Al Qaeda in Syria leaves border area where Turkey seeks buffer

Reuters, Beirut :
Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the Al-Nusra Front says it has quit frontline positions against the self-styled Islamic State (IS) north of Aleppo and ceded them to other rebels, leaving an area of northern Syria where Turkey wants to set up a buffer zone.
Nusra Front’s statement criticised a Turkish-US plan to drive IS from the Syrian-Turkish border area, saying the aim was to serve “Turkey’s national security” rather than the fight against President Bashar al-Assad.
The United States and Turkey last month announced their intention to drive IS from a strip of territory in northern Syria near the Turkish border in a campaign that would provide air cover for Syrian rebels in the area.
Though Nusra is an enemy of IS, its foothold in northern Syria has been a problem for the US-led campaign against the ultra-hardline group. Late last month, Nusra attacked Syrian rebels trained as part of the US-led campaign against Islamic State, calling them agents of US interests.
Nusra said Turkey was acting to prevent the formation of a Kurdish state in northern Syria, and the Turkish government and the US-led alliance against IS were seeking to direct the battle according to their priorities.