Special to WorldTribune.com

A new Islamist alliance of eight groups has formed in southern Syria near the Israeli border and will focus on fighting Syrian regime forces.

The alliance, which is called Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest), is led by Al Qaida’s Nusra Front and “they excluded all the groups that have not been crystal clear about their opposition to the Islamic State,” Joel Parker, a researcher on Syria at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, told the Jerusalem Post.

The factions also united into one bloc to counter increasing pressure on Syria’s Druse community.

Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, told the Post that Jaish al-Fatah “definitely seems like a competitor for influence versus the Southern Front. The umbrella formation of an Islamist army similar to the one in Idlib, and connected no doubt, is a tactical alliance meant to strengthen the Islamist unity in the south.”

The Western-backed Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is still seen as relatively strong in Syria’s south, with key footholds near the Jordan and Israel borders.

Parker said the newly-formed alliance of Islamists “probably know that the Free Syrian Army elements in the south are tied more closely to the West than in other parts of the country, and are thus not going to ally with Islamists, no matter how moderate they seem.”

In March of this year, Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham announced an alliance in Syria’s north.

  Druse, Jaish al-Fatah, Nusra Front, opposes ISIL, rejects ISIL, Scorecard needed: New Islamist alliance targets Syrian regime, WorldTribune.com