DOHA - Two al-Qaida branches urged warring militant factions in Iraq and Syria to stop fighting each other and unite against a US-led alliance preparing to attack the ultra hardline Islamic State armed group, according to a joint statement posted online.
"Stop the infighting between you and stand as one rank against America's campaign and that of its satanic alliance that lies in wait for all of us, to break us stick by stick," al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said in a rare joint statement.
Islamic State, an offshoot of al-Qaida, has fought several rival Islamist groups in Syria including Nusra Front, al-Qaida's wing in Syria, that have sought to resist its expansion over the past year.