The most powerful rebel alliance in Syria -- the Islamic Front -- is on the verge of collapse.
Two developments took place in the past month that point to remarkable changes within Syria's Islamist landscape. In early February, al Qaeda's central leadership disavowed the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) -- a favor ISIS repaid a few weeks later, when it launched a suicide attack that killed al Qaeda's representative in the country, Abu Khalid al-Suri.
The killing of Abu Khalid, a longtime comrade of both current al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden and also one of the founders of Syria's powerful Salafi group Ahrar al-Sham, seems destined to cause an escalation in rebel groups' efforts to drive ISIS out of the country. Shortly after Abu Khalid's death, Jabhat al-Nusra, al Qaeda's official affiliate in Syria, gave the rival jihadi group a five-day deadline to end infighting or be expelled from Syria and Iraq.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/03/04/islamic_front_isis_syria