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The leader of al Qaeda’s Syria wing, the al-Nusra Front, has said his group is aiming to capture Damascus, warning members of President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority group that they should renounce the Syrian leader, France 24 reports. 

Abu Mohamad al-Golani told news channel Al Jazeera that Assad’s fall would happen quickly, in a rare interview broadcast on Wednesday.

“We will continue our focus on Damascus and on toppling this regime,” Golani, who was masked for the interview, said.

He also said Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which backs Assad, knew its fate was linked to the Syrian leader and its efforts to save him were in vain.

Golani urged members of the Alawite minority in Syria to publicly reject Assad and change their beliefs in order to be safe.

“If they drop weapons, disavow Assad, do not send their men to fight for him and return to Islam then they are our brothers,” he said in reference to Alawites, which follow an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Golani said Alawites were part of a sect that had “moved outside the religion of God and of Islam.”

He said his Sunni Muslim militant group was not at war with Christians.