GRAPHIC: Al-Nusra Front, #ISIS Ally, Amputates Hands of Accused Thieves in Al-Bukamal Countryside, Syria

Seeing the writing on the wall --- and no doubt hoping to avoid annihilation (beheadings, crucifixions) at the hands of ISIS --- Syria's al-Nusra Front formed an alliance with al-Qaeda's rampaging jihadist army in Iraq. See Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine, "Al Qaeda in Syria/Iraq Doubles in Size as ISIS and Al Nusra Kiss and Make Up."

Previously, al-Nusra had rejected ISIS and swore fealty to Ayman al-Zawahiri. But as I noted previously, it's not so much doctrinal differences but leadership splinters that separate these groups. And you'd be hard pressed to find more extreme brutality anywhere in the new caliphate emerging across Eastern Syria and Western Iraq.

At Blazing Cat Fur (warning graphic), "Devout Muslims Cut Off Hands of Two Accused Thieves in Syria."