Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades

Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades
ألوية أحفاد الرسول
Participant in Syrian civil war
Official logo of the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades
Official logo of the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades
Active July 2012–early 2014 (defunct)[1]
Ideology

Sunni Islamism[2]

Syrian nationalism (factions)
Leaders
Area of operations

Syria

Size 7,000–9,000[9]
Part of
Became
Allies
Opponents
Battles and wars

Syrian civil war

The Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades (Arabic: ألوية أحفاد الرسول‎ Al-wīat Aḥfād ar-Rasūl, "Grandsons of the Prophet Brigades") was a Syrian rebel group fighting against the Syrian government in the Syrian Civil War. It was funded by the Qatari government.[15][16]

Structure and member groups

Its notable subgroups included the Justice Battalion, the Golan Martyrs Battalion, the Golan Hawks Battalion, the Falcons of Mount Zawiya Brigade,[4] and the Qalamoun Liberation Front.[17] By August 2013, the group had coopted some 50 groups from across Syria; however, it was strongest in Idlib Governorate.[7] Its leader, Colonel Ziad Haj Obaid, was on the Arms Committee of the Supreme Military Council.[4] The Allahu Akbar Brigade, based in al-Bukamal in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, was also part of Ahfad al-Rasul. In July 2013, Al Jazeera reported that the Allahu Akbar Brigade consisted of around 800 fighters.[5]

History

On 11 October 2012, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades, in coordination with Ansar al-Islam, conducted a bombing of Syrian military compounds west of the Umayyad Square in Damascus.[13]

In December 2012, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades executed a Syrian Army officer on allegations of heresy. By this time, the group was described as a Salafist jihadist group independent from the Free Syrian Army.[3]

In July 2013, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades, along with Ahrar al-Sham and the Kurdish Islamic Front, announced that they would fight alongside with al-Qaeda's al-Nusra Front against the People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria.[11]

In August 2013, clashes erupted between the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the city of Raqqa. On 13 August, ISIL suicide bombers detonated 4 car bombs at the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades' headquarters at the Raqqa train station, killing 6 Ahfad al-Rasul fighters, including two commanders, Abu Mazin[6] and Fahd al-Kajwan, and 6 civilians.[18] By the next day, ISIL fighters fully captured the headquarter.[19] Clashes also erupted in Tabqa.[18] By 17 August, ISIL had defeated Ahfad al-Rasul in Raqqa and expelled it from the city.[6][20] The fighting soon spread to the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, and tensions also rose between Ahfad al-Rasul and the al-Nusra Front. In November 2013, Saddam al-Jamal, commander of Ahfad al-Rasul's Allahu Akbar Brigade, defected to ISIL.[5] Following al-Jamal's defection, 4 subunits of Ahfad al-Rasul also defected to ISIL.[21]

By early 2014, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades was described as defunct, with many subunits rebranding themselves as members of the Syrian Revolutionaries Front.[1] The Latakia Governorate-based Brigade of the Chargers, formerly part of Ahfad al-Rasul, received BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles in early 2014, and became the 1st Coastal Division in late 2014.[22] Reports appeared in early 2017 that possible remnants of the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades have reappeared as the Army of Grandsons in the northern Aleppo Governorate to fight ISIL as part of Operation Euphrates Shield.[23]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Aron Lund (14 February 2014). "Syria's Southern Spring Offensive". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  2. ↑ "Alwiya Ahfaad ar-Rasool: A Growing Force in the Syrian Armed Opposition | Fair Observer°". Fairobserver.com. 25 September 2012. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  3. 1 2 Brown Moses (31 December 2012). "Video Appears To Show A Syrian Army Soldier Executed By Ahfad al-Rasul Brigade For Heresy".
  4. 1 2 3 4 O'Bagy, Elizabeth (24 March 2013). "The Free Syrian Army" (PDF). Institute for the Study of War. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Basma Atassi (17 December 2013). "Syrian fighter defects to Qaeda-linked group". Al Jazeera English.
  6. 1 2 3 Alice Martins (23 September 2013). "Watching Syrian Rebels Fight Among Themselves for the City of Raqqa". Vice.
  7. 1 2 Lund, Aron (27 August 2013). "The Non-State Militant Landscape in Syria". CTC Sentinel. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 "The end of the rebel alliance?". Al Jazeera English. 15 September 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  9. ↑ "Syria crisis: Guide to armed and political opposition". BBC. 13 December 2013.
  10. ↑ "The new face of the Syrian rebellion". The Arab Chronicle. 5 March 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-04-25. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Bill Roggio (26 July 2013). "Qatar-funded Syrian rebel brigade backs al Qaeda groups in Syria". Long War Journal.
  12. ↑ "Syrian Kurds' struggle for autonomy threatens rebel effort to oust Assad". New York Times. 26 July 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  13. 1 2 "Bomb explosion hits security area of Damascus: activists". Reuters. 12 October 2012.
  14. ↑ Barak Barfi (18 December 2013). "The Fractious Politics of Syria's Kurds". The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
  15. ↑ "The Structure and Organization of the Syrian Opposition". Center for American Progress. 14 May 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  16. ↑ Basma Atassi (16 December 2013). "Syrian fighter defects to Qaeda-linked group - Features". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  17. ↑ Sohaib Enjrainy (5 September 2013). "Syrian Christian Village Besieged by Jihadists". Al-Monitor. Archived from the original on 2013-09-10. Retrieved 2017-05-04.
  18. 1 2 "The death of the commander of the descendants of the Prophet and the civilians in the bombing that targeted the train station in Al-Raqqa". Aksalser. 14 August 2013.
  19. ↑ Alison Tahmizian Meuse (16 August 2013). "In Raqqa, Islamist Rebels Form a New Regime". Syria Deeply.
  20. ↑ ""The Grandfather of the Apostle" announces the end of its operations against the "State of Islam in Iraq and the Levant"". Aksalser. 17 August 2013.
  21. ↑ Bill Roggio (5 December 2013). "4 battalions from Qatar-backed Islamist brigade defect to wage 'armed jihadist struggle'". Long War Journal.
  22. ↑ "The CIA's TOW program: A list of rebel groups involved". Syria in Brief. 2 January 2018.
  23. ↑ "Коуди Роша on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
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