Al-Nusra Front

Al-Nusra Front
جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام
Flag of Jabhat al-Nusra (January 2012 – July 2016) Flag of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (July 2016 – January 2017)
Leaders	Abu Mohammad al-Julani (top emir)[1] Abu Abdullah al-Shami (senior member) Ahmad Salama Mabruk † (senior member) Abu Hajer al-Homsi † (top military commander)[2] Abu Omar al-Turkistani † (top military commander)[3]
Dates of operation	23 January 2012[4] – 28 January 2017[5]
Dissolved	28 January 2017
Group(s)	See al-Nusra member groups
Headquarters	Deir ez-Zor, Deir ez-Zor Governorate, (2012–2014)[6][7] Harem, Idlib Governorate, (February–November 2014)[8] Salqin, Idlib Governorate, (November 2014 – March 2015)[9] Idlib, Idlib Governorate, Syria (March 2015 – January 2017)[10]
Active regions	Syria (Primarily in Northwest Syria, around the Idlib and Aleppo Provinces)  Lebanon[11] (2013-2017)
Ideology	Sunni Islamism Qutbism[10] Wahhabism[12][13] Salafist jihadism[14][15] (a form of Islamic fundamentalism[16])
Size	10,000 (2017)
Part of	al-Qaeda (until 2016) Mujahideen Shura Council (2014–2015)[17] Army of Conquest (2015–2017)[18]
Allies	State allies  Qatar (alleged,[19][20] denied)[21] Non-state allies Jund al-Aqsa Caucasus Emirate Turkistan Islamic Party Ajnad al-Kavkaz[22][better source needed] Malhama Tactical[citation needed] Ashida'a Mujahideen Brigade[citation needed] Ansar al-Din Front[23] Ansar al-Islam[24] Free Syrian Army (occasionally)[25][26] Ahrar al-Sham (until 2017)
Opponents	State opponents  Syria  Lebanon  Iran  Russia  Iraq Non-state opponents Certain Syrian rebel groups Free Syrian Army (some militias) Palestine Liberation Army UNDOF Syrian Democratic Forces YPG[27] YPJ PKK Army of Revolutionaries Shi'ite groups Hezbollah[28] Kata'ib Hezbollah Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq Al-Abbas brigade Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada[29] Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba[30] Islamic State and Islamic State affiliates Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant[31] Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade[32] Jaysh al-Jihad[33] Islamic Muthanna Movement
Battles and wars	Syrian Civil War Battle of Aleppo (2012–16) Siege of Nubl and Al-Zahraa Quneitra Governorate clashes (2012–2014) Operation al-Shabah 2013 Latakia offensive[23] Inter-rebel conflict during the Syrian Civil War Al-Otaiba ambush 2014 Idlib offensive al-Nusra Front–Syria Revolutionaries Front conflict[34] 2015 Idlib offensive (Second Battle of Idlib[18]) Siege of al-Fu'ah and Kafriya Battle of Bosra (2015)[35] 2015 Jisr al-Shughur offensive Battle of Yarmouk Camp (2015) Qalamoun offensive (May 2015) Battle of Zabadani (2015) 2015 Hama Offensive Northern Aleppo offensive (2016) Idlib Governorate clashes (2017) Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon Battle of Arsal (2014) Military intervention against ISIL American-led intervention in Syria Russian military intervention in Syria
Designated as a terrorist group by	See section
Preceded by Islamic State of Iraq Succeeded by Tahrir al-Sham Hurras al-Din (merge)

Al-Nusra Front,^[a] also known as Front for the Conquest of the Levant,^[b] was a Salafi jihadist organization fighting against Syrian Ba'athist government forces in the Syrian Civil War. Its aim was to overthrow president Bashar al-Assad and establish an Islamic state in Syria.^[36]

Formed in 2012, in November of that year The Washington Post described al-Nusra as "the most aggressive and successful" of the rebel forces.^[37] While secular and pro-democratic rebel groups of the Syrian Revolution such as the Free Syrian Army were focused on ending the decades-long reign of Assad family, al-Nusra Front also sought the unification of Islamist forces in a post-Assad Syria, anticipating a new stage of the civil war. It denounced the international assistance in support of the Syrian opposition as "imperialism"; viewing it as a long-term threat to its Islamist goals in Syria.^[36]

In December 2012, US Department of State designated it as a "foreign terrorist organization".^[38] In April 2013, Al-Nusra Front was publicly confirmed as the official Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda,^[39] after Emir Ayman al-Zawahiri rejected the forced merger attempted by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and ordered the dissolution of newly-formed Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.^[40] In March 2015, the militia joined other Syrian Islamist groups to form a joint command center called the Army of Conquest.^[41] In July 2016, al-Nusra formally re-designated itself from Jabhat al-Nusra to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ("Front for the Conquest of the Levant") and officially announced that it was breaking ties with Al-Qaeda.^[42][43]

The announcement caused defections of senior Al-Nusra commanders and criticism from al-Qaeda ranks, provoking a harsh rebuke from Ayman al-Zawahiri, who denounced it as an "act of disobedience".^[44] On 28 January 2017, following violent clashes with Ahrar al-Sham and other rebel groups, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (JFS) merged with four other groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a new Sunni Islamist militant group.^[45] Tahrir al-Sham denies any links to the al-Qaeda network and said in a statement that the group is "an independent entity and not an extension of previous organizations or factions".^[46] Mutual hostilities eventually deteriorated into one of violent confrontations, with Al-Nusra commander Sami al-Oraydi accusing HTS of adopting nationalist doctrines. Sami al-Oraydi, alongside other Al-Qaeda loyalists like Abu Humam al-Shami, Abu Julaybib and others, mobilised Al-Qaeda personnel in northwestern Syria to establish an anti-HTS front in north-western Syria, eventually forming Hurras al-Din on 27 February 2018.^[47][48][44]

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