Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar
| Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar جيش المهاجرين والأنصار |
|
|---|---|
| Participant in the Syrian Civil War | |
Flag of Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar
|
|
| Active | Summer 2012–present |
| Ideology |
Sunni Islamism Jihadism |
| Leaders | Sheikh Mu 'atassim Billah al-Madani(September 2015 - Present) Abu Ibrahim Khurasani(June 2015 - September 2015) Salahuddin al-Shishani(December 2013 – June 2015) Abu Omar al-Shishani(Summer 2012 – Winter 2013) |
| Headquarters | Aleppo, Syria |
| Area of operations | Aleppo and Latakia Governorates, Syria |
| Strength | ~750 fighters (September 2015) |
| Part of |
  Al-Nusra Front Caucasus Emirate (formerly) Jabhat Ansar al-Din (formerly)al-Qaeda (2013-2016) |
| Originated as | Muhajireen Brigade (Katibat al-Muhajireen) |
| Allies |
Syria Revolutionaries Front Islamic Front (formerly) Army of Mujahedeen (formerly) Suqour al-Ezz (formerly) Harakat Sham al-Islam (formerly) 13th Division (formerly) |
| Opponents |
Syrian Armed Forces National Defense Force Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant |
| Battles and wars | |
Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar (JMA or JAMWA, Arabic: جيش المهاجرين والأنصار Army of Emigrants and Supporters), formerly known as the Muhajireen Brigade (Katibat al-Muhajireen), is a jihadist group made up of Arabs that has been active in the Syrian Civil War against the Syrian Government. The group was briefly affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), but after changes in leadership it took an increasingly hostile stance against it. In September 2015, JMA pledged allegiance to the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front.
It has been designated as a terrorist organization by Canada and the United States. However an analyst named Joanna Paraszczuk has argued that the charges of kidnapping and attacking civilians indicated by the US State Department are false; she furthermore indicates that the sanctions will have no practical effect.
The group was established under the name Muhajireen Brigade in summer 2012, and was led by an ethnic Kist, Abu Omar al-Shishani (alternatively called Abu Omar al-Chechen), an Islamist fighter from Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge who had fought against Russia in the Second Chechen War and the Russia-Georgia War. While Syrian jihadist groups like Ahrar ash-Sham and Al-Nusra included foreign jihadists who had traveled to Syria to fight with the rebels, Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar was composed largely of non-Syrian fighters when it was formed. Its membership would come to consist of mostly Arabs from Syria, Saudi Arabia and Libya.
...
Wikipedia