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A Western-backed rebel group in northern Syria that is under pressure from Al-Qaeda's hardline Nusra Front has joined an alliance of mainly Islamist insurgent factions in Aleppo, an activist group said on Saturday, Reuters reported.

The Western-backed Hazzm movement joined the Levant Front - Jabhat al-Shamiyya - a grouping of insurgent factions formed in December in the northern province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, citing a statement from the alliance.

"Hazzm is under pressure because before they refused to join Jabhat al-Shamiyya and now they accept this," said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Observatory, which tracks Syria's war using a network of sources on the ground.

Forming the Levant Front was an attempt at unity among factions in Syria that have often fought each other as well as the Syrian army and hardline jihadi groups.

The alliance includes Islamic Front, an Islamist coalition which includes Saudi-backed combatants and other factions.

"We urge our brothers in all factions to resolve their differences with the (Hazzm) movement via the Jabhat al-Shamiyya leadership and its judicial office by appealing to sharia law of God," the statement, which was also posted on Twitter, said.