Jamaat Bayt al-Maqdis al-Islamiya

Jamaat Bayt al-Maqdis al-Islamiya
Participant in the Syrian Civil War
The flag used by the group
Active	Early 2015-Present
Ideology	Islamism
Leaders	Abu Omar al-Shami
Headquarters	Jasim, Daraa Governorate, Syria
Area of operations	Daraa Governorate and Quneitra Governorate, Syria
Size	60-70
Part of	Bunyan al-Marsous operations room Tahrir al-Sham[1]
Originated as	Katibat Bait al-Maqdis al-Islamiya[2]
Allies	Tahrir al-Sham Free Syrian Army Southern Front Ahrar al-Sham Jabhat Ansar al-Islam Jaysh al-Islam Alwiya al-Furqan Islamic Muthanna Movement (Until 2016)
Opponents	Syria  Russia  Iran Hezbollah Liwa Fatemiyoun Fatah al-Intifada Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada
Battles and wars	Syrian Civil War 2015 Southern Syria offensive Daraa Governorate campaign Daraa offensive (February–June 2017) Daraa offensive (June 2017)

Jamaat Bayt al-Maqdis al-Islamiya is an active armed group in the Syrian Civil War, that has been active since at least early 2015. Initially the group was praised by many Pro-ISIL circles on social media in early 2015 claiming it was ISIL expanding into the Daraa Governorate as the group uses a similar banner to ISIL however the group holds no links to ISIL, in an official statement the group describes itself as “an Islamic group…[working] to support the religion of God and make His word highest”^[3], however the group also has not shown any hostilities towards ISIL like many of its allies such as the Southern Front and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra). The group did not take part in fighting between other opposition groups that it is allied with against ISIL affiliates in Southern Syria but a portion of its members did defect to the ISIL affiliated groups at odds with the group's opposition allies.

In early and mid 2017 the group joined the Bunyan al-Marsous operation room and took part in several offensives in Daraa against Pro-Government forces, the decision to join the same operations room with other main-stream opposition groups caused further defections from the group with many fighters either joining the ISIL affiliated Khalid ibn al-Walid Army or simply going home.^[4][5][6]

References