Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri urged rival jihadist fighters in Syria to unite but again decried fellow Sunni Muslim group ISIS as "extremists" in an audio recording posted online on Sunday, NBC News reported.
"My brothers...the matter of unity is a matter of life or death for you," Zawahiri said.
Zawahiri also emphasized once again the ideological divide between al Qaeda and ISIS, describing ISIS as "extremists and renegades" whose followers would eventually disavow their beliefs and methods.
The authenticity of the recording, the first since January, could not be immediately verified, but it had the hallmarks of previous Zawahiri tapes.
