Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement

Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement
حركة نور الدين الزنكي
Logo of the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement
Leaders	Sheikh Tawfiq Shahabuddin[1] (top leader) Ammar Shaaban †[2][better source needed] Abu 'Abdo Saroukh[3][better source needed] Abdel-Fattah Mansour †[4][better source needed] Mustafa Waddah[5]
Dates of operation	Late 2011[1] – 25 March 2019
Group(s)	Liwa Ahrar Souriya (former) Swords of Shahba Brigade (former) Northern Army (former)[6][better source needed] Liwa Suyuf al-Sham (Greater Idlib area)[7][better source needed] Banners of Islam Movement (former)[8][9] Levant Revolutionaries Battalion (former)[8][9] al-Quds Brigades Glory of Islam Brigade al-Noor Islamic Movement Abu Hassan Battalion Sheikh Osman Battalion Ansaruddin Battalion Humat al-Islam[10]
Active regions	Aleppo Governorate and Idlib Governorate, Syria
Ideology	Sunni Islamism Salafi Islamism[1]
Size	7,000 (2017)[11]
Part of	Syrian Revolutionary Command Council (2014–late 2015)[12] Levant Front (2014–15)[13] Authenticity and Development Front (2013–14)[14] Army of Mujahideen (2014–15)[15] Fatah Halab (2015–16)[16] Army of Conquest (2016–17)[17][better source needed] Tahrir al-Sham (2017)[11] Syrian Liberation Front (2018–19) National Front for Liberation (2018-19)[18]
Allies	Saudi Arabia (until 2017)  Turkey  Qatar  United States (Until 2015) Al-Nusra Front/ Tahrir al-Sham (2012–14, 2016–17) Ahrar al-Sham Liwa al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar[19]
Opponents	Syria  Iran  Russia Hezbollah Syrian Democratic Forces Sultan Murad Division (2017-2019)[20] Levant Front (since late 2016) Army of Mujahideen (since late 2016) Al-Nusra Front/ Tahrir al-Sham (2015, since November 2017) Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Hamza Division (Since 2017)
Battles and wars	Syrian Civil War Battle of Aleppo Aleppo offensive (October–December 2013) Operation Canopus Star Operation Rainbow Aleppo offensive (October 2015) Northern Aleppo offensive (June 2016) Inter-rebel conflict during the Syrian Civil War al-Nusra Front–SRF/Hazzm Movement conflict Idlib Governorate clashes (2017) Idlib Governorate clashes (February 2018) National Front for Liberation–Tahrir al-Sham conflict Insurgency in Idlib Turkish military operation in Afrin[21]
Preceded by Nour al-Din al-Zenki Battalion Succeeded by 3rd Brigade (Glory Corps)

The Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement (Arabic: حركة نور الدين الزنكي Ḥaraka Nūr ad-Dīn az-Zankī) was a Sunni Islamist rebel group involved in the Syrian Civil War. In 2014, it was reportedly one of the most influential factions in Aleppo,^[22] especially the Western Aleppo countryside. Between 2014 and 2015, it was part of the Syrian Revolutionary Command Council and recipient of U.S.-made BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles.^[23] The Movement made multiple attempts to merge with the larger Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham but were refused by Ahrar al-Sham's leadership. The Zenki Movement also made attempts to merge with other Islamist factions, Jaysh al-Islam and the Sham Legion. However, all merging efforts with these groups failed, leading to the Zenki Movement joining the Salafi Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in 2017.^[24] But after a few months the group left HTS and within a year went to war with HTS by joining the Turkish-backed Syrian Liberation Front alongside Ahrar al-Sham on 18 February 2018.^[18] After a series of clashes in early 2019 Al Zenki were largely defeated by HTS, expelled to Afrin and absorbed in the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.