Strength <3,000 | Founded 2014 | |
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Active 22 January 2013 – present Groups Shahba Women's Front
Tel Rifaat Revolutionaries Battalion Leaders Hajji Ahmed Kurdi
Alaa Ajabu †
Abu Layla (2013–14) Headquarters Afrin District and Sheikh Maqsood, Aleppo Governorate Area of operations Aleppo Governorate
Raqqa Governorate Allies People's Protection Units, Northern Sun Battalion Areas of operations Aleppo Governorate, Raqqa Governorate | ||
Jabhat al-Akrad (Arabic: جبهة الأكراد; Kurdish: Eniya Kurdan, 'Kurdish Front'), full name: (لواء جبهة الأكراد لنصرة شعبنا السوري Liwa' Jabhat al-'Akrad l-Nusra Shaʿbnā al-Sūrī, "Kurdish Front Brigade to Protect the Syrian People"), is a predominantly Kurdish and Arabized Kurdish rebel faction participating in the Syrian civil war.
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Jabhat al-Akrad operates in Kurdish and ethnically-mixed areas in Syrias, such as Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh district of Aleppo city, Afrin Canton, the western SDF controlled parts of the Shahba region, and the northern Raqqa Governorate.
History
The group was originally formed as a brigade of the Free Syrian Army by Kurdish and Arab defectors from the Syrian Army. It was originally formed as a subgroup of Liwa Ahrar Souriya in the Raqqa Governorate on 22 January 2013. Since its founding it however also maintained close ties to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), including military coordination with its armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG).
Jabhat al-Akrad was allegedly expelled from the FSA Aleppo Military Council, led by Abdul Jabbar al-Oqaidi, on 16 August 2013 due to alleged PYD affiliations amid widespread clashes in northern Syria between predominantly Sunni Arab rebel groups and Kurdish militias led by the YPG. Among these clashes was the Battle of Tell Abyad in July 2013, when the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) captured the border town of Tell Abyad from Jabhat al-Akrad and the YPG.
In early 2014, following several months of inactivity, Jabhat al-Akrad re-emerged to collaborate with other Free Syrian Army groups and other rebel factions in attacks on ISIL.
On 28 February 2014, ISIL withdrew from the strategic border town of Azaz, which was then taken by Jabhat al-Akrad, the Northern Storm Brigade and al-Tawhid Brigade.
The faction and 10 other groups have threatened to leave Aleppo and Raqqa governorates if they are not aided by other rebels. Jabhat al-Akrad, as part of Euphrates Volcano, re-entered the Raqqa province after they broke the Siege of Kobanî in February 2015.
Army of Revolutionaries and Syrian Democratic Forces
On 3 May 2015, Jabhat al-Akrad together with former Hazzm Movement and Syria Revolutionaries Front affiliates, the Northern Sun Battalion and smaller FSA groups formed the Army of Revolutionaries (Jaysh al-Thuwar), which in October 2015 became part of the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Sometime in the summer of 2016, Jabhat al-Akrad changed their logo to employ Kurdish text, symbols and colours, removing the FSA colours in the process.
On 8 June 2016 they established an all-female unit called the Shahba Women's Front.