In 2015,
al-Nusra Front,
[211] Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, issued
bounty worth millions of dollars for the killing of Assad.
[212] The head of the al-Nusra Front,
Abu Mohammad al-Julani, said he would pay "three million euros ($3.4 million) for anyone who can kill Bashar al-Assad and end his story".
[213] As of 2015
[update], Assad's regional main opponents,
Qatar,
Saudi Arabia and
Turkey, are openly backing the
Army of Conquest, an umbrella rebel group that reportedly includes an
al-Qaeda linked
al-Nusra Front and another
Salafi coalition known as
Ahrar al-Sham.
[214][215][216] In the course of the conflict, ISIS has repeatedly massacred pro-government
Alawite civilians and executed captured Syrian Alawite soldiers,
[217][218] with most Alawites supporting Bashar al-Assad, himself an Alawite. ISIS,
al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and affiliated
jihadist groups reportedly took the lead in an
offensive on Alawite villages in
Latakia Governorate of Syria in August 2013.
[217][219] Assad condemned the
November 2015 Paris attacks, but added that France's support for
Syrian rebel groups had contributed to the spread of terrorism, and rejected sharing intelligence on terrorist threats with French authorities unless France altered its policy.
[220][221]
In 2016,
Syrian Democratic Forces found paperwork including regime bank statements at a recently captured oil refinery during the
Al-Shaddadi offensive (2016) showing that ISIS had sold oil to the Assad regime, with a SDF commander stating; "The
regime says that it's fighting terrorists, but it's not really. In fact, it's always maintained economic ties. Bashar Assad controls nothing anymore and he has a massive logistical lead in terms of oil especially so he's bought oil from the jihadists, and in return, he's supplied them with weapons".[222]
