Radical Rebels in Syria Call for Islamic State

Reject coalition opposition

Various of rebel factions, including members of the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front, dismissed Monday the newly-formed Syrian opposition coalition abroad and said they want to establish an Islamic state instead.

In a televised statement posted online by the "fighting battalions in Aleppo and its suburbs," several leaders of rebel groups appeared flanking a rounded table with a bearded man sitting in the center, with a black flag behind him and the Muslim holy Quran before him, reading the statement.

"We reject the conspiratorial project about the national coalition," the bearded man said, adding that "we have come to agree on the establishment of a fair and Islamic state."