The Knights of Justice Battalion was formed on 25 February 2012 by a defected
Syrian Army first lieutenant Mohammed Khaled Bayoush in the town of
Kafr Nabl in the
Idlib Governorate. In September 2012 the group changed its name to the Knights of Justice Brigade after absorbing several smaller rebel groups. Former
Syrian Air Force lieutenant colonel Fares Bayoush became its overall commander. The group received funding, including
salaries for its fighters, from the
CIA, before being cut off in December 2014 following battlefield reversals at the hands of the
al-Nusra Front. The brigade joined a "quick response unit" of 600 fighters alongside other moderate and jihadist groups on 8 July 2014 to fight the
Syrian Army and the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in
Aleppo. It suspended its cooperation with al-Nusra Front on 21 July 2014. On 7 September 2014, the Knights of Justice Brigade announced that they were allying their forces with four other rebel groups, including the 101st Division and the
13th Division, into the
5th Corps. In mid-2015 the group renewed cooperation with the al-Nusra Front as part of the
Army of Conquest during the
northwestern Syria offensive (April–June 2015). In December 2015 the Knights of Justice Brigade and the
101st Infantry Division formed the Northern Division. In June 2016, Mohammed Khaled Bayoush survived an
assassination attempt by
car bomb near Kafr Nabl. He later became the deputy commander in the
Free Idlib Army which the Northern Division is part of, and survived another assassination attempt near Kafr Nabl. 31 January 2017, Lt. Col. Fares Bayoush resigned from his positions in the Northern Division and the
Free Idlib Army, citing "
Black Standards" and the heavy presence of foreign
jihadist fighters in
Idlib. Bayoush claims that 12,000 rebel fighters have recently sought refuge in
Turkey. ==References==