Leaders Abu Amr Area of operations Aleppo Governorate | Headquarters Azaz, Aleppo, Syria | |
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Active 25 December 2014–18 April 2015;
18 June 2015–Present Ideology Salafism
Sunni Islamism
Islamic Democracy (depending on the member group) Groups Liwa Jund al-Islam
Liwa Suyuf al-Sham (Azaz branch)
Jaysh al-Shamal Strength 3,000 (December 2016, Russian military claim) Battles and wars Syrian civil war, Battle of Aleppo | ||
The levant front s counter islamic state video
The Levant Front or Jabhat al-Shamiyah (Arabic: الجبهة الشامية, also translated as the al-Sham Front or Levantine Front) are Aleppo-based rebels involved in the Syrian Civil War. It was formed in December 2014. On 25 January 2017, it's Aleppo branch joined Ahrar al-Sham.
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Ideology
The Levant Front's membership includes the major Sunni Islamist groups operating in northern Syria, representing a spectrum of ideologies from hardline Salafism to apolitical factions linked to the Free Syrian Army. The group imposes Sharia law where murder and apostasy in Islam are punishable by death. In Aleppo, media activists accusing the Levant Front of corruption and otherwise criticizing the group have received threats and faced reprisal attacks. Courts affiliated with the group have also been accused of summary killings by Amnesty International.
Initial formation
Following months of negotiations in Turkey and northern Syria between the Islamic Front (al-Tawhid Brigade), Army of Mujahedeen, Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki, Fastaqim Kama Umirt, Liwa Ahrar Souriya and the Authenticity and Development Front, on 25 December 2014, the factions announced that they had combined their forces into a joint command called the Levant Front. The Western backed Hazzm Movement joined the coalition on 30 January 2015, and announced its dissolution and merger with into other Levant Front factions on 1 March 2015.
On 20 February 2015, the Levant Front successfully forced the Syrian Army forces to retreat from rural towns in Aleppo; during the clashes group has killed 300 Syrian soldiers and captured 110.
Dissolution and reestablishment in 2015
On 18 April 2015, the Levant Front announced its dissolution as an alliance, however it stated that the member factions would continue to coordinate with each other militarily. Reasons behind the split are believed to include a lack of coordination between the groups and increasing defections of its members to other factions. Following its end as a single unified group, it continued to act as a joint operations room.
On 26 April 2015, along with other major Aleppo based groups, they established the Fatah Halab joint operations room.
The group announced its reactivation on 18 June. Their new leader is Abu Amr, who is an Ahrar ash-Sham commander. On 29 June, the Levant Front released their charter.
Since its reactivation on 18 June, the Levant Front operates as a unified group with former members acting as independent groups. Various groups have joined and left the group since it's reactivation, such as Abu Amara Brigades and Thuwar al-Sham Battalion.
SDF offensive against the Levant Front
The Syrian Democratic Forces successfully drove out the Levant Front from a former Syrian military airbase in Syria's north on 10 February 2016. After days of fierce clashes that saw YPG and Jaysh al-Thuwar forces take over a series of villages before reaching and capturing the Menagh Military Airbase and the village of Minîh from the Levant Front. According to sources quoted by Reuters they were supported by 30 Russian airstrikes. The Syrian Kurds initiated this offensive following the recent Syrian offensive on opposition forces in Aleppo supported by Russian airstrikes. The Kurds advanced from Syrian Kurdistan's most isolated westward canton of Afrin which had been attacked multiple times by Islamist groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra. The aim was to prevent attacks on Afrin canton and close the Turkish border to these various Islamist groups.