Hassan Aboud

Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyyah
حركة أحرار الشام الإسلامية Participant in the Syrian Civil War and the American-led intervention in Syria
Variant of the logo of the Islamic Front used by Ahrar al-Sham
Active	December 2011–present
Ideology	Sunni Islamism Salafism
Leaders	Hassan Aboud, nom de guerre Abu Abdullah al-Hamawi  † (leader 2011–2014) Hashim al-Sheikh, nom de guerre Abu Jaber Shaykh (leader 2014–2015) Abu Yahia al-Hamawi (leader 2015–2016) Ali al-Omar, nom de guerre Abu Ammar al-Omar (leader 2016-present) Jaber Ali Basha (deputy leader 2017-present) Anas Abo Malek (deputy leader 2017-present)
Headquarters	Babsaqa, Idlib Governorate, Syria
Area of operations	Syria
Strength	10,000–20,000 (July 2013) 16,000(December 2016) 18,000–20,000+(March 2017)
Part of	Islamic Front (2013–2016) Syrian Revolutionary Command Council (2014–2015) Army of Conquest (2015–2017) Fatah Halab (2015–2017) Jaysh Halab (until 2016) Unified Military Command of Eastern Ghouta (2014–2015) Ansar al-Sharia (2015–early 2016)
Originated as	Ahrar al-Sham Battalion
Allies	Saudi Arabia Turkey Qatar Jaysh al-Islam Ahrar al-Sharqiya Alwiya al-Furqan Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union Free Syrian Army Sham Legion Harakat Sham al-Islam Ansar al-Islam Tahrir al-Sham (in Deraa)
Opponents	Syria Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (January 2017) Tahrir al-Sham (sometimes) Iran Russia Syrian Democratic Forces Jund al-Aqsa (since October 2016)
Battles and wars	Syrian Civil War Battle of Idlib Battle of Aleppo Battle of Raqqa 2013 Latakia offensive Syrian opposition-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant conflict Military intervention against ISIL American-led intervention in Syria Al-Nusra Front–Syria Revolutionaries Front conflict Second Battle of Idlib 2015 Jisr al-Shughur offensive Idlib Governorate clashes (2017) Daraa offensive (February 2017) Qaboun offensive (February–March 2017)
Website	ahraralsham.net

Syrian Civil War

Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya (Arabic: حركة أحرار الشام الإسلامية‎, translit. Ahrār al-Shām, lit. 'Islamic Movement of the Free People of the Levant'‎), commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, is a coalition of multiple Islamist and Salafist units that coalesced into a single brigade in order to fight against the Syrian Government led by Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian Civil War. Ahrar al-Sham was led by Hassan Aboud until his death in 2014. In July 2013, Ahrar al-Sham had 10,000 to 20,000 fighters, which at the time made it the second single most powerful unit fighting against al-Assad, after the Free Syrian Army. It was the principal organization operating under the umbrella of the Syrian Islamic Front and was a major component of the Islamic Front. With an estimated 20,000 fighters in 2015, Ahrar al-Sham became the largest rebel group in Syria after the Free Syrian Army became less powerful. The group along with Jaysh al-Islam are the main rebel groups supported by Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The group aims to create an Islamic state under Sharia law, and was for a time openly allied with Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly the Al-Nusra Front, an affiliate of al-Qaeda) until a rift in January 2017 that has since been healed.