Jaysh al-Islam (Arabic:جيش الإسلام,romanized: Jayš al-ʾIslām, meaningArmy of Islam), formerly known asLiwa al-Islam (Arabic:لواء الإسلام,Brigade of Islam), was a coalition ofIslamist rebel units involved in theSyrian Civil War.
The group was part of theFree Syrian Army'sSupreme Military Council until December 2013,[44] but in November 2013 started theSyrian Islamic Front and the next month broke with the SMC and theFree Syrian Army.[29][30][31]
Its primary base of operations was theDamascus area, particularly the city ofDouma and the rest of the region ofEastern Ghouta,[13] where Jaysh al-Islam was the largest rebel faction,[45] as was Liwa al-Islam before.[46] Following the fall of Ghouta to Assad's forces, Jaysh al-Islam retreated to areas controlled by theTurkish Backed Free Syrian Army, where it reportedly joined the FSA, after years of separation from FSA command.[47]
The group along withAhrar al-Sham was among the main rebel groups supported bySaudi Arabia.[48] The group has promoted anIslamic state underSharia law.[49] In 2015, its then leader claimed in an interview to be seeking for the Syrian government to be replaced by a "technocratic body that represents the diversity of the Syrian people".[50] After the fall of the Assad regime, the group has been incorporated into the newly installed Syrian Army under thetransitional government, but its military leader Issam Bouidani (al-Buwaydhani) was arrested at Dubai International Airport in 2025.[51]
Liwa al-Islam was established byZahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him fromprison in mid-2011, where he had been serving time for hisSalafist[52] The group claimed responsibility for carrying out theJuly 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense MinisterDawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense MinisterAssef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice PresidentHassan Turkmani. Liwa al-Islam was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with theal-Nusra Front.[1]
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On 29 September 2013, 50 rebel factions operating mostly around Damascus announced their merger into a new group called Jaysh al-Islam. Liwa al-Islam was the dominant faction in this merger, and its leader Zahran Alloush was announced as the leader of Jaysh al-Islam.[53][54] Thirty-eight of the original groups listed as joining the merger were already members of, or affiliated with, Liwa al Islam.[55][56] In September or earlier, Jaysh spokesman Islam Alloush had criticized theSyrian National Coalition, stating that the SNC should be led by those who are fighting in Syria rather than leaders in exile, but felt not (yet) inclined to outright break with the SNC.[dead link][20]
By November 2013, 60 groups had merged into Jaysh al-Islam,[57] and more than 175 rebel groups around Syria expressed a desire to join it.[57]
The new group's creation was said to have been negotiated and spearheaded bySaudi Arabia, who believed thatal-Nusra Front was gaining too much strength.[20] After the merger,The Guardian reported that Saudi Arabia was preparing to give the group millions of dollars to "arm and train" its fighters,[19] and use instructors from Pakistan to help train the group.[58]
While previously having been part of theFree Syrian Army'sSupreme Military Council (SMC), in December 2013 Zahran Alloush announced his departure from that SMC, saying: "our affiliation to the Council came when it was coordinating operations against the Assad regime without being dependent on any other party, and when it had signed no pledges as to the makeup of a future state. However, when the FSAhad come under the aegis of the Syrian National Coalition (in October 2013) which was committed to a democratic, pluralist state, Alloush – who had started the newSyrian Islamic Front of Islamist factions in November 2013 – decided he would no longer be part of the Supreme Military Council.[44]
In March 2015, Jaysh al-Islam and theUnified Military Command of Eastern Ghouta formed the "Military Council of Damascus and its Suburbs", under the direct command of Zahran Alloush.[59][b]
On 26 April 2015, they established theFatah Halab joint operations room along with other major Aleppo based groups.
Until late 2015, Jaysh al-Islam at times cooperated with theAl-Nusra Front.[60]
On 25 December 2015, the group's founderZahran Alloush was killed, along with several other leaders of the group, in a Syrianair strike on the suburbs ofDamascus.[61][62] Abu Hammam Bouwaidani succeeded him as leader.[63]
The organisations rule over Douma and Ghouta was characterised by the imposition of a highly religious, corrupt and oppressive regime, where "its leadership [lived] in luxury and utmost privilege while the people of Douma and Ghouta were starving."[64] Jaysh al-Islam's rule compelled many in the region to stay in Ba'athist occupied territories to avoid them.[65]
Since the death of Zahran Alloush in late 2015, there have been conflicts between Jaysh al-Islam and other members of theUnified Military Command of Eastern Ghouta, along with associated groups such asAl-Nusra Front and itsJaish al-Fustat operations room.Ahrar al-Sham has remained neutral.[66][67][68][69][70]Intra-rebel fighting in Ghouta took place in May 2016, with 300 deaths. On 24 May 2016, leaders of Jaysh al-Islam andal-Rahman Legion met to sign a peace deal to end hostilities.[71]
On 25 January 2017, Jaysh al-Islam's Idlib branch joinedAhrar al-Sham.[72]
In April 2017 a coalition of theAl-Rahman Legion andTahrir al-Sham encroached on the area of Eastern Ghouta controlled by Jaysh, which launched acampaign to drive them out, resulting in 95 casualties between 26 April and 1 May.[73] The clashes enabled the Syrian Army to make advances in eastern Damascus. Demonstrators called for an end to the fighting; video footage circulated at the end of April appeared to show Jaysh al-Islam fighters opening fire on demonstrators who called for an end to the rebel infighting.[73]
On 12 April 2018, some 13,000 Jaysh al-Islam fighters with their families have evacuated the town ofDouma in buses, thus surrendering that town to the Assad government.[15] Jaysh fighters and their families have resettled in northern Syria, in the Aleppo countryside, where they operate out ofJarabulus under theTurkish-backed Free Syrian Army.[74]
Following thefall of the Assad regime in December 2024, Jaysh al-Islam was integrated into the reorganised Syrian military, with its leader,Essam al-Buwaydhani, becoming an official in the Ministry of Defense as the commander of the70th Division.[75][76]
Since 2015, Jaysh al-Islam has called for the Syrian government to be replaced by a technocratic body that represents the diversity of the Syrian people.[50]
In 2016, Jaysh al-Islam's ideology was described as a "mixture" ofSalafism,Syrian nationalism, "and at least in the past, a significant dose of Sunnisectarianism":
Zahran Alloush initially called for the establishment of an Islamic state in Syria but later renounced his previous positions, expressed support for an elected government, boasted about the protection his organization offers to Christians under its rule and even defined the Alawi sect as a victim of the Assad regime.[22]
As an example of the earlier sectarianism, in 2013 or earlier, Alloush in a speech suggested that "Sham" orBilad al-Sham (theLevant or specificallyDamascus) should be "cleansed of the filth" of theShi'ites (whom he called "Rafida" = rejectionists) andAlawites (whom he called "Nusayris" or "Majous" =Zoroastrians, pre-Islamic Persians): "And I give you the news, oh unclean Rafida: Just as theUmayyads crushed your heads in the past, the people ofGhouta and Sham will crush them soon, they will make you taste a painful torment in this world, before God makes you taste it in the hereafter".[77]
In that early period, Alloush condemned democracy and called for an Islamic state to succeed the tyrant Assad. However, in a May 2015 interview withMcClatchy journalists, Alloush used less debatable rhetoric, claiming that Syrians should decide what sort of state they wanted to live under and that Alawites were "part of the Syrian people" and only those with blood on their hands should be held accountable. His spokesman went on to claim that the sectarian and Islamist rhetoric Alloush had previously made was only intended for internal consumption and to rally his fighters.[78][79][80]
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On 6 October 2012, Liwa al-Islam captured two9K33 Osa SAM systems inEastern Ghouta with at least 12 missiles total.[citation needed] A video was posted on 29 July 2013, depicting some of the missiles being used to shoot down a Syrian governmentMil Mi-8.[81] In November 2013, the group captured two training-jets (L-39s used by the government as jet fighters) from theSyrian Air Force and showed them on the runway.[82] But so far, they haven't been used in combat.
In March 2016,Syria Deeply reported: "...the leader of Jaysh al-Islam, or "Army of Islam" was killed in December last year in a government air strike. His death, however, did nothing to stop to the group's totalitarian rule in Eastern Ghouta, where residents say torture and imprisonment without trial occur routinely in the name of "liberation" andSharia law."[83]
From approximately January 2014 until July 2015, Jaysh was fiercely fightingISIL, especially in theGhouta belt aroundDamascus.[84] In revenge for ISIL's beheading of Jaysh members and releasing a video recording of the event in June 2015, Jaysh al-Islam's website published a video that showed its fighters executing 18 alleged ISIL militants by shotgun. The video mimics the imagery that ISIL has used for similar filmed executions; however, it reversed the imagery by having the executioners wearing orange prisoner outfits (reminiscent of the jumpsuits victims of ISIS would wear before their untimely executions) and the victims being dressed in black robes. ‘Qariban qariba’, a song used by ISIS in many of their videos played throughout the execution, albeit the lyrics altered to denounce the group (for example, it says “With the accusations of apostasy they shed blood” in reference to ISIS killing innocents and civilians) The video included some English subtitles.[84][85]
In August[86] and September 2015, Jaysh al-Islam shelled and stormedAdra Prison in north-eastDamascus. As of 12 September 2015, it had taken control of two buildings.[87][88]
On 1 November 2015, an opposition media outlet,Shaam News Network, posted a video showing Jaysh al-Islam militants had locked people in cages and spread out 100 cages containing about 7 captives each through Eastern Ghouta, northeast of Damascus, to use them ashuman shields against Syrian government air raids.[89] According to theSyrian Observatory for Human Rights, the caged people being used as human shields were captured Alawite military officers and their families who had been kidnapped by Jaysh al-Islam two years ago outside Adra al-Ummaliyah, a government-held neighbourhood in Eastern Ghouta.[90] However, Jaysh al-Islam has not yet claimed responsibility for either of these alleged actions[90][89] andThe New York Times has suggested the possibility that these 'hostages on public display' were a mere show, to sway public opinion against further government and Russian bombardments on Eastern Ghouta.[89]
On 7 April 2016, theSheikh Maqsood neighborhood inAleppo was shelled withmortars that may have contained chemical agents.[91] On 8 April, a spokesman for the rebel group said that "weapons not authorized for use in these types of confrontations" had been used against Kurdish militia and civilians in Aleppo. He stated that "One of our commanders has unlawfully used a type of weapon that is not included in our list".[91] He did not specify what substances were used but, according toKurdish Red Crescent, the symptoms were consistent with the use ofchlorine gas or other agents. Welat Memo, a physician with the Kurdish Red Crescent, said that the people affected are "vomiting and having difficulty in breathing."[92] Spokesperson for the KurdishPeople's Protection Units (YPG) said that Jaysh al-Islam's "statement came after many conclusive evidences and reports of chemical gas being used in shelling Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsoud district". He also said that the group has attacked the Kurdish neighborhood of Aleppo with "forbidden weapons" many times since the war's start.[93] Jaysh al-Islam subsequently clarified that it was referring to "modifiedGrad rockets," not chemical weapons.[94][50]
Stanford University'sMapping Militant Organizations project records that Jaysh al-Islam is not designated as a terrorist organization by any major national government or international body. However, it notes that Russia, Lebanon, and Egypt have supported classifying it as such since the end of 2015.[50][95] Later, however, JaI was designated "moderate opposition" in a December 2016 list released by the Russian defence ministry, and participated in the Russian-backed Astana talks.[96][97][98]
Jaysh al-Islam's relationship with the United States has remained mixed. Former U.S. Secretary of StateJohn Kerry, in a speech inAspen, Colorado on 28 June 2016, mentioned Jaysh al-Islam andAhrar al-Sham as "subgroups" of "the terrorists" ISIL andJabhat al-Nusra. US Obama administration officials disapproved this mention and toldThe Washington Post, who speculated that Kerry's comment may have been accidental, that it was inaccurate and could harm U.S. government efforts to convince the Russian and the Syrian governments not to attack Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham. ThePost also reported that "Syrian [opposition] groups" saw Kerry's comments as an example of how the Obama administration has slowly moved toward the Russian view of Syria, which includes painting all opposition groups as terrorist organizations in order to justify attacking them.[99]
The US State Department in July 2016 confirmed that the US administration's policy with regard to Jaysh al-Islam had not changed: Jaysh was and is not a UN-designated terrorist group, is opposed to ISIL, and is not allied to Nusra.[100]
He claims that his Army of Islam has 10,000 fighters in the suburbs of Damascus and another 7,000 scattered elsewhere in Syria
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)https://x.com/Obaida_sa1999/status/1871290480862040565 was invoked but never defined (see thehelp page).Lister, Charles R. (2015).The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency.Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-019046247-5.