Tawhid Brigade

al-Tawhid Brigade
لواء التوحيد Participant in the Syrian Civil War
Official logo of the Tawhid Brigade
Active	18 July 2012—2014 (central group, some remnants still use the name)
Ideology	Sunni Islamism
Groups	Free North Brigade Mountain Knights Brigade Darat Izza Brigade Aleppo Shahba Battalions Northern Storm Brigade 1st Regiment
Leaders	Abdul Qader Saleh † (Top Commander July 2012–November 2013) Adnan Bakkour † (Top Commander November 2013–January 2014) Abdelaziz Salameh (Top Commander January 2014-?) Maj. Mohammed Hamadeen (Free North Brigade) Col. Yusef al-Jader † (Senior commander in Aleppo) Yussef al-Abbas † (Intelligence chief)
Headquarters	Aleppo, Mare', and Tell Rifaat
Area of operations	Aleppo Governorate Homs Governorate Raqqa Governorate of Syria
Size	10,000 (own claim) (Nov 2012) 11,000 (Oct 2013)
Part of	Free Syrian Army Euphrates Volcano (2014) Islamic Front (2013–2014) Syrian Revolutionary Command Council (2014) Syrian Islamic Liberation Front (2012–2013)
Merger of	Free North Brigade Mountain Knights Brigade Darat Izza Brigade Aleppo Shahba Battalions
Allies	al-Nusra Front Ahrar ash-Sham Jaysh al-Islam Army of Mujahideen Sham Legion Kurdish Front (since 2014) People's Protection Units (since 2014)
Opponents	Syrian Armed Forces Ghuraba al-Sham Front Hezbollah Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant People's Protection Units (2012–2014)
Battles and wars	Syrian Civil War Battle of Aleppo (2012–present) Siege of Menagh Air Base Battle of al-Qusayr (2013) 2013 Latakia offensive Syrian opposition-ISIL conflict Northern Aleppo offensive (February–July 2014) Siege of Kobanî

Syrian Civil War

The al-Tawhid Brigade (Arabic: لواء التوحيد‎, translit. Liwa al-Tawhid, lit. 'Brigade of Oneness'), named after Tawhid, the "oneness of God," but often mistranslated as Unity Brigade, was an armed Islamist insurgent group involved in the Syrian Civil War.

The al-Tawhid Brigade was formed in 2012. Reportedly backed by Qatar, al-Tawhid was considered one of the biggest groups in northern Syria, dominating much of the insurgency around Aleppo.

Affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, in late 2013 it co-signed a joint statement calling for Sharia law and rejecting the authority of the Syrian National Coalition.

Originally, al-Tawhid was composed of four subunits, the Mountain Knights Brigade, the Darat Izza Brigade, the Free North Brigade, and the Aleppo Shahba Battalions.

Its leader Abdul Qader Saleh was killed in November 2013 in a devastating Syrian Air Force airstrike. Its northern branch, the Free North Brigade, was in 2014 reportedly "superseded" by the Northern Sun Battalion (Shams al-Shamal).

The Tawhid Brigade consisted was organized into three branches:

Around June 2013 the Tawhid Brigade was reorganised into nearly 30 sub-factions.

In November 2013, the Elite Islamic Battalion left the Tawhid Brigade.

On 2 March 2014, the Northern Storm Brigade announced that they would join the Islamic Front under the leadership of the al-Tawhid Brigade. Also in 2014, the Euphrates Jarabulus Battalions left to join the Dawn of Freedom Brigades.