Nusra Front, other Syrian rebels, evacuating bases amid U.S. airstrikes

Al Qaeda's official affiliate in Syria evacuated its bases in populated areas in the northwest of the country after U.S.-led forces conducted airstrikes on the group, its leaders said Wednesday, according to multiple reports.

The Nusra Front found itself the target of some the earliest airstrikes in a broader military campaign to take on extremists who have been operating in Syria during the country's three-year-old civil war. The Pentagon said the group was targeted because of a cell called Khorasan, a group of hardened al Qaeda veterans, was close to carrying out attacks on targets in Europe and the U.S.

"Heavy weapons have been moved out of the bases. We do not want civilians to be harmed because of us," one Nusra fighter said in an online message, according to Reuters.

The announcement, made on a Facebook page associated with the group's Idlib operations, follows a U.S. airstrike on a Nusra Front base in the village of Kfar Derian that killed around a dozen fighters and 10 civilians, according to two activists.

The airstrikes on the Nusra Front have sent shockwaves through the dozens of rebels groups fighting to overthrow Assad, especially those with conservative religious ideologies. While the U.S. has stated its intent to target the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), currently controlling vast swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, the apparently expanded air campaign is having a ripple effect.

In addition to Nusra, another Islamist group, Ahrar al-Sham, was also clearing out of its bases, weapons workshops and offices, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group. Ahrar al-Sham is part of the Islamic Front alliance that has been in armed conflict with ISIS militants, in addition to the Assad regime. Just before the U.S. launched its first strikes in Syria, Ahrar al-Sham leader Hassan Aboud and dozens of his officers were killed in a bombing in Idlib.

"For four years, we called on the West to help us topple the regime, but it's clear the target is the Islamic factions," said a Damascus-based opposition activist, Abu Akram al-Shami, speaking via Skype. "This will affect the revolution on the ground."

An activist in Idlib who goes by the name of Mohammed confirmed that Ahrar al-Sham was evacuating its bases throughout the northern area. He said he was not aware of any strikes against the group, but said the fighters thought they would be targeted by the coalition because of their ultraconservative Islamic beliefs.

Ahrar al-Sham has been among the steadiest and most effective forces fighting to oust President Bashar Assad in Syria's civil war. It has also been on the front lines of a nine-month battle in northern Syria against ISIS. But the U.S. has long looked askance at Ahrar al-Sham, considering the group too radical and too cozy with the Nusra Front.

The U.S.-led campaign in Syria has drawn a mixed response from the country's multitude of rebel brigades, many of whom cooperate with the Nusra Front and have been locked in a deadly fight with ISIS militants since January. But the rebels' ultimate goal is to topple Assad, while the U.S. is focused on defeating ISIS.

On Wednesday, the main Western-backed Syrian opposition group criticized the American-led airstrikes for being limited to the Islamic State group and other extremists while leaving Assad's government untouched.

"We regret that the international community has come up with partial solutions to the Syrian conflict in which hundreds of thousands were killed or detained by the Assad regime," said Nasr al-Hariri, secretary general of the Syrian National Coalition.

In a statement, al-Hariri also said that any effort other than helping Syrians overthrow Assad will only fuel extremism.