38 Facts About Ahrar al-Sham

On 18 February 2018, Ahrar al-Sham merged with the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement to form the Syrian Liberation Front.

Ahrar al-Sham has joined forces with other groups in the conflict in their opposition to the Assad regime in Syria.

Ahrar al-Sham has claimed that it only targets government forces and militia and that it has cancelled several operations due to fear of civilian casualties.

Aboud said Ahrar al-Sham worked with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in some battles, but that their agenda was disagreeable.

Ahrar al-Sham said all parties, whether they were ISIL, al-Nusra, the Islamic Front, or the FSA, shared the same objective of establishing an Islamic state, but they differed as to the "tactics, strategies or methods".

Related searches

In May 2016, Ahrar al-Sham released an address by then deputy general director Ali al-Omar in which he distinguished Ahrar al-Sham's militancy from the Salafi jihadism of al-Qaeda and ISIL, and defended its political engagement.

Ahrar al-Sham held strong ties to Syria's Arab tribes in the south and recruited several tribesmen from southern Syria into the group.

In 2013, during the opposition's offensive in Raqqa, Ahrar al-Sham established a local affiliate known as Brigade of the Trustees of Raqqa, the brigade acted as a law enforcement unit in Raqqa and cooperated with local Islamic courts in enforcing Sharia law, and reportedly beat an individual in the city per the ruling of a local court.

An internal faction of Ahrar al-Sham, known as the Ashidaa Mujahideen Brigade, led by Abu al-Abd Ashidaa had flogged individuals for not attending Friday prayers.

Ahrar al-Sham can be described as Jihadist Salafis whose definition of Jihad is one of active war fighting.

Ahrar al-Sham started forming units just after the Egyptian revolution of January 2011, and before the Syrian uprising started in March 2011.

At the time of its establishment in December 2011, Ahrar al-Sham consisted of about 25 rebel units spread across Syria.

On 23 January 2012, the Ahrar al-Sham Battalions was officially announced in the Idlib Governorate.

Ahrar al-Sham cooperates with the Free Syrian Army; however, it does not maintain ties with the Syrian National Council.

Ahrar al-Sham was credited for rescuing NBC News team including reporter Richard Engel, producer Ghazi Balkiz, cameraman John Kooistra and others after they were kidnapped in December 2012.

Ahrar al-Sham was the most prominent of these, and a member of Ahrar al-Sham's, Abu 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Suri, served as the Front's spokesman.

In early November 2014, representatives from Ahrar al-Sham reportedly attended a meeting with al-Nusra Front, the Khorasan Group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and Jund al-Aqsa, which sought to unite the groups against the Syrian government.

Ahrar al-Sham claimed responsibility on their website alleging "dozens" of casualties among Russian officials.

Ahrar al-Sham was praised by Tawfiq Shahabuddin, leader of the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, in October 2016.

In September 2015: In collaboration with Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham overtook an Assad regime stronghold, the Abu al-Zuhur military air base in Idlib governorate.

Autumn 2015: In alliance with Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham was involved in offensives in Northern Aleppo against ISIS and in Southern Aleppo against Assad regime forces.

Spring 2016: Ahrar al-Sham was involved in heavy fighting with other Anti-ISIS rebel forces in Eastern and Western Ghouta and in the Dar'a region in southern Syria.

On 21 January 2017, five factions from Ahrar al-Sham reportedly left to join al-Nusra Front: Jaysh al-Ahrar al-Sham, al-Bara, Dhu Nurayn, al-Sawa'iq and Usud al-Har Battalion.

Ahrar al-Sham was killed in Idlib's Sarmada region by a drone strike.

Ahrar al-Sham accused the Rahman Legion of seizing their weapons, while the Rahman Legion accused Ahrar al-Sham of their attempt to implement their "failed" experience from northern Syria in eastern Ghouta.

Related searches

On 22 June 2018, an Ahrar al-Sham commander was assassinated in al-Bab by gunmen believed to be part of the Hamza Division.

Ahrar al-Sham is one of the best-armed and most powerful rebel factions active in the Syrian Civil War.

Ahrar al-Sham grew significantly by absorbing into its ranks other rebel factions from the Islamic Front and the Syrian Islamic Front which preceded it.

Ahrar al-Sham even has a technical division devoted to cyber attacks.

Ahrar al-Sham generally welcomes foreign fighters without demanding too much of them.

Ahrar al-Sham encourages foreign fighters to arrive unmarried, committed to stay with the organization for six months, and prepared to pay in advance for their stay and their own weapon.

Ahrar al-Sham is not designated a terrorist organization by the U S State Department, the United Nations, or the European Union.

The U S Department of State has said that "Ahrar al-Sham is not a designated foreign terrorist organization".

Ahrar al-Sham had worked with ISIL until the two groups began their present-day hostilities with one another in January 2014.

In one instance, a commander affiliated with the Syrian Revolutionaries Front, claimed that the Islamic Front, which Ahrar al-Sham was a principle and founding member of, was more extreme than al-Nusra, and would eventually become a second ISIL.

Abu Khalid al-Suri, a "top al-Qaeda leader", co-founded Ahrar al-Sham and was until the time of his February 2014 death, by a suicide car bomb attack believed to be carried out by ISIL, though the attack was denied by ISIL, helping to lead Ahrar al-Sham which allowed Ayman Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda, to influence the rebel group's actions despite the group officially having no affiliation with al-Qaeda.

Pro-government media reported that Ahrar al-Sham rejected the 2016 September 12 U S - and Russian-brokered Syrian ceasefire, citing the ceasefire's exclusion of certain Syrian rebel groups and declared solidarity with the al-Nusra Front, which was one of the groups excluded from this ceasefire.

However, since late 2016, Al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham have been increasingly rivalrous, with military clashes between them taking place in the Idlib Governorate in January–March 2017 and July 2017.