Ghuraba al-Sham (moderate group)

Ghuraba al-Sham Front
جبهة غرباء الشام Strangers of the Levant Front Participant in Syrian Civil War
Active	2011– November 2013 (defunct)
Leaders	Sheikh Omar Hasan Jazra
Area of operations	Aleppo Governorate
Strength	2,000 (until May 2013) ~100 (since May 2013)
Part of	Free Syrian Army
Opponents	Syrian Armed Forces Al-Nusra Front Al-Tawhid Brigade Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

2,000 (until May 2013)

The Ghuraba al-Sham Front (Arabic: جبهة غرباء الشام‎‎ Jabhat Ghurabā’ ash-Shām, "Strangers/Foreigners of the Levant") was a group of fighters, active during the Syrian civil war, in favor of a non-religious state. The group formerly had around 2,000 men, but in May 2013 it clashed with Islamic fundamentalist groups and most of its fighters dispersed. Ghuraba al-Sham's arsenals were confiscated by the Islamists and by late 2013 it had only has around 100 fighters in its ranks. The group consisted of a mixture of secularists and Islamists. The name of the group has since changed. There was a battalion within the group called the Loyalty Battalion made up entirely of women.

In November 2013, Hasan Jazra, the commander of Ghuraba al-Sham, was publicly executed by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the town of Atarib. Islamist groups had accused Ghuraba of looting and collaborating at times with the Syrian government.

In April 2016 the German police arrested an unnamed 41 year old Syrian man accused of crimes against international law like torture and looting, committed while he was a leader of the group in 2012/2013.

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Wikipedia