Ideology Islamism | Strength 2,500 (March 2014) | |
 | ||
Active September 2012 – 7 February 2017 Leaders Abu Omar al-Jamil
(overall leader)
Abu Musa al-Shishani
(Military Commander) Headquarters Jabal al Akrad, Latakia Area of operations Latakia Governorate
Idlib Governorate | ||
Ansar al-Sham (Arabic: كتائب أنصار الشام, Supporters of the Levant) was an armed insurgent organisation that has been active during the Syrian civil war.
Founded in September 2012 by a Latakian veteran of the Afghan Jihad known as Abu Omar, Ansar al-Sham brought together a wide range of mostly Syrian fighters in North Latakia Governorate on a general Islamist platform. The group's military leader is a Chechen known as Abu Musa al-Shishani, and it maintained good relations with a wide variety of other opposition groups in the area, from the Free Syria Army to Al-Nusra Front. In December 2012, Ansar al-Sham joined with other insurgent groups to found the Syrian Islamic Front umbrella organisation, in November 2013 the SIF was dissolved and Liwa al-Haqq, Ansar al-Sham and Ahrar ash-Sham joined the broader Islamic Front alliance.
It played a lead role in the 2014 Latakia offensive against the Syrian Government.
On 15 December 2016, the group declared that it decided to completely merge under Jaysh al-Islam's Idlib branch. On 25 January 2017, Jaysh al-Islam's Idlib branch joined Ahrar al-Sham, thus Ansar al-Sham also joined.
On 7 February 2017, Ansar al-Sham joined Tahrir al-Sham.