Zahran Alloush
| Zahran Alloush | |
|---|---|
Zahran Alloush attending a military parade in eastern Ghouta, 29 April 2015.
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| Born | 1971 Douma, Syria |
| Died | 25 December 2015 Utaya, Rif Dimashq, Syria |
| Cause of death | Syrian Air Force strike |
| Nationality | Syrian |
| Known for | Emir of Jaysh al-Islam |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |
 Islamic Front(November 2013-December 2015) |
| Service/branch |
 Jaysh al-Islam(2011-December 2015) |
| Years of service | 2011–2015 |
| Rank |
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| Battles/wars | |
Zahran Alloush (Arabic: زهران علوش Zahrān ʿAlūš; 1971 – 25 December 2015) was a Syrian Islamist leader active in the Syrian Civil War. He was the commander of Jaysh al-Islam (or Army of Islam), a major component of the Islamic Front, of which he was the military chief, and was described as one of the most powerful persons in rebel-held Syria. Alloush called for cleansing Damascus of all Alawites and Shiites, later telling Western journalists that these and similar statements had been caused by the pressure and "psychological stress" he was under from living through the Syrian Government's siege of Ghouta. He was killed on 25 December 2015 and Essam al-Buwaydhani was named his successor as head of Jaysh al-Islam.
Zahran Alloush was born in Douma, Rif Dimashq, in 1971, and was married to three women. His father is Abdullah Alloush, a scholar and the previous director of Al Assad center for Quoran studies in Damascus. He joined the faculty of law at Damascus University, and completed a master's degree in Shariah law at the Islamic University of Madinah. The Syrian Intelligence Palestine Branch arrested him in 2009 on charges of weapons possession. He was released from Sednaya Prison in 2011 as part of a general amnesty three months into the Syrian Uprising.
Following his release, he established a rebel group called the Battalion of Islam to fight the Assad Government. The group expanded and renamed itself the Brigade of Islam, and in 2013 it merged with other rebel factions to form Jaysh al-Islam, still under Alloush's leadership. This became the most powerful rebel group operating in the Damascus area.
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