Jund al-Aqsa (“Soldiers of al-Aqsa,” referring to the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem) is a jihadi group that was first set up in 2013 and primarily operates in Idlib and Hama provinces in northwestern Syria. Though it has publicly made clear its ideologic…
THE SYRIAN JIHAD: REVIEW
The trajectory of the Syrian civil war has given rise to a flurry of books, which in relation to the Sunni jihadist component mostly focus on the Islamic State (IS). Charles Lister’s new book The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency (2015, Hurst) attempts a more grand undertaking in trying to offer a granular account of the rise of the jihadist aspect of the insurgency against the Assad regime, following events …
Islamism in Syria
Islamism has featured prominently in the politics and policies of modern Syria on a number of different levels. Like other majority Sunni Muslim Arab countries governed by secular autocrats, Syria has a long tradition of Sunni Islamist opposition…
Al-Qa’ida Uncoupling: Jabhat al-Nusra’s Rebranding as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham
On July 28, 2016, Jabhat al-Nusra, which had previously identified itself as a branch of al-Qa’ida in Syria, announced the changing of its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (‘Conquest of al-Sham Front’) in a video recording that for the first time…
Jund al-Aqsa Withdraws from Jaysh al-Fatah
Jund al-Aqsa– a jihadi group founded in 2013 and officially independent but in practice closer to Jabhat al-Nusra with several al-Qa’ida operatives in its senior ranks- has recently fallen into controversies regarding its relationship with the Jaysh al-Fatah (‘Army of Conquest’) coalition in Idlib province in which it has played a key role since the spring of […]
Druze Clues Al Nusra’s Rebranding and What It Means for Syria
The market for extremism has been so disrupted by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (also known as ISIS) and its penchant for extraordinary brutality that even a group as notorious as al Qaeda is now able to reposition—or, one might say, rebrand—itself. In Syria, al Qaeda has tried to paint itself as a more reasonable jihadist force with […]