Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح الشام lit. ''Front for the Conquest of Syria/the Levant'') after July 2016, and also described as al-Qaeda in Syria or al-Qaeda in the Levant,
was a
Salafist jihadist terrorist organization fighting against
Syrian government
Government of the Syrian Arab Republic is the union government created by the constitution of Syria where by the president is the head of state and the prime minister is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Syr ...
forces in the
Syrian Civil War. Its aim was to establish an
Islamic state
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 ...
in the country.
The group has changed its name several times and merged with and separated from other groups.
Formed in 2012, in November of that year ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' described al-Nusra as "the most aggressive and successful" of the rebel forces.
In December 2012, the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
designated it a foreign terrorist organization, and in April 2013, it became the official Syrian branch of
al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
.
In March 2015, the group joined with other
jihadist
Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...
groups to form the
Army of Conquest. In July 2016, al-Nusra formally re-branded from Jabhat al-Nusra to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ("Front for the Conquest of the Levant").
On 28 January 2017, following
violent clashes with
Ahrar al-Sham
Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya ( ar-at, حركة أحرار الشام الإسلامية, Ḥarakat Aḥrāru š-Šām al-Islāmiyah, lit=Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant), commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, is a coalition ...
and other rebel groups, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham merged with four other groups to form
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) (, transliteration: ', "Organization for the Liberation of the Levant" or "Levant Liberation Committee"), commonly referred to as Tahrir al-Sham, is a Sunni Islamist political and armed organisation involved in the ...
, a new Sunni Islamist militant group. Tahrir al-Sham denies being part of al-Qaeda and said in a statement that the group is "an independent entity and not an extension of previous organizations or factions".
Name
From 2012 to 2013, the al-Nusra Front's full name was the "Victory Front for the People of the Levant by the Mujahideen of the Levant on the Fields of Jihad" ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام من مجاهدي الشام في ساحات الجهاد, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-ahli ash-Shām min Mujahideen ash-Shām fi Sahat al-Jihad)
Ideology
The al-Nusra Front is estimated to be primarily made up of Syrian jihadists. Its goals were to overthrow
Bashar al-Assad
Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...
's government in Syria and to create an
Islamic emirate
An emirate is a territory ruled by an emir, a title used by monarchs or high officeholders in the Muslim world. From a historical point of view, an emirate is a political-religious unit smaller than a caliphate. It can be considered equivalen ...
under
sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
law, with an emphasis from an early stage on focusing on the "near enemy" of the Syrian regime rather than on global jihad.
Syrian members of the group claimed that they are fighting only the Assad regime and would not attack
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
states;
while the official policy of the group was to regard the United States and Israel as enemies of Islam,
and to warn against Western intervention in Syria,
al-Nusra Front leader Julani stated that "We are only here to accomplish one mission, to fight the regime and its agents on the ground, including Hezbollah and others".
In early 2014,
Sami al-Oraydi, a top sharia official in the group, acknowledged that it is influenced by the teachings of
al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
member
Abu Musab al-Suri
Abu Musab al-Suri ( ar, أبو مصعب السوري), born Mustafa bin Abd al-Qadir Setmariam Nasar ( ar, مصطفى بن عبد القادر ست مريم نصار), is a suspected Al-Qaeda member and writer best known for his 1,600-page book ...
. The strategies derived from Abu Musab's guidelines included providing services to people, avoiding being seen as extremists, maintaining strong relationships with local communities and other fighting groups, and putting the focus on fighting the government.
The tactics of al-Nusra Front differed markedly from those of rival jihadist group ISIL; whereas ISIL has alienated local populations by demanding their allegiance and carrying out beheadings, al-Nusra Front cooperated with other militant groups and declined to impose sharia law where there has been opposition. Analysts have noted this could have given the al-Nusra Front a greater long-term advantage.
In early 2015, al-Qaeda leader
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022) was an Egyptian-born terrorist and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death.
Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University with ...
instructed al-Nusra Front leader Julani to pursue the following five goals:
# Better integrate his movement within the Syrian revolution and its people
# Coordinate more closely with all Islamic groups on the ground
# Contribute towards the establishment of a Syria-wide sharia judicial court system
# Use strategic areas of the country to build a sustainable al-Qaeda power base
# Cease any activity linked to attacking the West
Both al-Qaeda and al-Nusra tried to take advantage of ISIL's rise by presenting themselves as "moderate" in comparison. While they had the same aim of establishing sharia and a caliphate, they intended to implement it in a more gradual manner. Al-Nusra criticized the way ISIL alienated people by precipitously instituting sharia, preferring the more gradual approach favored by al-Qaeda of preparing society through indoctrination and education before implementing the
hudud
''Hudud'' (Arabic: ''Ḥudūd'', also transliterated ''hadud'', ''hudood''; plural of ''hadd'', ) is an Arabic word meaning "borders, boundaries, limits". In the religion of Islam it refers to punishments that under Islamic law ( sharīʿah) ar ...
(scripturally-mandated punishment) aspects of sharia. They particularly criticised ISIL's enthusiasm for punishments such as executing gay people, chopping limbs off, and public
stoning
Stoning, or lapidation, is a method of capital punishment where a group throws stones at a person until the subject dies from blunt trauma. It has been attested as a form of punishment for grave misdeeds since ancient times.
The Torah and Ta ...
. However, Al-Qaeda agrees that hudud punishments should be implemented in the long term.
The main criticism of defectors from ISIL is that the group is killing and fighting other Sunni Muslims, and that they are unhappy that other Sunnis like Jabhat al-Nusra are being attacked by ISIL.
A video called ''The Heirs of Glory'' was issued by al-Nusra in 2015, which included old audio by
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
(such as his 1998 announcement that "So we seek to incite the Islamic Nation so it may rise to liberate its lands and perform Jihad in the path of Allah, and to establish the law of Allah, so the Word of Allah may be supreme"). The video glorified the
11 September attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Suicide attack, suicide List of terrorist incidents, terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, ...
and the Islamists
Sayyid Qutb
Sayyid 'Ibrāhīm Ḥusayn Quṭb ( or ; , ; ar, سيد قطب إبراهيم حسين ''Sayyid Quṭb''; 9 October 1906 – 29 August 1966), known popularly as Sayyid Qutb ( ar, سيد قطب), was an Egyptians, Egyptian author, educato ...
and
Abdullah Azzam
Abdullah Yusuf Azzam ( ar, عبد الله يوسف عزام, translit=‘Abdu’llāh Yūsuf ‘Azzām; ) was a Salafi jihadist, a Palestinian scholar, and theologian of Sunni Islam. During the Soviet–Afghan War of the 1980s, he advocated "de ...
. Its magazine, ''Al Risalah'', was first issued in July 2015.
In 2015 Al-Qaeda leader al-Zawahiri urged ISIL fighters to unite with all other jihadists against their enemies and stop the infighting. The Nusra Front praised the
November 2015 Paris attacks
The November 2015 Paris attacks () were a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks that took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 9:15p.m., three suicide bombers ...
, saying that even though they view ISIL as "dogs of hellfire", they applaud when "infidels" get attacked by ISIL.
In an
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
report in July 2016, the al-Nusra Front was accused of
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...
,
child abduction
Child abduction or child theft is the unauthorized removal of a Minor (law), minor (a child under the age of Age of majority, legal adulthood) from the Child custody, custody of the child's Parent, natural parents or Legal guardian, legally appo ...
, and
summary execution
A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...
. In December 2014, al-Nusra Front fighters shot dead a woman
execution-style on accusations of
adultery
Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...
. They have also
stoned to death women accused of extramarital relations. Overall, they have "applied a strict interpretation of Shari'a and imposed punishments amounting to torture or other ill-treatment for perceived infractions."
Sectarianism
Members of the group were accused of attacking the religious beliefs of non-Sunnis in Syria, including the
Alawis
The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isla ...
.
''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' journalist
C. J. Chivers
Christopher John Chivers (born 1964) is an American journalist and author best known for his work with ''The New York Times'' and ''Esquire'' magazine. He is currently assigned to ''The New York Times Magazine'' and the newspaper's Investigations ...
cites "some analysts and diplomats" as noting that al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant "can appear less focused on toppling" the Assad government than on "establishing a zone of influence spanning Iraq's Anbar Province and the desert eastern areas of Syria, and eventually establishing an Islamic territory under their administration".
On 10 June 2015, al-Nusra fighters shot dead at least 20
Druze
The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...
civilians in a village after one of them, a supporter of the Assad regime, opposed the expropriation of his house by a Nusra commander. Al-Nusra's leadership issued an apology and claimed that the killings had been carried out against the group's guidelines. ''
Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...
'' magazine, which contends that
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 ...
is engaged in actively whitewashing Al-Nusra, said that there is absolutely no reference to the Druze in Al-Nusra's "apology", since Al-Nusrah forced the Druze to renounce their religion, destroyed their shrines and now considers them Sunni.
Nusra and ISIL are both against the Druze, the difference being that Nusra was apparently satisfied with destroying Druze shrines and making them become Sunnis while ISIL wants to violently annihilate them as it does to
Yazidis
Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking Endogamy, endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran ...
.
Flags
Structure
Leadership
The leader of al-Nusra, a self-proclaimed
emir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...
, goes by the name of
Abu Mohammad al-Julani (''also transliterated as ''Mohammed'' and ''al-Jawlani'', or ''al-Golani), which implies that he is from the
Golan Heights
The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...
(''al-Jawlan'', in Arabic).
Prior to the formation of Jabhat al-Nusra, Abu Mohammad al-Julani was a senior member of Islamic State of Iraq, heading operations in
Nineveh Governorate
Nineveh Governorate ( ar, محافظة نينوى, syr, ܗܘܦܪܟܝܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ, Hoparkiya d’Ninwe, ckb, پارێزگای نەینەوا, Parêzgeha Neynewa), also known as Ninawa Governorate, is a governorate in northern Iraq. It has an ...
. On 18 December 2013, he gave his first television interview, to
Tayseer Allouni
Tayseer Allouni ( ar, تيسير علوني; also: Taysir, Tayseer, Alluni, Aluni, Alony) is a journalist from the Al Jazeera news channel. He was born in Deir ez-Zor in Syria in 1955 then in 1983 he moved to Spain, where he studied Economics, an ...
, a journalist originally from Syria, for Al Jazeera, and spoke
classical Arabic
Classical Arabic ( ar, links=no, ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ, al-ʿarabīyah al-fuṣḥā) or Quranic Arabic is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notab ...
with a Syrian accent.
Hierarchy
The structure of the group varied across Syria. In
Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
, the organisation operated in an underground
clandestine cell system
A clandestine cell system is a method for organizing a group of people (such as resistance fighters, sleeper agents, mobsters, or terrorists) such that such people can more effectively resist penetration by an opposing organization (such as l ...
, while in
Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_caption =
, image_map1 =
...
, the group was organised along semi-conventional military lines, with units divided into
brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division.
Br ...
s,
regiment
A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation.
In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...
s, and
platoon
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may range ...
s.
All potential recruits were required to undertake a ten-day religious training course, followed by a 15–20-day military training program.
Al-Nusra contained a hierarchy of religious bodies, with a small ''
Majlis-ash-Shura
In Arab culture, a Majlis-ash-Shura ( ar, مجلس الشورى; Shura Council in English) is an advisory council or consultative council. In Islamic context, the Majlis-ash-Shura is one of two ways that a khalifa (Islamic leader) may be selected ...
'' (Consultative Council) at the top, making national decisions on behalf of the group. Religious personnel also played an important role in the regional JN leadership, with each region having a commander and a sheikh. The sheikh supervised the commander from a religious perspective and is known as ''dabet al-shar'i'' (religious commissioner).
Foreign fighters
A number of Americans have attempted to join the fighting in Syria, specifically with al-Nusra.
Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen, also known as
Hasan Abu Omar Ghannoum, was arrested in California on 11 October 2013, on charges of attempting to travel to join al-Qaeda, after reportedly having fought in Syria.
As of November 2013, there had also been five additional publicly disclosed cases of Americans fighting in Syria, three of which were linked to al-Nusra.
In February 2015, charges of conspiracy to support terrorism were laid against six
Bosnian-Americans who were alleged to have financially supported another Bosnian-American, the late
Abdullah Ramo Pazara, who they alleged died fighting with al-Nusra in 2014.
[
It was estimated that al-Nusra's fighting force was approximately 30% foreign fighters and 70% local Islamists.
Nusra absorbed Katibat at-Tawhid wal-Jihad, an Uzbek group. Katibat Imam al Bukhari is a part of al-Qaeda. Child soldiers were used by Katibat Imam al-Bukhari. al-Fu'ah and Kafriya were attacked by the group. They also participated in the 2015 Jisr al-Shughur offensive.
]
Media
All statements and videos by al-Nusra Front have been released by its media outlet, al-Manarah al-Bayda ( ar, المنارة البيضاء) (The White Minaret), via the leading jihadist webforum Shamoukh al-Islam ( ar, شموخ الإسلام).
Relations with al-Qaeda
In early 2015, there were reports that Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
and other Gulf states were trying to get al-Nusra to split away from al-Qaeda, after which they would support al-Nusra with money.[ Western observers][ and a Syrian observer][ considered such a split unlikely, and in March 2015, al-Nusra's leadership denied a break-up or that talks with Qatar had occurred.][ Other Syrian observers considered such a split conceivable][ or imminent.][ In December 2015, al-Nusra's ]emir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...
Abu Mohammad al-Julani refused to dissociate from al-Qaeda's ideology and stated that even if the group leaves al-Qaeda, they would continue to enforce Sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
and wage jihad
Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with Go ...
against their enemies.
With members of al-Qaeda still enmeshed throughout the group's leadership, it can be considered that al-Qaeda was not "external" to the group. After the announcement, numerous senior al-Qaeda members still within the group were targeted by the US in airstrike
An airstrike, air strike or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighters, heavy bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters and drones. The offic ...
s. The group's leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani, in his first recorded video message, stated its new name would be Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ("Front for the Conquest of the Levant"). During the renaming announcement in July 2016, al-Julani thanked al-Qaeda leaders Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Khayr al-Masri. Ahmad Salama Mabruk
Ahmad Salama Mabruk ( ar, الشيخ أحمد سلامة مبروك; 1956 – 3 October 2016), known as Abu Faraj al-Masri ( ar, أبو الفرج المصري), was a senior leader in the Syrian militant group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and was previ ...
, an associate of al-Zawahiri, sat alongside al-Julani during the announcement.
Despite the group re-branding and announcing no external affiliations, the United States Central Command
The United States Central Command (USCENTCOM or CENTCOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the U.S. Department of Defense. It was established in 1983, taking over the previous responsibilities of the Rapid Deployment Joint Tas ...
continued to consider it to be a branch of al-Qaeda and "an organization to be concerned about". Al-Jazeera journalist Sharif Nashashibi noted that immediately after the rebranding, both the US and Russia called it "cosmetic" and promised that air strikes would continue" against al-Nusra. Journalist Robin Wright
Robin Gayle Wright (born April 8, 1966) is an American actress. She has won a Golden Globe Award and a Satellite Award, and has received eleven Emmy Award nominations for her work in television.
Wright first gained attention for her role in t ...
described the rebranding as an "jihadi shell game" and "expedient fiction"—a tactic known as "marbling" by jihadi
Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...
groups—and that as of December 2016 Al-Qaeda had embedded "two dozen senior personnel" in the group.
Writing shortly after the rebranding, Nashashibi argued that it might help generate more "regional support", which the group needed in the face of Syrian government and Russian military success. Wright wrote that the move was effective with many conservative Sunnis in the region, and that hundreds of them joined its ranks since the rebranding, believing the group to be "less extreme" than the rival Islamic State
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 ...
.
Al-Qaeda and Khorasan group
Khorasan, also known as the Khorasan Group, is an alleged group of senior al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
members who operate in Syria. The group has been reported to consist of a small number of fighters who are all on terrorist watchlists, and to co-ordinate with al-Nusra Front. Al-Nusra Front leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani denied the existence of this alleged "Khorasan group" in an interview with Al-Jazeera on 28 May 2015.
History
Origin
Upon the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Islamic State of Iraq's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and al-Qaeda's central command authorized the Syrian Abu Mohammad al-Golani
Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a ( ar, أحمد حسين الشرع, ʾAḥmad Ḥusayn aš-Šarʿ), known by the '' nom de guerre'' Abu Mohammad al-Julani ( ar, أبو محمد الجولاني, ʾAbū Muḥammad al-Jawlānī), is the commander-in-chi ...
to set up a Syrian offshoot of al Qaeda in August 2011, to bring down the Assad government and establish an Islamic state there. Golani and six colleagues crossed the border from Iraq into 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 ...
, and reached out to Islamists released from Syria's Sednaya military prison in May–June 2011 who were already active in fighting against Assad's security forces. The six men who founded Nusra alongside Julani were Saleh al-Hamawi (Syrian), Abu Maria Al-Qahtani (Iraqi), Mustafa Abd al-Latif al-Saleh (kunya:Abu Anas al-Sahaba) (Jordanian/Palestinian), Iyad Tubasi (kunya: Abu Julaybib) (Jordanian/Palestinian), Abu Omar al-Filistini (Palestinian) and Anas Hassan Khattab (Syria).
A number of meetings were held between October 2011 and January 2012 in Rif Dimashq
Rif Dimashq Governorate ( ar, محافظة ريف دمشق, ', literally, the "Governorate of the Countryside of Damascus", Damascus Suburb) is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the southwestern part of the c ...
and Homs
Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
, where the objectives of the group were determined. Golani's group formally announced itself under the name "Jabhat al-Nusra l'Ahl as-Sham" (Support Front for the People of the Sham) on 23 January 2012.
Iraq's deputy interior minister said in early February 2012 that weapons and Islamist militants were entering Syria from Iraq.
The Quilliam Foundation
Quilliam was a British think tank co-founded in 2008 by Maajid Nawaz that focused on counter-extremism, specifically against Islamism, which it argued represents a desire to impose a given interpretation of Islam on society. Founded as The Quil ...
reported that many of Nusra's members were Syrians who were part of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ( ar, أَبُو مُصْعَبٍ ٱلزَّرْقَاوِيُّ, ', ''Father of Musab, from Zarqa''; ; October 30, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh (, '), was a Jordanian jihadist who ran a t ...
's Islamist network fighting the 2003 American invasion in Iraq; Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari
Hoshyar Mahmud Mohammed Zebari, also simply known as Hoshyar Zebari (also spelled ''Hoshyar Zebari/Zibari'', Kurdish: ''Hişyar Zêbarî''; born 23 September 1953) is an Iraqi politician who formerly served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq in ...
agreed to that in 2012. The British ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' stated in December 2012 that many foreign al-Nusra fighters were hardened veterans from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Strength in 2012
By the second half of 2012, Jabhat al-Nusra stood out among the array of armed groups emerging in Syria as a disciplined and effective fighting force.
Nusra in October 2012 refused a call for a four-day ceasefire in Syria during Eid al-Adha
Eid al-Adha () is the second and the larger of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam (the other being Eid al-Fitr). It honours the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ismail (Ishmael) as an act of obedience to Allah's co ...
feast.
In November 2012, they were considered by ''The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' to be the best trained and most experienced fighters among the Syrian rebels.
According to spokesmen of a moderate wing of the 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 ...
(FSA), Nusra had in November 2012 between 6,000 and 10,000 fighters, accounting for 7–9% of the FSA's total fighters. Commentator David Ignatius
David Reynolds Ignatius (born May 26, 1950) is an American journalist and novelist. He is an associate editor and columnist for ''The Washington Post''. He has written eleven novels, including '' Body of Lies'', which director Ridley Scott adapt ...
for ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' described Nusra then as the most aggressive and successful arm of the FSA.[
The ]United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
stated likewise: "From the reports we get from the doctors, most of the injured and dead FSA are Jabhat al-Nusra, due to their courage and he fact they arealways at the front line".[
On 10 December 2012, the U.S. designated Nusra a foreign ]terrorist organization
A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...
and an alias of Al Qaeda in Iraq
Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI; ar, القاعدة في العراق, al-Qā'idah fī al-ʿIrāq) or Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia ( ar, القاعدة في بلاد الرافدين, al-Qā'idah fī Bilād ar-Rāfidayn), officially known as ''Tanzim Qaidat a ...
. That decision made it illegal for Americans to deal financially with Nusra. Days earlier, the American ambassador to Syria, R. Ford, had said: "Extremist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra are a problem, an obstacle to finding the political solution that Syria's going to need".
Relations with other Syrian rebels in 2012
In August 2012, there were signs of Nusra co-operating with other rebels. The group took part in military operations with the 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 ...
(FSA). Abu Haidar, a Syrian FSA co-ordinator in Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_caption =
, image_map1 =
...
's Saif al-Dawla district said that al-Nusra Front "have experienced fighters who are like the revolution's elite commando troops."
In October–December 2012 Nusra received words of praise and appreciation for their efforts in the "revolution" against Assad from non-specified 'rebels', an FSA spokesman in the Aleppo region, a group of 29 civilian and military groups, and the leader of the Syrian National Coalition
The National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces ( ar, الائتلاف الوطني لقوى الثورة والمعارضة السورية), commonly named the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) ( ar, الائتلاف الو ...
. At the same time, two anonymous FSA leaders, and a secular rebel in north Syria, expressed disapproval of the Islamist 'religious prison' Nusra might be wanting to turn Syria into.
Attacks by Nusra (2012–2013)
The 6 January 2012 al-Midan bombing
On 6 January 2012, a bomb exploded in the Al-Midan district of Damascus, Syria. According to the Syrian government, a suicide bomber attacked buses carrying riot police shortly before an anti-government protest was to begin. It said that 26 pe ...
was claimed by al-Nusra, in a video seen by AFP on 29 February 2012.[‘Islamist group post video claiming Syria attacks’.]
NOW., 29 February 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2015. It was allegedly carried out by Abu al-Baraa al-Shami. Footage of the destruction caused by the blast was released on a jihadist forum. The video asserts that the "martyrdom-seeking operation" was executed "in revenge for our mother Umm Abdullah—from the city of Homs—against whom the criminals of the regime violated her dignity and threatened to slaughter her son," SITE reported. The video shows "an excerpt of allegiances, operations, and training of the al-Nusra Front" as well as a fighter "amongst the masses in a public demonstration, advising them to do their prayers and adhere to the rituals of Islam."
An al-Nusra-affiliated group announced the formation of the " Free Ones of the Levant Battalions", in a YouTube video statement that was released on 23 January 2012. In the statement, the group claimed that it attacked the headquarters of security in Idlib
ar, إدلبي, Idlibi
, coordinates =
, elevation_m = 500
, area_code = 23
, geocode = C3871
, blank_name = Climate
, blank_info ...
province. "To all the free people of Syria, we announce the formation of the Free Ones of the Levant Battalions," the statement said, according to a translation obtained by The Long War Journal. "We promise Allah, and then we promise you, that we will be a firm shield and a striking hand to repel the attacks of this criminal Al Assad army with all the might we can muster. We promise to protect the lives of civilians and their possessions from security and the Shabiha
''Shabiha'' (Levantine Arabic: ', ; also romanized ''Shabeeha'' or ''Shabbiha''; ) is a term for state sponsored militias of the Syrian government. However, in the Aleppo Governorate the term Shabiha is used frequently to refer to pro-Assad Sunn ...
ro-governmentmilitia. We are a people who will either gain victory or die."
The March 2012 Damascus bombings
The March 2012 Damascus bombings were two large car bombs that exploded in front of the air intelligence and criminal security headquarters in the Syrian capital of Damascus. At least 27 people were reported killed and over a 140 injured in the ...
were claimed by Nusra.
The 10 May 2012 Damascus bombings were allegedly claimed by al-Nusra Front in an Internet video; however, on 15 May 2012, someone claiming to be a spokesman for the group denied that the organisation was responsible for the attack, saying that it would only release information through jihadist forums.
On 29 May 2012, a mass execution was discovered near the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor
, population_urban =
, population_density_urban_km2 =
, population_density_urban_sq_mi =
, population_blank1_title = Ethnicities
, population_blank1 =
, population_blank2_title = Religions
, population_blank2 =
...
. The unidentified corpses of 13 men had been discovered shot to death execution-style. On 5 June 2012, al-Nusra Front claimed responsibility for the killings, stating that they had captured and interrogated the soldiers in Deir ez-Zor and "justly" punished them with death, after they confessed to crimes.
On 17 June 2012, Walid Ahmad al-Ayesh, described by Syrian authorities as the "right hand" of al-Nusra Front, was killed when Syrian authorities discovered his hiding place. He was reportedly responsible for the making of car bombs that were used to attack Damascus in the previous months. The Syrian authorities reported the killing of another prominent member of the group, Wael Mohammad al-Majdalawi, killed on 12 August 2012 in an operation conducted in Damascus.
On 27 June 2012, a group of Syrian rebels attacked a pro-government TV station in the town of Drousha, just south of the capital Damascus. The station's studios were destroyed with explosives. Seven people were killed in the attack on Al-Ikhbariya TV, including four guards and three journalists. Al-Nusra claimed responsibility for the attack and published photos of 11 station employees they kidnapped following the raid.
The murder in July 2012 of journalist Mohammed al-Saeed, a well-known government TV news presenter
A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
, was claimed by Nusra in a video released on 3 or 4 August, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
, image = Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Logo.jpg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = The logo of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
, type = NGO
, founded_date =
, founder ...
.
The 3 October 2012 Aleppo bombings
On 3 October 2012, three suicide car bombs exploded at the eastern corner of the Saadallah Al-Jabiri Square, killing 40 people. At least 122 people were reported injured. The bombs targeted an officers' club, nearby buildings of the Touristic Hot ...
were claimed by Al-Nusra.
Three suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
car bomb
A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles.
Car bombs can be roughly divided ...
s exploded at the eastern corner of the central Saadallah Al-Jabiri Square
Saadallah Al-Jabiri Square ( ar, ساحة سعدالله الجابري, Sāḥat Saʿad Allāh al-Jābirī) is the central town square at the heart of the Syrian city of Aleppo. It is the most important square in the city, experiencing most of ...
killing 48 people. More than 122 people were reported to be heavily injured. The bombs targeted the Officers' club and the nearby buildings of the Touristic Hotel and the historic "Jouha Café". The hotel received major damage while the café was entirely destroyed. A small building within the Officers' club was ruined as well.
Al-Nusra Front also claimed responsibility for attacking numerous Syrian military bases, including:
* Aleppo district: an air defence base, on: 12 October 2012
* Aleppo city: the Hanano barracks
* Raqqah: the Suluq barracks
In the air defence base assault they reportedly destroyed buildings and sabotaged radar and rockets after over-running the base in co-operation with the al-Fajr Islamic Movement and a group of Chechen fighters.
During the storming of the Hanano barracks 11 soldiers were killed and they held the complex for six hours before retreating.
They also claimed killing 32 soldiers during the raid on the Raqqah base.
In October 2012, they joined other rebels in an attack on the Wadi Deif base around Maraat al Numan, in a prolonged fighting that turned into a siege of the base. They also led an attack on the Taftanaz Air Base in November 2012, an important and strategic base for the Syrian army, containing up to 48 helicopters.
The group seized three army checkpoints around Saraqeb at the end of October 2012, forcing the Syrian Army to withdraw from the area the next day. In the battle, 28 Syrian soldiers were killed as well as five Nusra fighters. Some of the captured soldiers were summarily executed after being called "Assad dogs". The video of these executions was widely condemned, with the United Nations referring to them as probable war crimes.
Members of al-Nusra Front carried out two suicide attacks in early November 2012. One occurred in a rural development center in Sahl al-Ghab in Hama
, timezone = EET
, utc_offset = +2
, timezone_DST = EEST
, utc_offset_DST = +3
, postal_code_type =
, postal_code =
, ar ...
province, where a car bomb killed two people; while the other occurred in the Mezzeh neighbourhood of Damascus, where a suicide bomber killed 11 people. The SOHR
, image = Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Logo.jpg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = The logo of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
, type = NGO
, founded_date =
, founder ...
claimed a total of 50 soldiers were killed in the Sahl al-Ghab attack.
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 ...
reported on 23 December 2012 that al-Nusra Front had declared a "no-fly-zone" over Aleppo, using 23 mm and 57 mm anti-aircraft guns to down planes. This would include commercial flights which al-Nusra believed transported military equipment and troops. In a video sent to Al Jazeera, they warned civilians against boarding commercial flights.
In February 2013, Al Nusra fighters were involved in fighting in Safira with government reinforcements, preventing these forces from reaching their destination of the city of Aleppo. A monitoring group claims this resulted in more than two hundred casualties over a period of two weeks.
Though it was initially reported that Syrian Catholic priest François Murad
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters"
* Francis II of France, King o ...
was beheaded by Nusra at a church in Gassanieh in June 2013, he was actually shot dead.
As of June 2013, al-Nusra Front had claimed responsibility for 57 of the 70 suicide attacks
A suicide attack is any violent Strike (attack), attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has suicide, accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have oc ...
in Syria during the conflict.
In December 2013, al-Nusra abducted 13 nuns from a Christian monastery in Maaloula
Maaloula or Maʿlūlā ( arc, ܡܥܠܘܠܐ in Eastern Aramaic Syriac script, ' in Western Aramaic Maalouli script; ar, مَعلُولَا) is a town in the Rif Dimashq Governorate in Syria. The town is located 56 km to the northeast of Dam ...
. They were held in the town of Yabroud until 9 March 2014, The nuns reported they had not been harassed and could keep religious symbols.
Split with ISIL (2013)
By January 2013, Nusra was a formidable force alleged to have strong popular support in Syria, and it continued to grow in strength during the following months. In January 2013, the Quilliam counter-extremism thinktank estimated its membership at 5,000 fighters with 2,000 trainees. In May 2013, analysts Ken Sofer and Juliana Shafroth estimated 6,000 foreign and domestic fighters. By July, ''The Economist'' estimated its strength at 7,000 fighters. Other size estimates, however, were more conservative; a report in the Turkish daily '' Hurriyet'' in March 2013 said that the group had increased its membership from around 300–400 jihadists to 1,000 as Syrian fighters in Iraq have returned to their country in the wake of the US designation of al-Nusra as a terrorist organisation.
On 8 April 2013, the leader of the then Islamic State of Iraq
The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI; ar, دولة العراق الإسلامية '), commonly referred to as al-Qaeda in Iraq ( ar, القاعدة في العراق '), is a militant Salafist jihadist group that aimed to establish an Islamic sta ...
(ISI), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ( ar, أبو بكر البغدادي, ʾAbū Bakr al-Baḡdādī; born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai ( ar, إبراهيم عواد إبراهيم علي محمد البدري السامرائي, ʾIb ...
, released a recorded audio message on the Internet, in which he announced that Jabhat al-Nusra was part of his network, and that he was merging Jabhat al-Nusra with ISI into one group, "Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham
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 ...
" (ISIL), under his command. Al-Baghdadi also said that Abu Mohammad al-Julani had been dispatched by the ISI to Syria to meet with pre-existing cells in the country and that the ISI had provided Jabhat al-Nusra with the plans and strategy needed for the Syrian Civil War, and had been funding their activities.
The next day al-Julani rejected the merger and affirmed the group's allegiance to al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
and its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Al-Julani was quoted as saying, "We inform you that neither the al-Nusra command nor its consultative council, nor its general manager were aware of this announcement. It reached them via the media and if the speech is authentic, we were not consulted." Nusra then split, with some members, particularly foreign fighters, following Baghdadi's edict and joining ISIL, while others stayed loyal to Golani or left to join other Islamist brigades.
In May 2013, Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
reported that al-Baghdadi had travelled from Iraq to Syria's Aleppo Governorate
Aleppo Governorate ( ar, محافظة حلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' / ) is one of the fourteen governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of the ...
province and begun recruiting members of al-Nusra. In June 2013, Al Jazeera reported that it had obtained a letter written by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, addressed to both Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Abu Mohammad al-Julani, in which he ruled against the merger of the two organisations and appointed an emissary to oversee relations between them and put an end to tensions. Later in the month, an audio message from al-Baghdadi was released in which he rejected al-Zawahiri's ruling and declared that the merger of the two organisations into the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was going ahead. This sequence of events caused much confusion and division amongst members of al-Nusra.[
In November 2013, al-Zawahiri ordered the disbandment of ISIL and said al-Nusra should be considered the (only) al-Qaeda branch in Syria,] and bestowed the title "Tanzim Qa'edat Al-Jihad fi Bilad Al-Sham" ("the Qae'dat Al-Jihad organization in the Levant") on them, officially integrating Nusra into al-Qaeda's global network.
Open fights between Nusra–ISIL (2013–2015)
Some units of al-Nusra began taking part in clashes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in late 2013.
In February 2014, after efforts to end the dispute between ISIL and Nusra had failed, al-Qaeda formally dissociated itself from its onetime affiliate ISIL, leaving Jabhat al-Nusra the sole representative of al-Qaeda in Syria. In the same month, al-Julani threatened to go to war with ISIL over their suspected role in the killing of senior Ahrar ash-Sham
Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya ( ar-at, حركة أحرار الشام الإسلامية, Ḥarakat Aḥrāru š-Šām al-Islāmiyah, lit=Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant), commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, is a coalition ...
commander Abu Khaled al-Souri. Al-Julani gave ISIL five days to submit evidence that they were innocent of the attack to three imprisoned Jihadist
Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...
clerics, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi
Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi ( ar, أبو محمد المقدسي, ʾAbū Muḥammad al-Maqdisī), or more fully Abu Muhammad Essam al-Maqdisi ( ar, أبو محمد عصام المقدسي, ʾAbū Muḥammad ʿIṣām al-Maqdisī), is the assumed name ...
, Abu Qatada al-Falastini, and Suleiman al-Alwan. On 16 April 2014, ISIL killed al-Nusra's Idlib
ar, إدلبي, Idlibi
, coordinates =
, elevation_m = 500
, area_code = 23
, geocode = C3871
, blank_name = Climate
, blank_info ...
chief Abu Mohammad al-Ansari together with his family, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
, image = Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Logo.jpg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = The logo of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
, type = NGO
, founded_date =
, founder ...
reported. In May 2014, open fighting broke out between ISIL and al-Nusra in Deir ez-Zor Governorate
Deir ez-Zor Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة دير الزور / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Dayr az-Zawr'') is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in eastern Syria, bordering Iraq. It has an area of 33,060 km2 ( ...
, leaving hundreds dead on both sides.
By July 2014, al-Nusra had largely been expelled from Deir ez-Zor Governorate
Deir ez-Zor Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة دير الزور / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Dayr az-Zawr'') is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in eastern Syria, bordering Iraq. It has an area of 33,060 km2 ( ...
.
Also in July, an audio recording attributed to al-Julani appeared online, in which he said that al-Nusra planned to establish an Islamic emirate
An emirate is a territory ruled by an emir, a title used by monarchs or high officeholders in the Muslim world. From a historical point of view, an emirate is a political-religious unit smaller than a caliphate. It can be considered equivalen ...
in the areas of Syria where they had a presence. A statement issued on 12 July 2014 by al-Nusra's media channel affirmed the authenticity of the recording, but stated that they had not yet declared the establishment of an emirate.
In June 2015, al-Julani stated in regards to ISIL: "There is no solution between us and them in the meantime, or in the foreseeable future ..We hope they repent to God and return to their senses ... if not, then there is nothing but fighting between us."
Attacks by Nusra (2014–2015)
On 28 August 2014, militants from the group kidnapped 45 UN peacekeepers
Peacekeeping by the United Nations is a role held by the Department of Peace Operations as an "instrument developed by the organization as a way to help countries torn by conflict to create the conditions for lasting peace". It is distinguished ...
from Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
from Golan Heights
The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...
in the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone
The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission tasked with maintaining the ceasefire between Israel and Syria in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The mission was established by United ...
. The group demanded that it be removed from the UN's list of terrorist organisations in exchange for the lives of the peacekeepers. In addition to UN personnel, the group routinely captures UN vehicles to use as car bombs. At the same time, two groups of UN peacekeepers from Philippines were trapped under fire in nearby Rwihinah. On 31 August, one group of 32 Filipinos soldiers was rescued and the other group of 40 soldiers escaped. The rescue operation was carried out by Irish peacekeepers. Colonel Ezra Enriquez of the Philippines, who oversaw the operations, resigned over disagreements with Indian Lieutenant General Iqbal Singh Singha. Singha had allegedly ordered the Filipinos peacekeepers to surrender arms to ensure the safe release of the Fijian soldiers. On 8 September, Rodrigo Duterte, the mayor of Davao City
Davao City, officially the City of Davao ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Dabaw; ), is a first class highly urbanized city in the Davao Region, Philippines. The city has a total land area of , making it the largest city in the Philippines in terms of lan ...
, called for Singha's death after he allegedly called the Filipinos soldiers cowards. On 11 September, the kidnapped Fijian soldiers were released.
In late October 2014, al-Nusra began attacking some FSA and moderate Islamist groups that it was formerly allied with, reportedly in a bid to eventually establish its own Islamic state
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 ...
in the cities it controlled in Idlib Governorate
Idlib Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة ادلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Idlib'') is one of the 14 governorates of Syria. It is situated in northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey's Hatay province to the north, Aleppo Governorate to the east, Hama ...
and other neighbouring Governorates.
In June 2015, fighters of al-Nusra massacred 20 Druze
The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...
villagers in Idlib province located in north-west Syria. Al-Jazeera claimed that Al-Nusra's leadership apologized and blamed the incident on a few undisciplined fighters.
In October 2015, al-Nusra offered bounties worth millions of dollars for the killing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...
and Hezbollah
Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...
leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
Hassan Nasrallah ( ar, حسن نصر الله ; born 31 August 1960) is a Lebanese cleric and political leader who has served as the 3rd Secretary-General of Hezbollah, secretary-general of Hezbollah since his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was ...
. Al-Julani said he would pay "three million euros ($3.4 million) for anyone who can kill Bashar al-Assad and end his story".
In December 2015, two Army of Revolutionaries fighters were beheaded by Nusra, according to sources on social media. In December 2015, Nusra fighters celebrated the ransoming and exchange of Lebanese army prisoners in the town of Arsal in Lebanon, according to sources on social media.
Relations with other Syrian rebels in 2015–2016
In 2015, rebel factions in southern Syria vowed to distance themselves from the 'extremists' of al-Nusra in April 2015, but were seen cooperating with them in Daraa
Daraa ( ar, دَرْعَا, Darʿā, Levantine Arabic: , also Darʿā, Dara’a, Deraa, Dera'a, Dera, Derʿā and Edrei; means "''fortress''", compare Dura-Europos) is a city in southwestern Syria, located about north of the border with Jordan ...
only days later.
During successful Syrian opposition offensives in the northern Idlib Governorate
Idlib Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة ادلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Idlib'') is one of the 14 governorates of Syria. It is situated in northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey's Hatay province to the north, Aleppo Governorate to the east, Hama ...
from March until May 2015 (see also March–April offensive and April–June 2015 offensive), al-Nusra effectively coordinated its operations with 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 ...
, moderate and conservative Syrian Islamists
Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is c ...
, and some independent jihadist
Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...
factions.
On 24 January 2016, Ahrar ash-Sham
Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya ( ar-at, حركة أحرار الشام الإسلامية, Ḥarakat Aḥrāru š-Šām al-Islāmiyah, lit=Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant), commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, is a coalition ...
expelled al-Nusra Front from the Syrian town of Harem
Harem (Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A hare ...
, after tensions between the two groups boiled over. Subsequent clashes erupted in Salqin
Salqin ( ar, سَلْقِين, Salqīn) is a town in Syria, administratively part of Idlib Governorate. Nearby localities include Kafr Takharim to the southeast, Abu Talha to the south, Delbiya to the southwest, al-Alani to the northwest and Isqat ...
.
On 17 February 2016, nearly half of Jund al-Aqsa
Jund al-Aqsa ( ar, جند الأقصى ''Jund al-‘Aqṣā'', "Garrison of al-Aqsa"), later known as Liwa al-Aqsa after 7 February 2017, was a Salafist jihadist organization that was active during the Syrian Civil War. Formerly known as Sara ...
, numbering 400 fighters, joined al-Nusra. Five days later, two Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
-based jihadist groups swore allegiance to al-Nusra. On 25 February, al-Nusra Front withdrew from the town of Sarmada
Sarmada ( ar, سرمدا) is a town in the Harem District, Idlib Governorate of Syria.S ...
, near the Turkish border in the Idlib Province, in an attempt to prevent Russian warplanes from bombing the town after the implementation of the Syria ceasefire.
Jaysh al-Islam
)
, successor =
, allies = *
*
*
*
* Free Syrian Army
* Ahrar al-Sham
*al-Rahman Legion (sometimes)
*1st Brigade of Damascus (sometimes)
* Al-Nusra Front (formerly)
* Saraya Ahl al-Sham
* Aknaf Bait al-Maqdis
, opponents ...
leader Zahran Alloush
Zahran Alloush ( ar, زَهْرَانُ عَلُّوشٍ, Zahrān ʿAlūš, 1971 – 25 December 2015) was a Syrian Islamist leader active in the Syrian Civil War. He was the commander of Jaysh al-Islam (or Army of Islam), a major component of the ...
addressed Jabhat al-Nusra as "our brothers", saying that "The summary of this issue is that we in Jaish Al-Islam praise our brothers of the Nusrah Front and we don't consider them Khawarij as is propagated against us, We fight alongside them and they fight alongside us". After Zahran Alloush died, he received condolences from Nusra.
According to the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
in 2016, "Jabhat Fateh al-Sham has a complex relationship with the more moderate
(FSA), which is itself an alliance of allied groups, some of which were more willing to co-operate with Nusra than others."
Russia sees al-Nusra as a terrorist organization.
Russian air strikes reportedly targeted positions held by al-Nusra from September 2015 and Al-Nusra set a reward for the seizure of Russian soldiers.
In October 2015 Al-Nusra militant Abu Ubaid Al-Madani, who speaks Russian, released a video addressed to the Russians warning that they would massacre Russian soldiers.
called for Russian civilians to be attacked by former Soviet Muslims and called for attacks on
villages in Syria.
militias and the Russian air force.
announced the group changed its name to Jabhat Fath al Sham and had "no affiliation to any external entity".
While some analysts have interpreted this to mean breaking away from Al-Qaeda, the group and association with it were not specifically mentioned in the announcement, nor has it been said that Al-Nusra's oath of allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri have been renounced.
According to Sharif Nashashibi of Al-Jazeera, al-Qaeda had "given the split its blessing", and the separation "meant no change in the group's ideology".
With numerous senior members of Al-Qaeda enmeshed within Al-Nusra, it can be considered that Al-Qaeda are not "external" to the group.
To this extent, other analysts say that the announcement was cosmetic, a ruse to obfuscate their continued association and membership within Al-Qaeda.
In the time after the announcement, a number of senior Al-Qaeda members have been targeted and killed by US air strikes, while operating within Al-Nusra
For over a year prior to this there had been speculation that the group would separate from Al-Qaeda and about what it would mean.
On 12 February 2015,
cited rumours that Nusra leader al-Julani had plans to disassociate from al-Qaeda.
On 4 March 2015,
reported that "sources within and close to al-Nusra" said that in the past months
had talked with Nusra leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani and encouraged him to abandon al-Qaeda, promising funding to Nusra once that break-up was carried out. An official close to the
i government had confirmed to Reuters that Qatar wanted Nusra to become purely Syrian and disconnect from al-Qaeda, after which Qatar would start to support Nusra with money and supplies. Muzamjer al-Sham, reportedly a 'prominent jihadi close to Nusra' had said that Nusra would soon merge with
brigades and disengage from al-Qaeda, but that not all Nusra emirs had yet agreed to that.
On 9 March 2015, in a statement issued on Twitter, al-Nusra denied "completely all reports of a meeting with Qatari" and reports of a break-up with al-Qaeda. Expert Thomas Pierret at the University of Edinburgh assumed that Qatar was trying to force the hand of Al-Nusra with this "leak" about a split, and said a break with Al-Qaeda was very unlikely. French expert on jihadism Romain Caillet agreed: "The overwhelming majority of Al-Nusra members want to stay in al-Qaeda, particularly foreign fighters who represent at least one-third of the organisation".
province, still strongly advocated a split with al-Qaeda.