Years active 2011-present | Nationality Syrian | |
Saddam al-Jamal is a Syrian man and Islamic State leader.
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Free Syrian Army
He was originally leader of the Allahu Akbar Brigade, a Free Syrian Army faction operating in Deir Ezzor, which had more than 800 fighters. According to Al-Jazeera, "Jamal was not only the leader of a battalion but also a top FSA commander for the whole of Syria's eastern region." He was the leader of the Supreme Military Council (Syria)'s Eastern Front. The Allahu Akbar brigade was part of the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigade.
Islamic State
On 16 December 2013, he appeared in a video entitled 'Revealing the biggest conspiracy targeting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant' announcing he had joined the Islamic State.
The extent to which he had a choice in joining the Islamic State has been disputed, with his defection sometimes cast as a 'surrender' to IS after two of his brothers were kidnapped, his brother's house was bombed and several of his fighters died. During this time, Jamal narrowly escaped an assassination attempt after a man blew himself up at the headquarters Jamal had set up at a branch of the state bank. However, in the video released by IS, Jamal appears sincere in his defection and dedication to the Islamic State's cause.
From then on through 2014, he was the IS emir for Abu Kamal, Syria, his home town.
In September 2015 it was reported he had been appointed as a deputy to Abu Firas al-Iraqi, the Islamic State governor of their Euphrates province straddling the Iraq-Syria border.