Free Syrian Army rebels cleaning their AK47s in Aleppo, Syria. Photo: VOA News/WikiCommons.

JNS.org – A group of powerful Islamic rebel groups has rejected the authority of new Western-backed Syrian opposition leadership, and issued a video statement calling for the formation of a new hardline Islamist opposition to be recognized.

At least 13 rebel factions have endorsed the statement, including the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra and other powerful Islamist fighters, Reuters reported.

“These forces feel that all groups formed abroad without having returned to the country do not represent them, and they will not recognize them,” said an elderly man reading the statement on film.

“Therefore the National Coalition and its transitional government led by Ahmad Tumeh do not represent it and will not be recognized,” he said.