Origin In August 2011, upon the outbreak of the
Syrian Civil War, the leader of Al-
Qaeda in Iraq (also known as the
Islamic State of Iraq),
Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, and Al-
Qaeda's central command authorized the Syrian
Al-Qaeda member
Ahmed al-Sharaa to set up an offshoot of al Qaeda in Syria, to bring down the Assad government and establish an Islamic state there. Julani and six colleagues crossed the border from Iraq into
Syria, 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 Jabhat Al-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 and
Homs, where the objectives of the group were determined. The
Quilliam Foundation reported that many of Nusra's members were Syrians who were part of
Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi's Islamist network fighting the
2003 American invasion in Iraq; The British
The Daily Telegraph stated in December 2012 that many foreign Al-Nusra fighters were hardened veterans from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In November 2012, they were considered by
The Huffington Post 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 (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 for
The Washington Post described Nusra then as the most aggressive and successful arm of the FSA. Abu Haidar, a Syrian FSA coordinator in
Aleppo'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', a group of 29 civilian and military groups, and the leader of the
Syrian National Coalition. At the same time, two anonymous FSA leaders, 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. 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 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 the security and
Shabiha militias. We are a people who will either gain victory or die." 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. 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 committing 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, was claimed by Nusra in a video released on 3 or 4 August, according to
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. after the attacks on 3 October 2012 The 3
October 2012 Aleppo bombings were claimed by Al-Nusra. Three
suicide car bombs exploded at the eastern corner of the central
Saadallah Al-Jabiri Square 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. 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 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 claimed a total of 50 soldiers were killed in the Sahl Al-Ghab attack.
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 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 in Syria during the conflict. In December 2013, Al-Nusra abducted 13 nuns from a Christian monastery in
Maaloula. 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.
Dispute with ISIL (2013) By January 2013, Nusra was a formidable force alleged to have strong popular support in Syria, 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
Islamic State of Iraq (ISI),
Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, 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" (ISIL), under his command. Al-Baghdadi also claimed that
Ahmed al-Sharaa had been dispatched by ISI to Syria to meet with pre-existing cells in the country and that ISI had provided Jabhat Al-Nusra with the plans and strategy needed for the
Syrian Civil War, and had been funding their activities. Nusra then split, with some members, particularly foreign fighters, following Baghdadi's edict and joining ISIL, while others stayed loyal to Julani or left to join other Islamist brigades. In May 2013,
Reuters reported that Al-Baghdadi had travelled from Iraq to Syria's
Aleppo Governorate 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 Ahmed Al-Sharaa, 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. 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 September of that year, as part of their takeover of the city of
Raqqa from rival rebel groups, ISIL assassinated the Al-Nusra Front-appointed governor of Raqqa, Mohammed Saeed Al-Abdullah (also known as Abu Sa'ad Al-Hadrami), who had opposed the merger with ISIS and had stayed loyal to Al-Julani. 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 Al-Sham 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 clerics,
Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi,
Abu Qatada Al-Falastini, and
Suleiman Al-Alwan. On 16 April 2014, ISIL killed Al-Nusra's
Idlib chief Abu Mohammad Al-Ansari together with his family, the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. In May 2014, open fighting broke out between ISIL and Al-Nusra in
Deir ez-Zor Governorate, leaving hundreds dead on both sides. By July 2014, Al-Nusra had largely been expelled from
Deir ez-Zor Governorate. 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 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 regard 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 from
Fiji from
Golan Heights in the
United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone. 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 captured 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 Filipino 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, called for Singha's death after he allegedly called the Filipino 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 in the cities it controlled in
Idlib Governorate and other neighbouring Governorates. In June 2015, fighters of Al-Nusra massacred 20
Druze 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 and
Hezbollah leader
Hassan Nasrallah. 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 only days later. In May 2015, Al-Nusra was estimated to have 10,000 fighters in Southern Syria, far fewer than the
Free Syrian Army, but with superior weaponry on which the FSA depended in joint operations against the government. During successful Syrian opposition offensives in the northern
Idlib Governorate from March until May 2015 (see also
March–April offensive and
April–June 2015 offensive), Al-Nusra effectively coordinated its operations with the FSA, moderate and conservative Syrian Islamists, and some independent jihadist factions. On 25 February, Al-Nusra Front withdrew from the town of
Sarmada, 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 leader
Zahran Alloush 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". According to the
BBC in 2016, "Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham has a complex relationship with the more moderate
Free Syrian Army (FSA), which is itself an alliance of allied groups, some of which were more willing to co-operate with Nusra than others."
Russian air raids (2015–2016) Russia sees Al-Nusra as a terrorist organization. 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.
Ahmed al-Sharaa called for Russian civilians to be attacked by former Soviet Muslims and called for attacks on
Alawite villages in Syria. In November 2015, Al-Nusra fighters and Turkish-supported
Syrian Turkmen Brigades were engaged in heavy fighting in Syria's northwestern
Latakia Governorate against the Syrian government forces supported by the
Shiite militias and the Russian air force.
Speculations on a split with Al-Qaeda (2015–2016) On 29 July 2016 Al-Nusra leader
Ahmed al-Sharaa 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. 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,
SITE Intelligence Group cited rumours that Nusra leader Al-Julani had plans to disassociate from Al-Qaeda. On 4 March 2015,
Reuters reported that "sources within and close to Al-Nusra" said that in the past months
Qatar and other
Gulf states had talked with Nusra leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa and encouraged him to abandon Al-Qaeda, promising funding to Nusra once that break-up was carried out. An official close to the
Qatari 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
Jaish Al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar and other small
jihadi 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 Qatar" 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". But in May 2015 Abu Maria Al-Qahtani, the commander of Al-Nusra in
Deir ez-Zor province, still strongly advocated a split with Al-Qaeda. On 7 May 2015, a Turkish official said that Turkey and Saudi Arabia were bolstering
Ahrar Al-Sham at Nusra's expense, hoping that Al-Sham's rise puts pressure on Nusra to renounce its ties to Al-Qaeda and open itself to outside help. A "well-connected Syrian Islamist" cited in May 2015 by Charles Lister in
The Huffington Post said: "There are now two main currents...the conservatives are keen on keeping ties to Al-Qaeda and the others are more inclined towards the new Syria-focused approach". Another "Islamist official from Damascus" is cited: "Nusra's disengagement from al Qaeda would be good for the revolution, but Jabhat Al-Nusra will always be in dire need of al Qaeda's name to keep its foreign fighters away from IS. Most Jabhat foreign fighters will never accept to fight and die for what looks like an Islamic national project." In late July 2016, through various sources, the
Middle East Eye claimed that an organizational split from Al-Qaeda is "imminent", with the proposal reportedly been approved by AQ leaders and proposed a new name called "Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham", or the "Conquest of the Levant Front". However, the sources claimed that the move would not affect Al-Nusra's Al-Qaeda ideology and its plan to commit attacks on the West. The organisation grew in early 2016. Charles Lister reported that "According to three Islamist sources based in the area, Jabhat Al-Nusra successfully recruited at least 3,000 Syrians into its ranks between February and June 2016." with the Russian ministry of defence estimating 7,000 fighters in Idlib province.
As Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham (July 2016 – January 2017) in January–March 2017 In August 2016, the BBC estimated Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham as having 5,000–10,000 fighters, all Syrian. Lister gave a figure of 10,000. The mid-2016
rebel offensive in Aleppo was carried out by Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham alongside the
Turkistan Islamic Party and
Ahrar Al-Sham. On 31 August,
Hezbollah attacked a JFS outpost in the
Qalamoun Mountains near the city of
Arsal,
Lebanon, on the
Lebanon–Syria border, killing a number of their fighters. On 8 September an airstrike of unknown origin killed the top JFS military commander, Abu Hajer Al-Homsi (
nom de guerre Abu Omar Saraqeb), among several other
Army of Conquest commanders in the countryside of the
Aleppo Governorate, On 9 October,
Jund Al-Aqsa, after infighting between them and numerous rebel groups including Ahrar Al-Sham, merged with JFS. In early October, according to pro-government Al-
Masdar News, a number of
Mountain Hawks Brigade fighters defected to join Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham due to several disagreements, mainly due to the established of the
Free Idlib Army. On 25 January 2017, according to rebel social media, they returned, along with their leader Lt. Col. Nasha'at Haj Ahmad to the
Mountain Hawks Brigade. As of late 2016, Al-Nusra mainly controlled territory throughout
Idlib Governorate, alongside other factions in the
Army of Conquest. It also held some areas in the
Quneitra Governorate. On 1 January 2017, a US drone strike killed
Abu Omar Al-Turkistani, a senior Al-Qaeda member and Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham military commander, along with three other JFS members near the town of
Sarmada in the northern Idlib Governorate. The next day, more than 25 JFS members were killed in an air raid by suspected US planes. The
Tora Bora battle saw Turkistani's participation. The
Islamic Jihad Union enlisted Turkistani as a member. Jabhat Fath al Sham included Turkistani. SOHR identified Al-Turkestani from among the dead. Before dying in Syria, Al-Turkistani was in the Afghanistan war. He was also the emir for the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansar Jihad in Central Asia. Europeans make up an amount while Central Asians make up the majority of foreigners in the Afghanistan-based Islamic Jihad Union which is allied to Al-Qaeda. On 19 January 2017, US airstrikes by
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers struck the former
Syrian Army Sheikh Suleiman military base in western Aleppo, which was used by Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham and the
Nour Al-Din Al-Zenki Movement, killing at least 110 Al-Qaeda fighters, including Abu Hasan Al-Taftanaz, an Al-Qaeda senior leader, along with some Al-Zenki fighters. Since 1 January 2017, more than 150 AQ members were killed by US airstrikes in 2017. Condolences were issued to Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham over the killings, by the Uyghur jihadist
Turkistan Islamic Party. The training camp had been operated by Al-Nusra Front and Al-Zenki since 2013. On 21 January 2017, five factions from
Ahrar Al-Sham left to join the Al-Nusra Front;- Jaish Al-Ahrar, Al-Bara, Dhu Nurayn, Al-Sawa'iq and Usud Al-Har Battalion, according to social media sources. On the same day, 2 Al-Nusra Shura Council members based in Aleppo announced that they left the group.
Ahrar Al-Sham, the
Suqour Al-Sham Brigade,
Jabhat Ahl Al-Sham,
Jaysh Al-Islam and
Fastaqim Union then established a joint operations room to combat Al-Nusra and its subfaction Jund Al-Aqsa. Abu Umar Saraqib and Abu Faraj's deaths received condolences from the Turkistan Islamic Party.
Formation of Tahrir Al-Sham (January 2017) On 28 January 2017, several Salafi jihadist groups, including Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham, agreed upon a merger agreement, resulting in the formation of a new group called
Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham ("Organization for the Liberation of the Levant"). With Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham being one of the most powerful/influential groups in the new formation, its leader
Ahmed al-Sharaa was appointed the high-level position of overall military commander of the new group. The only other position of equal or greater authority in the new group is the Emir, to which role was appointed
Abu Jaber Sheikh, who defected from Ahrar Al-Sham to join this new group. ==External support==