Ajnad al-Sham

Ajnad al-Sham
أجناد الشام Participant in the Syrian Civil War
The Black Standard used by Ajnad al-Sham
Active	November 2013 – present
Ideology	Sunni Islamism
Leaders	Abu Hamza Al-Hamwi Abu Abdullah Taoum † Abdel Aziz al-Ali † Zainuri Kamaruddin (2014)
Area of operations	Idlib Governorate Hama Governorate
Part of	Army of Conquest
Allies	Islamic Front Al-Nusra Front
Opponents	Syrian Armed Forces National Defense Force
Battles and wars	Syrian Civil War Second Battle of Idlib Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War Northwestern Syria offensive (October–November 2015) 2016 Latakia offensive 2016 Southern Aleppo campaign Aleppo offensive (June-August 2016) 2016 Hama offensive 2017 Hama offensive

Abu Hamza Al-Hamwi
Abu Abdullah Taoum †

Syrian Civil War

The Ajnad al-Sham (Arabic: أجناد الشام‎‎, Soldiers of the Levant) is an independent Idlib and Hama-based rebel group active during the Syrian Civil War. The group is named after Ajnad al-Sham. It joined the Army of Conquest on 24 March 2015 and took part in the Second Battle of Idlib. On 29 March 2014, it announced that its military leader, Abu Abdullah Taoum, was killed during clashes around al-Fouaa.

In May 2016, a statement by the group threatened to retaliate against government forces if demands related to a prison riot in Hama were not met.

On 5 November 2015, during the 2nd Northwestern Syria offensive, Ajnad al-Sham militants in the Hama Governorate killed and beheaded an unnamed Syrian Army Brigadier general and placed his head in a bin. They posted a picture of it on Facebook and Twitter where fellow militants praised this execution and labelled the Brigadier general with derogatory slogans like "Nusayri" - a term for Alawites.