Since early 2014, "Jabhat al-Nusra", a self-declared al-Qaeda affiliate, sided with the more nationalistic and liberal grouping of Free Syrian Army (FSA) against the relatively more hardline ISIS.
The feud between the two al-Qaeda affiliates, which turned into firece fighting in the past few weeks, reflected a serious ideological rift among al-Qaeda rank and file organisations. Analysts generally agree that of the eight major armed factions in the Syrian opposition, al-Nusra and the ISIS are by far the most prominent. This is hardly due to their relative strength since there are many groups in the Syrian opposition that are much better armed with many more fighters. al-Nusra has no more than 6,000 active members, while ISIS boasts about 7,000 members, out of which only 4,000 engage in actual fighting.
Al-Qaeda: The third generation? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
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