Kurdish Front

Kurdish Front
جبهة الأكراد Jabhat al-Akrad Participant in the Syrian Civil War
Logo of Jabhat al-Akrad until mid-2016
Active	22 January 2013 – present
Groups	Shahba Women's Front Tel Rifaat Revolutionaries Battalion
Leaders	Hajji Ahmed Kurdi Alaa Ajabu † Abu Layla (2013–14)
Headquarters	Afrin District and Sheikh Maqsood, Aleppo Governorate
Area of operations	Aleppo Governorate Raqqa Governorate
Strength	<3,000
Part of	Army of Revolutionaries Syrian Democratic Forces
Allies	People's Protection Units Al-Bab Military Council Northern Sun Battalion
Opponents	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Hawar Kilis Operations Room Tahrir al-Sham Syrian Armed Forces (until 2016)
Battles and wars	Syrian Civil War Battle of Aleppo (2012–16) Raqqa campaign (2012–13) Syrian Kurdish–Islamist conflict (2013–present) Battle of Tell Abyad (2013) Siege of Kobanî Tell Abyad offensive Inter-rebel conflict during the Syrian Civil War Northern Aleppo offensive (February 2016) Western al-Bab offensive (September 2016) Western al-Bab offensive (October–November 2016)
Website	http://jabhetakrad.com/

Syrian Civil War

Jabhat al-Akrad (Arabic: جبهة الأكراد‎‎; Kurdish: Eniya Kurdan‎, lit. 'Kurdish Front'), full name: (لواء جبهة الأكراد لنصرة شعبنا السوري‎ Liwa' Jabhat al-'Akrad l-Nusra Shaʿbnā al-Sūrī, "Kurdish Front Brigade to Protect the Syrian People"), is a predominantly Kurdish and Arabized Kurdish rebel faction participating in the Syrian civil war.

Jabhat al-Akrad operates in Kurdish and ethnically-mixed areas in Syrias, such as Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh district of Aleppo city, Afrin Canton, the western SDF controlled parts of the Shahba region, and the northern Raqqa Governorate.

The group was originally formed as a brigade of the Free Syrian Army by Kurdish and Arab defectors from the Syrian Army. It was originally formed as a subgroup of Liwa Ahrar Souriya in the Raqqa Governorate on 22 January 2013. Since its founding it however also maintained close ties to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), including military coordination with its armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG).

Jabhat al-Akrad was allegedly expelled from the FSA Aleppo Military Council, led by Abdul Jabbar al-Oqaidi, on 16 August 2013 due to alleged PYD affiliations amid widespread clashes in northern Syria between predominantly Sunni Arab rebel groups and Kurdish militias led by the YPG. Among these clashes was the Battle of Tell Abyad in July 2013, when the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) captured the border town of Tell Abyad from Jabhat al-Akrad and the YPG.