Active 2012—present | Ideology Islamism | |
Leaders Captain Saeed Enker (nom de guerre Abu Jamal) Headquarters Darayya, Syria (until late 2016)
Idlib, Syria (from late 2016) Area of operations Damascus Governorate (until late 2016) Part of Free Syrian Army (until late 2016)
Southern Front (until late 2016) | ||
The Martyrs of Islam Brigade is a Syrian rebel group formed in the Damascus suburb of Darayya and is the main group that operated in the suburb. It is the only rebel group completely under the authority of a local civilian council and received U.S.-made BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles despite the tight siege Darayya was in between 2012 and 2016.
In September 2016 after 4 years of siege in Daraya and an agreement with the Syrian Armed Forces, all the remaining fighters from the Martyrs of Islam Brigade evacuated from Daraya to the Idlib Governorate to the north. Since then, its commander denounced the Southern Front and cut all links with it, with sources stating that the group is planning to join Jaysh al-Islam instead. The commander denied this and emphasized that the it will become an independent faction.