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Jaysh al-Islam

Jaysh al-Islam (Arabic: جيش الإسلام, romanized: Jayš al-ʾIslām, meaning Army of Islam), formerly known as Liwa al-Islam (Arabic: لواء الإسلام, Brigade of Islam), is a coalition of Islamist rebel units involved in the Syrian Civil War.

Not to be confused with Army of Islam (Gaza Strip) or Islamic Army in Iraq.

Jaysh al-Islam

Zahran Alloush †[1]

Essam al-Buwaydhani (2015–2019)[2]
Abu Jamal (military chief)[3]

Mohammed Alloush[4][5]

Islam Alloush (former)[6][7]

2011–2013 (as Liwa al-Islam)
2013–present (as Jaysh al-Islam)

Eastern Ghouta (until 14 April 2018)

  • Military Council of Damascus and its Suburbs[8]

Eastern Qalamoun Mountains (until 25 April 2018)[9]

  • 8th Brigade[10]
    • Lions of the Asima Brigade[10]
  • 7th Group[11]

Southern Damascus

Sunni Islamism[18][19]
Syrian nationalism (since 2016)[20]

20,000–25,000[21] (May 2015)
18,000[22] (December 2016)
16,000 fighters in Ghouta[23][24] (February 2018)

Islamic Front
(2013–2016)[25][26][27]
Mujahideen Shura Council
(2014–2015)[28]
Syrian Revolutionary Command Council
(2014–2015)[29]
Unified Military Command of Eastern Ghouta
(2014–2015)[30][31]

(until 2018)[19]

 Syria
 Iran
 Egypt

www.jaishalislam.com

The group was part of the Free Syrian Army's Supreme Military Council until December 2013,[39] but in November 2013 started the Syrian Islamic Front and the next month broke with the SMC and the Free Syrian Army.[25][26][27]


Its primary base of operations was the Damascus area, particularly the city of Douma and the rest of the region of Eastern Ghouta,[13] where Jaysh al-Islam was the largest rebel faction,[40] as was Liwa al-Islam before.[41] Following the fall of Ghouta to Assad’s forces, Jaysh al-Islam retreated to areas controlled by the Turkish Backed Free Syrian Army, where it reportedly joined the FSA, after years of separation from FSA command.[42]


The group along with Ahrar al-Sham was among the main rebel groups supported by Saudi Arabia.[43] The group has promoted an Islamic state under Sharia law.[44] In 2015, its then leader claimed in an interview to be seeking for the Syrian government to be replaced by a “technocratic body that represents the diversity of the Syrian people.”[45]

History[edit]

Liwa al-Islam[edit]

Liwa al-Islam was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011,[46] where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. Liwa al-Islam was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with the al-Nusra Front.[1]

Notable incidents[edit]

Reported capture of sophisticated equipment from the Syrian government[edit]

On 6 October 2012, Liwa al-Islam captured two 9K33 Osa SAM systems in Eastern Ghouta with at least 12 missiles total. A video was posted on 29 July 2013, depicting some of the missiles being used to shoot down a Syrian government Mil Mi-8.[72] In November 2013, the group captured two training-jets (L-39s used by the government as jet fighters) from the Syrian Air Force and showed them on the runway.[73] But so far, they haven't been used in combat.

Torture of prisoners[edit]

In March 2016, Syria Deeply reported: "...the leader of Jaysh al-Islam, or "Army of Islam" was killed in December last year in a government air strike. His death, however, did nothing to stop to the group's totalitarian rule in Eastern Ghouta, where residents say torture and imprisonment without trial occur routinely in the name of "liberation" and Sharia law."[74]

Foreign reactions[edit]

Egypt, Iran, Russia[edit]

Stanford University's Mapping Militant Organizations project records that Jaysh al-Islam is not designated as a terrorist organization by any major national government or international body. However, it notes that Russia, Lebanon, and Egypt have supported classifying it as such since the end of 2015.[45][86] Later, however, JaI was designated "moderate opposition" in a December 2016 list released by the Russian defence ministry, and participated in the Russian-backed Astana talks.[87][88][89]

U.S. (Obama administration)[edit]

Jaysh al-Islam's relationship with the United States has remained mixed. Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in a speech in Aspen, Colorado on 28 June 2016, mentioned Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham as "subgroups" of "the terrorists" ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra. US Obama administration officials disapproved this mention and told The Washington Post, who speculated that Kerry's comment may have been accidental, that it was inaccurate and could harm U.S. government efforts to convince the Russian and the Syrian governments not to attack Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham. The Post also reported that "Syrian [opposition] groups" saw Kerry's comments as an example of how the Obama administration has slowly moved toward the Russian view of Syria, which includes painting all opposition groups as terrorist organizations in order to justify attacking them.[90]
The US State Department in July 2016 confirmed that the US administration's policy with regard to Jaysh al-Islam had not changed: Jaysh was and is not a UN-designated terrorist group, is opposed to ISIL, and is not allied to Nusra.[91]

Douma massacre (2015)

List of armed groups in the Syrian Civil War

Official website