Saddam Omar al-Jamal ( ar, صدام الجمل) is a

Syrian Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...

Islamic militant and

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

leader. He is known for taking part in a 2014 massacre of the

Al-Shaitat Al-Shaitat ( ar, الشُّعَيْطَاتُ, aš-Šuʿayṭāt), in Standard Arabic al-Shuʿaytāt, is a Sunni Arab clan which lives in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate in eastern Syria. Its membership numbers between 70,000 and 90,000 and it is l ...

and being involved in the death of Jordanian pilot

Muath Al-Kasasbeh Muath Safi Yousef al-Kasasbeh ( ar, معاذ صافي يوسف الكساسبة, Muʿaḏ Ṣāfī Yūsuf al-Kasāsibah South Levantine pronunciation: ; 29 May 1988 – 3 January 2015) was a Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot who was captur ...

History

Free Syrian Army

He was originally leader of the Allahu Akbar Brigade, a

Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the governm ...

faction operating in

Deir Ezzor , population_urban = , population_density_urban_km2 = , population_density_urban_sq_mi = , population_blank1_title = Ethnicities , population_blank1 = , population_blank2_title = Religions , population_blank2 = ...

, which had more than 800 fighters. According to

Al-Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

, "Jamal was not only the leader of a battalion but also a top FSA commander for the whole of Syria's eastern region." He was the leader of the Supreme Military Council (Syria)'s Eastern Front. The Allahu Akbar brigade was part of the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigade.

Islamic State

On 16 December 2013, he appeared in a video entitled 'Revealing the biggest conspiracy targeting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant' announcing he had joined the

Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ' ...

. The extent to which he had a choice in joining the ISIL has been disputed, with his defection sometimes cast as a 'surrender' to ISIL after two of his brothers were kidnapped, his brother's house was bombed and several of his fighters died. During this time, Jamal narrowly escaped an assassination attempt after a man blew himself up at the headquarters. Jamal had set up at a branch of the state bank. From then on through 2014, he was the ISIL emir for

Abu Kamal Abu Kamal ( ar, أَبُو كَمَال, ʾAbū Kamāl) or Al-Bukamal ( ar, ٱلْبُوكَمَال, al-Būkamāl) is a city on the Euphrates river in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate of eastern Syria near the border with Iraq. It is the administrat ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, his home town. In September 2015 it was reported he had been appointed as a deputy to Abu Firas al-Iraqi, the ISIL governor of their

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

province straddling the Iraq-Syria border. Saddam al-Jamal was captured on 9 May 2018 along with four other commanders in the Syria-Iraq border by Iraqi forces.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jamal, Saddam Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria People of the Syrian civil war Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant members from Syria Defectors to the Free Syrian Army 1987 births Syrian Salafis Living people People from Deir ez-Zor Governorate