Zawahiri urges establishment of Islamic state in Syria to help return of Caliphate
Middle East Online, April 7, 2013

Al-Qaeda chief calls on rebels to fight to establish Islamic state in Syria, warns France against its military intervention in Mali. [.....]

Al Nusra Front pledge allegiance to Zawahiri
Albawaba, April 10th, 2013 via SyndiGate.info

The leader of Syria's Al Nusra front has pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda boss Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message on Wednesday, whilst distancing the group from claims they had merged with Al Qaeda in Iraq, AFP reported [....]

Syria activists blast Zawahiri's meddling in internal affairs
Middle East Online, April 11, 2013

Local Coordination Committees in Syria reject Al-Qaeda leader’s call for Islamic state in Syria. [....]

Syria urges UN action against Qaeda rebels
AFP, April 13, 2013

DAMASCUS  -- Syria demanded Thursday that the UN slap sanctions on a jihadist group after it pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, as the opposition accused regime forces of "savage" killings in the country's south [....]

Syrian Rebels Break With Group Over Qaeda Wing Alliance
By Hania Mourtata and Rick Gladstone, New York Times, April 12/13, 2013

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A leading coalition of Syrian Islamist insurgents broke with a more radical group on Friday, sharply criticizing its announced alliance with Al Qaeda’s Iraq branch as a moral and political mistake that would benefit only their common enemy, President Bashar al-Assad.

“The relentless pursuit of power should not be one of our goals,” said a statement by the coalition, the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front, referring to the alliance between Syria’s Nusra Front and the Qaeda branch. “This is not the right time to declare states, or to unify a state with another state.”

Expressing “surprise and dismay” at the development, the coalition statement said, “We don’t need imported charters or a new understanding of the nation’s religion.” And in a further criticism of Nusra’s loyalty to outsiders, the statement said, “We won’t be doing our population, and our nation, any service if we pledge our allegiance to those who don’t know a thing about our reality.”  [....]

North Africa: Al-Zawahiri Calls Maghreb Youth to Jihad
By Jemal Oumar, AllAfrica.com, 9 April 2013