50 rebel brigade and battalion have merged to form a new front against Bashar al-Assad to fight his regime under the banner of 'Islam Army', The united fighting groups said in Communique No.1
The group will be the biggest operating in the area, leaving the Free Syrian Army, the military wing of the internationally recognized National Coalition of opposition parties, more isolated than ever, according to Al Jazeera.
The Islam Army nucleus was
Islam Brigade which was set up by Mohamed Zahran Alloush from Douma, east of
Damascus.
The elderly patriarch
Mohammed Alloush, a religious scholar, lives in Saudi Arabia. His son Zahran, a
salafi activist jailed by the government in 2009, founded the group when he was
released from prison in mid-2011.
It rose to prominence
after bombing the National Security Office in Damascus in July 2012, which
killed several of Assad’s leading military officials. Considers itself “the
biggest faction in the Damascus region” and claims to have 64 sub-battalions,
but it refuses to give an estimated number of fighters.
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