The Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front) was an al-Qaeda branch that operated in Syria during the Syrian Civil War from 23 January 2012 to 28 July 2016. Although they were a terrorist group and were at times allied with the harsh Islamic State (at war with much of the opposition), they were considered allies by the moderate Free Syrian Army and other forces. They were one of the terror groups bombed by the United States-led coalition from September 2014 due to their association with al-Qaeda and their jihadist stance. The group's links to al-Qaeda cost it the support of the West and the Middle Eastern countries, and it became very desperate as the Syrian Arab Army made several gains in Aleppo and on other fronts. On 28 July 2016, the al-Nusra Front announced its dissolution and its separation from al-Qaeda, with Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani announcing the creation of the independent Jabhat Fateh al-Sham group.
History[]
The Al-Nusra Front was founded on 23 January 2012 by Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, and it gained 6,000 members. It was a part of al-Qaeda's Iraqi network, and was commaned by al-Qaedans; however, they were not as extreme as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in their brutality. During the Syrian Civil War, they were the most aggressive and successful rebel group fighting the Syrian Arab Republic and they allied with many moderate Syrian opposition groups such as the Free Syrian Army. They were at times enemies of ISIS due to ISIS being excommunicated from al-Qaeda, but in 2014 they allied with them. In September 2014, they were bombed by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, France, the United Kingdom, and other nations due to their status as a terrorist group. Their sniper Abu Yousef al-Turki was one of the men killed in the Operation Inherent Resolve airstrikes, weakening al-Nusra; he was the leader of their elite sniping unit.
al-Nusra Front fighters
The al-Nusra Front grew to 10,000 fighters by 2015, and became one of the most well-known opposition forces of the civil war. They posed a threat to neighboring Israel, as they fought with the Syrian Arab Army along the Golan Heights border at Quneitra Governorate. The al-Nusra Front was infamous for the kidnapping of 44 Fijian peacekeepers of the United Nations in hopes of having the UN remove them from its list of terrorist organizations, although they were later all released without harm. The al-Nusra Front provided the muscle for several attacks on government forces, and were involved in most offensives in northwestern and southwestern Syria. The al-Nusra Front operated mostly in southern Syria and in northwestern Syria, with their bases being in Daraa Governorate in the south and Idlib Governorate in the north. Their capital was previously Harem, but it moved to the Idlib capital of Idlib, the rebel capital that served as the al-Nusra Front's new base-of-operations. Although the al-Nusra Front was opposed to rival rebel groups such as the FSA on occasion, they worked with the Syrian Opposition against the government and the Islamic State, but they urged fellow opposition groups not to accept help from the West. As a result, the United States bombed the al-Qaeda affiliate and imposed sanctions on it, and the Russian Air Force also targeted the group. It found itself more popular than the Islamic State due to most of their fighters being Syrian, while most ISIS fighters were foreigners; however, they had only 7,000 troops, and some of the men in the group said that the group sorely needed more troops to fight the war. In 2016, the group suffered several reverses, with the Syrian Arab Army completely cutting off Aleppo by 26 July 2016 and repelling rebel advances in Latakia Governorate. On 28 July 2016, Jawlani announced the group's separation from al-Qaeda, and it became Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
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