Active August 2015 – present Headquarters Murak | Leaders Major Mohamed Mansour Strength 5,000 | |
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Groups Regiment 111Falcons of al-GhabAl-Inqaz FrontFree Daraya BrigadeOwais al-Qarani Battalion Area of operations | ||
The Army of Victory (Arabic: جيش النصر; Jaysh al-Nasr) is a Free Syrian Army-affiliated, armed opposition faction participating in the Syrian Civil War. Founded in August 2015 as a joint operations room of 16 member groups, three of the groups later fully merged into Jaysh al-Nasr.
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Formation as a joint operations room
Jaysh al-Nasr was formed in early August 2015 as a joint operations room with the stated objective being the "liberation of the northern countryside of Hama, breaking the regime's first defense line toward Hama the city." It was announced as a first step towards unifying the Free Syrian Army in Idlib and Hama provinces into a single operations room. The alliance initially comprised the following 16 groups:
Reformation as a unified group
In late October 2015, it was announced that three of its component groups, the Regiment 111, the Falcons of al-Ghab and the al-Inqaz Front, completely merged into Jaysh al-Nasr with Suqour al-Ghab's leader Mohamed Mansour assuming the leadership of the new unified group. In late September 2016, the group previously known as Liwa Ahrar Darayya (who had been evacuated from Darayya due to a deal made with the Syrian government) announced they merge into Jaysh al-Nasr.
Jaysh al-Nasr have taken mainly-Alawite civilians, including children, as prisoners. 112 of them were released from Qalaat al-Madiq on 7 February 2017 as part of a prisoner exchange.
Rebel infighting
On 7 February 2017, Jund al-Aqsa attacked the headquarters of Jaysh al-Nasr near the town of Murak in northern Hama. Jund al-Aqsa captured more than 250 fighters from Jaysh al-Nasr. On 14 February, they reportedly killed at least 80 Jaysh al-Nasr prisoners before withdrawing from their positions north of Khan Sheikhoun. Kafr Nuboudah and Kafr Zita villages were the origin of the Jaysh Nasr members whom Liwa al-Aqsa executed according to Moussa al-Omar. The casualties given for Jaysh Nasr were : fighters: fifty six, media reporters : three, and military chiefs : eleven, according to Moussa al-Omar. After Jund al-Aqsa committed slaughter at Khan Shaykhun, only one person lived to tell the tale.