Active December 2012—present | ||
Leaders Colonel Qassem Saad al-DinAbu Layla (Manbij area field commander, former) Strength 2,500 (self-claim in August 2013) Part of Free Syrian Army (2012–present)Islamic Front (2013)Supreme Military Council (Syria) (2012–14) Mare' Operations Room (2014–16) Hamza Division (2016)Levant Front (2014–15)Sham Legion (north Aleppo)Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki (north Aleppo)Army of Conquest (2016) Battles and wars Syrian civil war, Syrian Kurdish–Islamist conflict, Battle of Aleppo, Russian military intervention in Syria Opponents Syrian Armed Forces, Syrian Democratic Forces, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant | ||
The Free Men of Syria Brigade (Arabic: لواء أحرار سوريا; Liwa Ahrar Souriya) is a group of Syrian rebel fighters affiliated with the Free Syrian Army which has been active during the Syrian Civil War.
History
In December 2012 the group signed a declaration that rejected the authority of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces and proposed to establish an Islamic state, although its leader later withdrew from the declaration and recognized the National Coalition.
On 19 May 2014, Liwa Ahrar Souriya and the al-Nusra Front detonated a tunnel bomb in the Ancient City of Aleppo which destroyed a historic palace.
In October 2015, during the Russian military intervention in Syria, Liwa Ahrar Souriya's headquarters in the northern Aleppo Governorate was hit by a Russian airstrike which killed 7 of its fighters.
Since November 2015, the group has participated in the shelling of Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood, controlled by the People's Protection Units as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces.
In September 2016 Liwa Ahrar Souriya joined the Hamza Division. 2 months later, on 15 November 2016, it left the Hamza Division and joined Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki north Aleppo branch, whom they in turned joined Sham Legion north aleppo branch.