by transforming itself into a Syrian group,” wrote Syrian journalist Manhal Barish on the activist website Al-Modon.

Another source close to the group confirmed to the author  that “although talks on breaking with Al-Qaeda have been ongoing for a long time now, the launching of the proposed US-Russian air coalition to target Nusra has played a significant role in the timing of the decision. The Al-Shura Council and the high and mid-level leaders all agreed on the break, with the blessing of Al-Qaeda leadership, due to the threats the group is facing,” said Mohamed Raed, a local activist in Idlib.

It is not clear how the split will take place or whether it will also be conditioned on certain guarantees and steps taken by rebel groups. According to a member of Jabhat al-Nusra who spoke on condition of anonymity, “Al-Nusra will change its name but the group’s aims and principles will remain the same.”

Although the source did not refer to any conditions that will come with such a decision, experts familiar with the group stated that Al-Nusra’s decision to split from Al-Qaeda will likely be in exchange for the formation of a new fighting coalition comprising Al-Nusra members and various rebel groups. “Suggestion seems to be that no decision has been made, but that Jolani (Al-Nusra’s leader) will offer a proposition to opposition groups to accept/reject,” Charles Lister wrote in a tweet.

Similarly, Hassan Hassan, a resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, stated that Al-Nusra will only change its name, with its agenda in Syria remaining the same. One sticking point in a future Nusra-rebel coalition could be Al-Nusra’s stated goal of forming an Islamic emirate in Syria, per ‪ Zawahiri's proposal in May 2016.

A senior figure in Ahrar al-Sham, who spoke to the author under condition of anonymity, stated that “I am aware of Al-Nusra’s attempt to break from Al-Qaeda, which is something we have long been asking for. However, there are no ongoing negotiations with Al-Nusra on forming a new coalition as a condition to that.”

The impact of any imminent Al-Nusra split from Al-Qaeda will depend on how the move is carried out and the reaction from local and international actors. Jabhat al-Nusra is trying to change the rules of the conflict in Syria by forcing other rebel groups to increase their strategic cooperation with it. The rebel alternative would be to continue opposing the group, which could lead to their own isolation and increase communal support for Al-Nusra.

Al-Nusra is also trying to use the threat of a potential US-Russian air coalition to its advantage. “We hope that this move will stop the cooperation between the US and Russia, or at least delay it. Even if the new coalition goes forward and they begin targeting us, people will know that it is not happening because of our name or affiliation, which will be a victory for us and our religion. It will also bring us closer to other [rebel] groups and show us who we can trust and who we cannot,” stated the same anonymous source in Al-Nusra.

Similarly, Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi also indicated that those who do not change their position towards Al-Nusra will be exposed. “Al-Nusra has the right to ask those who asked it to break from its leadership to distance themselves from their backers.” Notably, Maqdisi did not comment on the possible consequences for group’s that continue to oppose Nusra.

Nusra’s previous attempts to eliminate US-backed groups in northern Syria, such as the Hazem Movement and the Syrian Revolutionary Front, may offer some indication on how the group could respond to future rivals. 

Many experts predict that Al-Nusra will have a tough time benefiting from any public split with Al-Qaeda. “Even if Jabhat al-Nusra breaks from Al-Qaeda today, that won’t stop it from being targeted or labeled as a terrorist group. That was possible two years ago but not anymore. However, we still hope that Al-Nusra will take a genuine decision to become part of the revolution by changing its aggressive project, which is rejected by the community and other [armed] groups,” wrote Ahmed Abazeid, a Syrian journalist.

Any decision by Al-Nusra to break away from Zawahiri and Al-Qaeda is also unlikely to occur without internal dissent. “If Al-Nusra goes ahead with the decision to break with Al-Qaeda, the group is likely to be divided and it may even split. The announcement has not yet been made publicly due to strong internal opposition, and as a result, not all of those who strongly oppose it are expected to remain,” said, Hani al-Ahmed, a media activist in rural Aleppo.

Moreover, Al-Nusra will find it difficult to win over other rebel groups. “Nusra’s attempts to trick opposition groups into supporting them will not work, especially after the former’s attacks against Free Syrian Army groups. When the US-Russian coalition starts targeting Nusra, other opposition groups, especially those who receive support from the US, will not even dare to condemn those attacks,” wrote Manhal Barish.

Although it may be difficult to persuade rebel groups to change their position towards Al-Nusra, the recent increase in the group’s local popularity indicates that communal support for Al-Nusra would likely increase as a result of any joint US-Russian targeting campaign.  

Attempts by Jabhat al-Nusra members and supporters to explain and justify the group’s decision to break with Al-Qaeda, instead of denying it, strongly indicates that such a scenario is likely to happen, although it will take some time before it is announced publicly. If the move happens, Al-Nusra will likely change its name while retaining its long-term goal of establishing an Islamic emirate in Syria.

However, if the split does not happen, Al-Nusra might face the risk of massive internal fracture between members of the group who supported breaking away from Al-Qaeda and those who wished to remain under the umbrella of the global terror movement.  

SEE ALSO: The staggering cost of inaction in Syria 'will be a permanent stain'

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - A large truck bomb blast claimed by Islamic State killed nearly 50 people and wounded scores more in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli near the Turkish border on Wednesday, a monitoring group and state television reported.

The attack, which hit near a Kurdish security forces headquarters, was the deadliest of its kind in the city for years, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The blast, which took place early on Wednesday, killed at least 48 people. The death toll expected to rise because of the number of people seriously injured, the Observatory said. State media put the death toll at 44.

Kurdish forces control much of Hasaka province, after capturing vast areas from the jihadist group last year. The Kurdish YPG militi, which has proved the most effective partner for a U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State, is also involved in fighting the extremists farther west, in Aleppo province.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for what it said was a suicide truck bomb attack, and added that it targeted Kurdish security forces. The group State has carried out a number of bombings in Qamishli, which is in Hasaka province, and in the provincial capital, Hasaka city.

State TV rolled footage purportedly from the scene of one blast, showing large-scale damage to buildings, vast amounts of rubble strewn across the road and plumes of smoke rising.

The explosion was so powerful it shattered the windows of shops in the Turkish town of Nusaybin, directly across the border. Two people were slightly hurt in Nusaybin, a witness said.

Islamic State has targeted Qamishli and the provincial capital, Hasaka city, in the past withbombing attacks. A suicide blast killed six members of the Kurdish internal security force, known as the Asayish, in April. In July, an Islamic State suicide bomb killed at least 16 people in Hasaka.

The YPG is now involved in a U.S.-backed offensive that has advanced against the jihadists further west near the Turkish border.

The assault against Islamic State in the city of Manbij has put it under pressure, cutting off all routes out of the city. Fighters from the U.S.-backed alliance have in recent weeks made incremental advances as they try to flush out the remaining IS fighters in Manbij.

Territory that Islamic State controls in that area was a major supply route to the outside world via the Turkish-Syrian border, through which it moved weapons and fighters.

(This story has been refiled to show single explosion shattered windows in Turkey)

(Reporting by John Davison, additional reporting by Ahmed Tolba in Cairo and Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir, Turkey; editing by Larry King)

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BERLIN (Reuters) - A Syrian asylum seeker who blew himself up in the southern German town of Ansbach on Sunday was influenced by an unknown person in a chat conversation on his mobile phone, Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said on Wednesday.

"It's possible to deduce that another person wherever they were at the time of the call, of the chat, significantly influenced how the attacker acted," Herrmann said on the sidelines of a meeting of the Bavarian cabinet.

"The chat ended directly before the attack," he added.

The 27-year-old Syrian, who had arrived in Germany two years ago, set off explosives in his rucksack on Sunday outside a musical festival in Ansbach, a town of 40,000 people southwest of Nuremberg, killing himself and injuring 15 people.

Police are trying to find out whether the attacker had help making the bomb and whether it exploded prematurely, which could suggest he wanted to kill as many people as possible.

"There are indications that the attacker did not want to ignite the bomb at this moment," a spokesman for the Bavarian Interior Ministry said.

The attack on Sunday was the fourth act of violence by men of Middle Eastern or Asian origin against German civilians in a week and is likely to fuel growing unease about Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door refugee policy.

More than a million migrants entered Germany over the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

Investigators found a video on the Ansbach bomber's mobile phone in which he pledged allegiance to militant group Islamic State, which later claimed responsibility for the bombing.

On searching his room, Nuremberg police found diesel, hydrochloric acid, alcohol, batteries, paint thinner and pebbles -- the same materials used in the bomb -- and computer images and film clips linked to Islamic State.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday the Russian and Syrian militaries would start a large-scale humanitarian operation in Aleppo during which civilians and militants would be given the chance to leave the city.

Shoigu spoke a day after the Syrian army said it had cut off all supply routes into eastern Aleppo and the government air-dropped leaflets there, asking residents to cooperate with the army and calling on fighters to surrender.

"On behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, today, (we will) start a large-scale humanitarian operation together with the Syrian government to help civilians in Aleppo," Shoigu said in televised comments.

He said three safe corridors would be established by the Russian and Syrian militaries for civilians to leave what was once Syria's largest city, but which is now divided between rebel-controlled and government-held sectors.

Shoigu complained that the military had received no information from the United States on Nusra Front and Free Syrian Army locations in Aleppo and would therefore open a fourth corridor for militants in the north of the city and near the Castello road.

Shoigu also offered militants the chance to surrender, saying Russia had urged the Syrian government to pardon those who have not committed serious crimes.

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Al Qaeda told its Syrian branch, the Nusra Front, that it could break organizational ties with global jihadist organization to preserve its unity and continue its battle in Syria, in an audio statement released on Thursday.

A break with al Qaeda could pave the way for greater support from Gulf states such as Qatar for Nusra Front, the most powerful faction in Syria's five-year conflict opposing both President Bashar al-Assad and the Islamic State militant group. It could also lead to closer ties between Nusra and other fighting factions in Syria.

"You can sacrifice without hesitation these organizational and party ties if they conflict with your unity and working as one body," al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said in an audio statement directed to the Nusra Front.

"The brotherhood of Islam among us is stronger than any organizational affiliation ... Your unity and unification is more important to us than any organizational link."

Listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, Nusra Front was excluded from Syria's February cessation of hostilities truce and Russia and the United States are also discussing closer coordination to target the group.

Speaking before Thursday's announcement, Charles Lister, an expert with the Middle East Institute, said that while Syria's opposition has always demanded Nusra leave al Qaeda, Western powers are unlikely to change their assessment of the group.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has proposed closer cooperation with Russia against Nusra Front, including sharing intelligence to coordinate air strikes against its forces.

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, a research fellow at U.S. think tank Middle East Forum, said a formal break with al Qaeda and the possible formation of a new coalition of fighters with al Qaeda's blessing "arguably represents the worst outcome from the U.S. perspective".

He said it would make "targeting of terrorist figures much more difficult as they will be ever more deeply embedded in the wider insurgency".

A larger coalition between the Nusra Front and other groups "would then quickly and easily dismantle many of the U.S.-backed groups among the Syrian rebels in the north", he wrote.

Nusra Front was set up shortly after the uprising against Assad broke out in 2011. Originally supported by Islamic State, which controls swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, it split from the hardline group in 2013.

It has been sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council, although in many parts of Syria it frequently fights on the same side as mainstream groups favored by Washington and its Arab allies.

Rebels fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army have denied direct coordination with Nusra, which has also fought and crushed several Western-backed rebel groups.

After lying low in the early days of the February truce, Nusra has re-emerged on the battlefield as diplomacy has unraveled, spearheading recent attacks on pro-government Iranian militias near Aleppo, Nusra commanders and other rebels say.

Proposals to distance Nusra from al Qaeda have been floated before. Last year, sources told Reuters that the group's leaders considered cutting ties with al Qaeda to form a new entity backed by some Gulf Arab states seeking to topple Assad but which are also hostile to Islamic State.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States military has found enough credible information to begin a formal investigation into allegations that U.S.-led coalition air strikes killed civilians on July 19 in Syria, a spokesman for the coalition fighting Islamic State, Colonel Chris Garver, said on Wednesday.

Garver said a credibility assessment had been completed and the formal investigation had been initiated.

Activists inside Syria claim that the coalition airstrikes left at least 73 civilians dead, a majority of them women and children.

“This is likely the worst reported civilian toll of any coalition attack since the bombing campaign against Isis began nearly two years ago,” Chris Wood, the director of UK-based monitoring group AirWars, told The Guardian last week.

“Since the siege began it’s our view that at least 190 civilians have been killed by coalition airstrikes, mostly US," Wood added, referring to the regime's siege on Syria's largest city, Aleppo. "We are concerned that the US-led alliance appears to have relaxed some of their rules concerning civilian casualties."

Army Col Christopher Garver, the chief spokesman for the US-led anti-ISIS coalition, implied that the non-combatant casualties may have been the result of ISIS using civilians as human shields.

“We have seen Da’esh using more civilians as human shields in the Manbij area," Garver told The Guardian, using an alternate name for ISIS.

"We’ve seen them during the fight pushing civilians toward the lines of the SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces] to try to draw fire. While the investigative process will provide details on this particular incident, and we don’t know what happened, I won’t be surprised if this is somehow a factor."

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad offered an amnesty on Thursday for rebels who lay down their arms and surrender to authorities within three months.

The amnesty offer, announced on state media, came as pro-government forces tightened their control around rebel-held districts of the northern city of Aleppo, where at least 250,000 civilians are believed to be trapped.

Russia, which is supporting Assad, said on Thursday three corridors would be established by the Russian and Syrian militaries for civilians to leave the city.

SEE ALSO: French special forces are advising rebels on the ground in northern Syria

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The US military has released a video showcasing coalition airstrikes obliterating an ISIS fighting position near Manbij, Syria. 

According to US Central Command, the strikes near Manbij on July 13 destroyed four ISIS tactical units and 14 ISIS fighting positions. Additionally, two other ISIS positions were damaged in the strikes. 

Altogether, the coalition carried out 12 strikes against ISIS in Syria using bombers, attack fighters, and remotely piloted aircraft on July 13.  Simultaneously, an additional 15 strikes took place with the support of Iraqi forces in Iraq.

In addition to the fighting positions, the strikes destroyed ISIS oil wellheads, mortar systems, tactical units, vehicles, and assembly areas. 

Here's what the strike against fighting positions near Manbij, Syria looked like:

Watch the video below:

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As a number of ISIS attacks have rocked Europe, it can be difficult to remember that the group is largely on the back foot.

"They are on the run,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview on CNN last week while addressing the spate of terror attacks by the group. “And I believe what we are seeing are the desperate actions of an entity that sees the noose closing around them.”

Through satellite photos and other data, it's clear that the terror group has been steadily losing territory in its heartlands of Iraq and Syria.

Even now, major efforts are underway to reclaim Mosul, the largest city under ISIS control. 

However, as ISIS does steadily lose ground through conventional warfare in the Middle East, the group's attacks against civilians around the world will only likely increase — at least for the time being.

"At some point there is going to be a terrorist diaspora out of Syria like we’ve never seen before," explained FBI Director James B. Comey at a cybersecurity conference at Fordham University on Wednesday, The New York Times reports. "Not all of the Islamic State killers are going to die on the battlefield."

As the terror group's territory shrinks, dedicated fighters within the group will travel to find new locations to conduct their operations — most likely in hiding. Comey continued by saying that many of these core fighters would migrate to Western Europe as ISIS loses ground. And there is always the risk that some of them would eventually reach the US.

Drawing a comparison between the number of radicalized Al Qaeda fighters from Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s to ISIS today, Comey referred to the stark nature of the current threat. 

"This is 10 times that or more," he said. "This is an order of magnitude greater than anything we’ve seen before."

Comey's concern over the metastasizing threat was echoed by former FBI special agent on the Joint Terrorism Task Force Clint Watts.

"For those homeless foreign fighters, the choice is simple: They can either die in place fighting for a crumbling caliphate or they can go out as martyrs striking their homelands or regional or international targets,"writes Watts, who is currently a Robert A. Fox Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Program on the Middle East.

Watts continued, "The Islamic State owns the largest number of homeless foreign fighters in history. As the group loses turf, they'll likely become part of the largest human missile arsenal in history and be directed against any and all soft targets they can reach."

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The leader of the Syrian Islamist rebel group Nusra Front said on Thursday it was cutting its ties with al Qaeda to deny foreign powers including the United States and Russia a pretext to attack Syrians.

Listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the Nusra Front was excluded from a truce negotiated in February. Russia and the United States are discussing closer coordination to fight the militia.

The group's leader, Abu Mohamad al-Golani, made the announcement in a video that was the first public pronouncement to show his face.

"We have stopped operating under the name of Nusra Front and formed a new body ... This new formation has no ties with any foreign party," he said, giving the group's new name as "Jabhat Fatah al Sham".

He said the step was being taken "to remove the excuse used by the international community -- spearheaded by America and Russia -- to bombard and displace Muslims in the Levant: that they are targeting the Nusra Front, which is associated with al Qaeda".

Golani said the action would narrow differences with other rebel groups that are also fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Al Qaeda's leader, Ayman al Zawahri, had earlier given his blessing to Nusra Front to break organizational ties with the global jihadist organization in the interest of preserving its unity and continuing its fight in Syria.

Golani thanked Zawahri for putting the interests of Muslims and the people of the Levant over organizational interests.

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One of the biggest terrorism players in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, just distanced itself from its parent organization, Al Qaeda, in what analysts see as a savvy political maneuver.

Jabhat al-Nusra, aka the Nusra Front, has risen to power amid the Syrian civil war that has dragged on for more than five years.

The group, which fights the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad as well as the terrorist group ISIS, is known for being one of the most well-funded and well-equipped rebel groups in Syria.

But it also has strong terrorism ties, and experts believe that the group is playing a long game to outlive ISIS and eventually take over Syria to create an Islamic emirate.

Announcing a split from Al Qaeda could play into the group's long-term strategy.

Charles Lister, an expert on Syrian jihadist groups and senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, profiled Jabhat al-Nusra for the Brookings Institution this month. He predicted the split from Al Qaeda and explained its significance in the paper:

"Whatever the outcome, it remains hard to fathom how the majority of Jabhat al-Nusra's leadership could truly renounce and give up their decades-long devotion to al-Qaida's global vision. Ultimately, while symbolically of very great significance, any potential decision to break ties from al-Qaida should be read more as a politically smart maneuver aimed at further trapping Syrians into their relationship of interdependence with the group and thus furthering the viability of Jabhat al-Nusra's long game."

Jabhat al-Nusra benefits from marketing itself as a moderate opposition group fighting the Assad regime. That way, it has an easier time recruiting people whose primary goal is ousting Assad, and it has a better hope at avoiding US airstrikes that target terrorist groups.

And because of its terrorist affiliations, Jabhat al-Nusra has been excluded from ceasefires between the Assad regime and moderate opposition groups.

Analysts have long warned that Jabhat al-Nusra poses more of a long-term threat to US national security than ISIS. The group has been especially concerned with long-term viability, and has kept a lower profile while the world focuses on taking out ISIS. Even if Jabhat al-Nusra appears to be focused on Syria, it could easily make the shift to external attacks, which has long been Al Qaeda's focus.

Lister wrote:

"The threat of external intervention against Jabhat al-Nusra has ... sparked an intense internal debate within the group's senior leadership regarding the overt nature of its relationship to al-Qaida. Beginning in late June, a high-level track of dialogue sought to encourage those within Jabhat al-Nusra less dedicated to al-Qaida's transnational ambitions to break away and form a new, independent faction. ... The potential imminence of U.S.-Russian strikes no doubt lent a certain urgency to such discussions."

This new faction is called "Jabhat Fatah al Sham." Jabhat al-Nusra leader Abu Mohamad al-Jolani announced that the new group "has no ties with any foreign party."

But, as terrorism expert Thomas Joscelyn pointed out on Twitter, the language of Jolani's announcement is very careful. And since Al Qaeda is thought to be slowly relocating its leadership to Syria, the group might not even be considered "external" to Syria anymore.

"What [Jolani] actually says (as best I can tell) is they are cancelling all operations as Nusrah, forming a new entity 'Jabhat Fath Al Sham,'" Joscelyn tweeted. "And 'this new organization has no affiliation to any external entity.' Guess what: AQ senior leadership is in Syria. Not 'external.'"

The White House, for its part, said on Thursday that it's still concerned about Jabhat al-Nusra's capacity to attack the West.

Hassan Hassan, an analyst from Syria and expert on terrorist groups, tweeted that Jabhat al-Nusra's move "will complicate the situation for the rebels and help Nusra."

"Nusra's move won't make it easier for countries like Qatar and Turkey to support it," he tweeted. "No, it'll make it harder for them to support other groups."

He continued: "The US will go ahead to uproot Nusra. It's now easier, not more difficult, to lump like-minded groups with it. Those that cooperate with it."

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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's attempt to elicit Russian military cooperation in the fight against Islamic State in Syria suffered two potentially crippling blows on Thursday.

First, the Syrian army said it had cut off all supply routes into the eastern part of the city of Aleppo - Syria's most important opposition stronghold - and President Bashar al-Assad's government asked residents to leave the city.

That move, U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity said on Thursday, appeared to be an effort to pre-empt a U.S. demand that Russia and Syria reopen a major road into the divided northern city before talks could begin on creating a joint intelligence center to coordinate air attacks against Islamic State.

Then al Qaeda's Syrian branch announced on Thursday it was terminating its relationship with the global network created by Osama bin Laden and changing its name to remove what it called a pretext by the United States and other countries to attack Syrians.

Although one U.S. official called it "a change in name only," the move complicates the American proposal to limit the Russians and Syrians to targeting only Nusra and IS, not other rebel groups supported by Washington and its allies in the coalition against Islamic State.

"By disavowing its ties to al Qaeda - which, incidentally, it did with al Qaeda's blessing - Nusra has made it harder to isolate it from more moderate groups, some of whose members may join it now because it's more powerful than some of the groups they belong to now," said the official.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Washington has been clear about its concerns over the announcement of the humanitarian corridor and that its view of the Nusra Front had not changed despite its name change.

"But we also remain committed to the proposals reached by the United States and Russia to better enforce the cessation of hostilities in Syria and provide the space needed for a resumption of political talks. If fully implemented in good faith, they can achieve a measure of success that has eluded us thus far," Kirby told Reuters.

"As the secretary made clear, however, we are pragmatic about these efforts, and we will look to Russia to meet its commitments as we will meet ours. That will be the primary, determining factor of success here," he added.

FALTERING PROPOSAL

The twin U.S. goals in Syria have been ending the violence that already has claimed some 400,000 lives, according to United Nations estimates, and seeking a political process to replace Assad, whom President Barack Obama has said "must go."

But while Washington and Moscow have both expressed hope they can find a way to cooperate against IS, Kerry's proposal was already in trouble due to the competing objectives of the Cold War-era foes as well as resistance from U.S. military and intelligence officials.

U.S. officials questioned Russian and Syrian claims that their aim in evacuating civilians from Aleppo was to clear the way for humanitarian assistance to reach the besieged city, where 200,000-300,000 civilians remain with only two to three weeks of food on hand.

"Why would you evacuate a city that you wanted to send humanitarian aid to?" asked one official. "At first glance, that would appear to be a unilateral effort by Moscow and Assad to pre-empt Kerry's demand for ending the siege of Aleppo before starting negotiations on the larger issues. If the proposal isn't dead, it seems to be pretty badly wounded."

U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura wants a deal as soon as possible so he can restart peace talks within a month and aid flows can resume.

(Reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva and John Walcott in Washington, additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed; editing by G Crosse)

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Al Qaeda's former affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, formally severed ties with the global terror organization Thursday in an attempt to "unify" as a distinct Islamist brigade with its own revolutionary goals and vision.

In its mission to rebrand itself, al-Nusra — now identifying as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham — has clearly indicated that it is not committed to Al Qaeda's brand of global jihad, but to the singular goal of a fomenting an Islamic revolution inside Syria. 

The break was made easier by the fact that, since its emergence in 2012, Nusra has woven itself into the fabric of Syria's communities and established military alliances of convenience with many mainstream rebel groups in the name of toppling Syrian president Bashar Assad.

But it also confirms that Nusra has no intention of distancing itself from the revolution's non-jihadist rebel groups, many of whom are backed by the US and its allies.

For Russia, then — which has consistently used Nusra's presence among these more moderate rebel groups as an excuse to target and eliminate any and all opposition to its ally, Assad — Nusra's dissolution of ties with Al Qaeda is a gift. For the US, it's a headache.

"By dissolving its ties with Al Qaeda, Nusra Front has made certain that it will remain deeply embedded within opposition front lines, particularly in the northern governorates of Aleppo and Idlib," Charles Lister, a senior fellow at The Middle East Institute and expert on Syria's jihadist insurgency, wrote in Foreign Policy on Friday.

He continued:

"Any airstrikes by foreign states targeting the group will almost certainly result in the deaths of mainstream opposition fighters and be perceived on the ground as counterrevolutionary. Consequently, a mission defined by Moscow and Washington in counterterrorism terms would in all likelihood steadily broaden the spectrum of those potentially defined as 'terrorists' — to the substantial detriment of any future solution to the Syrian crisis."

Ironically, the break comes as the US and Russia prepare to announce a military cooperation plan, known as the Joint Implementation Group (JIG), that was meant to more clearly delineate Nusra's positions in Syria and deter airstrikes on civilians and the more moderate opposition.

"By disavowing its ties to al Qaeda — which, incidentally, it did with al Qaeda's blessing — Nusra has made it harder to isolate it from more moderate groups, some of whose members may join it now because it's more powerful than some of the groups they belong to now," a US official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Jeff White, a military expert and defense fellow at The Washington Institute, noted that the development will probably not have any effect on Russia's military strategy in Syria.

"Russia doesn't bomb Nusra because its a terrorist group," White told Business Insider. "It bombs Nusra because it is an enemy — an effective one — of the regime. For Russia, as long as Nusra keeps fighting the regime, it will remain a target."

With regard to how the break might affect the US' military strategy in Syria, White said that while the Obama administration "will want to assess what the split means in terms of goals, objectives and operations, I suspect the counterterrorism community will be loath to take it off the target list."

'Laying a trap'

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday that Nusra's rebranding will not affect the US' assessment of the group.

"There continues to be increasing concern about Nusra Front's growing capacity for external operations that could threaten both the United States and Europe," Earnest told reporters at the daily White House press briefing.

But the development is bound to further complicate Syria's rebel landscape, especially as Nusra — under its new name — mainstreams itself and consequently attracts more young men to its cause.

That, Lister noted, is where Nusra's break from Al Qaeda can be seen less as a conscious separation from the terror organization's global jihadist ideals and more as a way of "laying a trap" for the US and its allies who claim to want to support the goals of Syria's revolution.

"The most moderate FSA groups will be forced to choose between military and revolutionary unity, or operational isolation and subjugation," Lister wrote. "In short, Jabhat al-Nusra is taking yet another step toward shaping the orientation of the Syrian opposition in its favor."

Many experts claimed that the US and Russia sealed Al Qaeda's fate in Syria after it was revealed that they were going to coordinate their respective air campaigns to target its affiliate, al-Nusra.

Now, by breaking ties with Al Qaeda, Nusra has all but cemented the conditions for its own long-term survival. Those include increased popular support — which will lead to a backlash against the West if the US targets the group — and, potentially, funding from Qatar and Turkey, which may interpret Nusra's re-branding as a legitimization of its revolutionary goals.

"Placed in this quandary, international military action against Jabhat al-Nusra does seem all but inevitable," Lister said. "At the same time, however, the consequences for doing so have become even more concerning."

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Donald Trump repeated his suggestion this week that the US should partner with Russia to fight the terrorist group ISIS, but experts say there are problems with this proposal.

"There's nothing I can think of that I'd rather do than have Russia friendly as opposed to the way they are right now so that we can go and knock out ISIS together with other people and with other countries," Trump said at a press conference on Wednesday.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along with people? Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along, as an example, with Russia? I'm all for it. And let's go get ISIS."

It wasn't the first time Trump had suggested using Russia to help take out ISIS (also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, or Daesh). He's also been often criticized for his perceived praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who isn't commonly thought to be a friend of the US.

And it's not just Trump. The US and Russia are preparing to announce a military cooperation plan, known as the Joint Implementation Group. The effort was spearheaded by Secretary of State John Kerry and will see the US sharing military intelligence with Russia to target terrorist groups in Syria.

But experts say that relying too much on a military solution to terrorism won't solve the problem in the long run.

"The Islamic State is not only a military problem and it is not essentially a military problem. It's a political problem," Robert Ford, a senior fellow with the Middle East Institute and US ambassador to Syria between 2010 and 2014, told Business Insider.

He explained: "It came out of anger and frustration and chauvinism within Sunni Arab communities from Lebanon to Iraq that feel besieged and aggrieved. Partnering with Russia militarily might help cede territory from the Islamic State, but it won't deal with the underlying grievances. It'll turn [ISIS] into an insurgency instead."

And already Russia hasn't been reliable on the battlefield against ISIS. Analysts have noted that for months, most Russian airstrikes in Syria targeted moderate rebels that oppose the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"In the fall of 2015, Russia intervened militarily in Syria on the pretext of fighting ISIS terrorism," Fred Hof, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former special adviser for transition in Syria under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, told Business Insider via email. 

"Instead it has focused militarily on Syrian rebel units opposed to both Assad and ISIS, even hitting units equipped by the US to fight the latter. Secretary of State John Kerry is desperately trying to persuade Russia to align its actions with its words."

Another concern is Russia's alliance with the Assad regime. If the US were to fully embrace Russia, it could send a message to Syrians that we're not serious about ousting Assad, a brutal ruler whose forces have been known to massacre civilians.

ISIS uses Assad's violence to recruit people — the Sunni terror group markets itself as a protector of Sunnis, who are often targets of the Assad regime.

"When the Americans say they're trying to find a way to get Assad to step aside, that at least undercuts some of the ISIS narrative," Ford said. "But when you team up with the Russians, that makes the Islamic State narrative look more plausible. It would show Syrians that we don't really care about their suffering. … It would just show that the Americans lack credibility when they say they are unhappy with the shelling of civilians."

The Assad regime could also interpret a US embrace of Russia as a tacit message that the US is OK with him remaining in power.

"That may be not what the Americans' message is intended to be, but that's how it will be understood," Ford said.

Still, Trump may be right to say he wants to mitigate tensions between the US and Russia.

"I think all Americans in general would like to have a relationship that's not confrontational with Russia," Ford said. "No one wants World War III."

Hof made a similar point, noting that President Barack Obama made it a priority to establish friendlier relations with Russia when he took office in 2009.

But Ford said "the real question is how do you deter the Russians from plunging into little adventures, probes that end up going very bad," like the seizure of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine.

"I think that there are a lot of questions right now about American deterrent capabilities," Ford said. "When you then engage in these kind of questionable efforts to cooperate with the Russians, who have different strategic objectives in Syria, it calls into question your credibility, your willingness to be tough. And there's a cost to failure."

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