Al-Nusra Front

Al-Nusra Front
Al-Nusra Front
جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام
	Flag of Jabhat al-Nusra; (January 2012 – July 2016) Flag of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham; (July 2016 – January 2017)
Leaders	Abu Mohammad al-Julani (top emir); Abu Abdullah al-Shami (senior member) ; Ahmad Salama Mabruk † (senior member); Abu Hajer al-Homsi † (top military commander); Abu Omar al-Turkistani † (top military commander)
Dates of operation	23 January 2012 – 28 January 2017
Dissolved	28 January 2017
Group(s)	See al-Nusra member groups
Headquarters	Deir ez-Zor, Deir ez-Zor Governorate, (2012–2014); Harem, Idlib Governorate, (February–November 2014); Salqin, Idlib Governorate, (November 2014 – March 2015); Idlib, Idlib Governorate, Syria (March 2015 – January 2017);
Active regions	Syria (Primarily in Northwest Syria, around the Idlib and Aleppo Provinces); Lebanon (2013-2017)
Ideology	Sunni Islamism Qutbism; Wahhabism; Salafist jihadism (a form of Islamic fundamentalism);
Size	10,000 (2017)
Part of	al-Qaeda (until 2016); Mujahideen Shura Council (2014–2015); Army of Conquest (2015–2017)
Allies	State allies Qatar (alleged, denied); Non-state allies Jund al-Aqsa; Caucasus Emirate; Turkistan Islamic Party; Ajnad al-Kavkaz; Malhama Tactical; Ashida'a Mujahideen Brigade; Ansar al-Din Front; Ansar al-Islam; Free Syrian Army (occasionally); Ahrar al-Sham (until 2017);
Opponents	State opponents Syria; Lebanon; Iran; Russia; Iraq; Non-state opponents Certain Syrian rebel groups Free Syrian Army (some militias); ; Palestine Liberation Army; UNDOF; Syrian Democratic Forces YPG; YPJ; PKK; Army of Revolutionaries; ; Shi'ite groups Hezbollah; Kata'ib Hezbollah; Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq; Al-Abbas brigade; Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada; Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba; Islamic State and Islamic State affiliates Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade; Jaysh al-Jihad; Islamic Muthanna Movement; ;
Battles and wars	Syrian Civil War Battle of Aleppo (2012–16) ; Siege of Nubl and Al-Zahraa ; Quneitra Governorate clashes (2012–2014) ; Operation al-Shabah ; 2013 Latakia offensive ; Inter-rebel conflict during the Syrian Civil War ; Al-Otaiba ambush ; 2014 Idlib offensive ; al-Nusra Front–Syria Revolutionaries Front conflict ; 2015 Idlib offensive (Second Battle of Idlib) ; Siege of al-Fu'ah and Kafriya ; Battle of Bosra (2015) ; 2015 Jisr al-Shughur offensive ; Battle of Yarmouk Camp (2015) ; Qalamoun offensive (May 2015) ; Battle of Zabadani (2015) ; 2015 Hama Offensive ; Northern Aleppo offensive (2016) ; Idlib Governorate clashes (2017) Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon ; Battle of Arsal (2014) Military intervention against ISIL ; American-led intervention in Syria ; Russian military intervention in Syria ;
Designated as a terrorist group by	See section

Al-Nusra Front, also known as Front for the Conquest of the Levant, was a Salafi jihadist organization fighting against Syrian Ba'athist government forces in the Syrian Civil War. Its aim was to overthrow president Bashar al-Assad and establish an Islamic state in Syria.

Formed in 2012, in November of that year The Washington Post described al-Nusra as "the most aggressive and successful" of the rebel forces. While secular and pro-democratic rebel groups of the Syrian Revolution such as the Free Syrian Army were focused on ending the decades-long reign of Assad family, al-Nusra Front also sought the unification of Islamist forces in a post-Assad Syria, anticipating a new stage of the civil war. It denounced the international assistance in support of the Syrian opposition as "imperialism"; viewing it as a long-term threat to its Islamist goals in Syria.

In December 2012, US Department of State designated it as a "foreign terrorist organization". In April 2013, Al-Nusra Front was publicly confirmed as the official Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda, after Emir Ayman al-Zawahiri rejected the forced merger attempted by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and ordered the dissolution of newly-formed Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. In March 2015, the militia joined other Syrian Islamist groups to form a joint command center called the Army of Conquest. In July 2016, al-Nusra formally re-designated itself from Jabhat al-Nusra to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ("Front for the Conquest of the Levant") and officially announced that it was breaking ties with Al-Qaeda.

The announcement caused defections of senior Al-Nusra commanders and criticism from al-Qaeda ranks, provoking a harsh rebuke from Ayman al-Zawahiri, who denounced it as an "act of disobedience". On 28 January 2017, following violent clashes with Ahrar al-Sham and other rebel groups, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (JFS) merged with four other groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a new Sunni Islamist militant group. Tahrir al-Sham denies any links to the al-Qaeda network and said in a statement that the group is "an independent entity and not an extension of previous organizations or factions". Mutual hostilities eventually deteriorated into one of violent confrontations, with Al-Nusra commander Sami al-Oraydi accusing HTS of adopting nationalist doctrines. Sami al-Oraydi, alongside other Al-Qaeda loyalists like Abu Humam al-Shami, Abu Julaybib and others, mobilised Al-Qaeda personnel in northwestern Syria to establish an anti-HTS front in north-western Syria, eventually forming Hurras al-Din on 27 February 2018.

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