The Sultan Murad Brigade was formed in early 2013 and mainly operated in theAleppo Governorate. By 2016, the group claimed to have around 1,300 fighters.[25]
In February 2016, it joined theJaysh Halab rebel coalition led byAhrar al-Sham. The coalition clashed withJaysh al-Thuwar (JaT), an FSA group affiliated to the Kurdish-ledSyrian Democratic Forces.[26] A high-ranking military JaT commander "Abu Udai Menagh" was reported to have defected to the Sultan Murad Division in August 2016.[27]
It took part in theTurkish military intervention in Syria. In mid-2017, it was under the command of Fahim Issa and was part of theHawar Kilis Operations Room, which received ground support from Turkish artillery.[3] It formed the "Sultan Murad Bloc" with other units within theSyrian National Army (SNA).[31] In November 2017, it was reported that Sultan Murad's commander Fahim Issa was appointed as the overall commander of the Hawar Kilis Operation Room, as well as of the Sultan Murad Bloc within it. The Bloc consisted of Turkmen and Arab units includingJabhat Turkmen Souriya.[32]
Between 4 and 15 June 2017, heavy fighting broke out between SNA factions led by the Sultan Murad Division andAhrar al-Sham and its allies in and near al-Bab. By 15 June 33 people were killed and 55 injured in the infighting. On 8 June, between 60 and 70 SNA fighters, including several Sultan Murad Division commanders, defected to theSyrian Army and theSyrian Democratic Forces during the clashes.[33] According to theHawar Kilis Operations Room, the unit led by Abu al-Kheir al-Munbaji that defected to the government had run criminal activities and was supposed to be arrested when it deserted.[34]
In June 2019, it captured Australian ISIL memberMohamed Zuhbi near Afrin, holding him for three months before handing him to Turkey for trial.[35]
According to Turkish sources and an activist in Afrin, the Sultan Murad Division was one of the groups which volunteered to send fighters toLibya as part of a Turkish operation to aid the Tripoli-basedGovernment of National Accord in December 2019.[38] There were further reports of Sultan Murad fighters in Libya in early and mid 2020.[39][40][41] TheSyrian Observatory on Human Rights says these fighters include minors.[42] One Sultan Murad squad leader, Murad Abu Hamoud Al-Azizi, was reported byEgypt Today as killed in Tripoli in fighting that month.[43]
Sultan Murad Division fighters have also been reported to have been deployed by Turkey inAzerbaijan in 2020.[44][45][46][47]
In 2024, 550 fighters from the Sultan Murad Division were reportedly deployed toNiger to participate in theanti-ISIS campaign on behalf of the Nigerien government.[48][49]
After Turkish-backed rebels captured the town ofJarabulus from ISIL in September 2016, Kurdish media reportedYPG allegations that Sultan Murad Division fighters were pictured next to four captured YPG fighters and that two Sultan Murad fighters fromHama were captured in retaliation by the SDF-ledJarabulus Military Council and questioned by KurdishAnti-Terror Units, confessing to torturing the YPG prisoners. The Sultan Murad prisoners reportedly said the YPG prisoners were handed by the Division to Turkey.[50]
On 25 October 2013, the Sultan Murad Division shelled amonastery in Aleppo.[51]
According to anAmnesty International report from May 2016, indiscriminate shelling ofSheikh Maqsoud during theBattle of Aleppo by theFatah Halab joint operations room, which included the Sultan Murad Division, killed between February and April 2016 at least 83 civilians, including 30 children, and injured more than 700 civilians.[52] Amnesty International's regional director suggested that these repeated indiscriminate attacks constitute war crimes.[52]
In September 2020, the United NationsOffice for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and theIndependent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic reported on human rights abuses by Syrian National Army fighters in NW Syria. Among these were "Division 24 (the Sultan Murad Brigade), repeatedly perpetrated the war crime of pillage in both theAfrin andRa’s al-Ayn regions [of Aleppo and Hasakah Governorates]... and may also be responsible for the war crime of destroying or seizing the property of an adversary."[55][56] In one case, a civilian from Tel al-Arisha village displaced by fighting had to buy back his own looted possessions from a Sultan Murad officer.[57][56] The commission received reports of forced marriage and abduction of Kurdish women involving members of the Division.[57]
In a 2021 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report by theUnited States Department of State Turkey was implicated in using child soldiers by providing support to Sultan Murad Division which have been found to be recruiting minors in Syria, and also sending them to Libya to fight.[58][59][60][61]
Afrin Post reported that the group kidnapped a civilian, named Khalil Manla, after he filed a complaint against them and detained him to their headquarters. They beat and tortured him before released him on a ransom of 1,000Turkish liras.[62]
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