al-Nusra front

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al-Nusra front

Flag of the Al-Nusra Front.svg

Banner of the Nusra Front
active January 23, 2012 to July 28, 2016
Country Syria
Strength about 10,000 fighters
Location Idlib province , Aleppo Governorate
Butcher civil war in Syria
Commanders
Important
commanders

Abu Muhammad al-Jaulani

Front for the conquest of the Levant
Jabhat Fath asch-Scham

Flag of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.svg

Banner of the Jabhat Fath asch-Scham
Lineup July 28, 2016
Country Syria
Strength about 10,000 fighters
Location Idlib province , Aleppo Governorate
Butcher civil war in Syria
Commanders
Current
commander
Abu Muhammad al-Jaulani
The Nusra Front claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Aleppo in October 2012. At least 40 people were killed.

The former al-Nusra Front ( Arabic جبهة النصرة Jabhat an-Nusra , DMG Ǧabhat an-Nuṣra , long formجبهة النصرة لأهل الشام / Ǧabhat an-Nuṣra li-Ahl aš-Šām  / 'Support front for the Levantine people'), now Jabhat Fath asch-Scham (جبهة فتح الشام / Ǧabhat Fatḥ aš-Šām  / 'Front for the Conquest of the Levant'), is a jihadist - Salafist organization in Syria .

She initially belonged to al-Qaeda until she announced her separation from this network on July 28, 2016 and her name was changed to "Jabhat Fath asch-Scham". She joined ISIS and fought in the Syrian civil war against the government of Bashar al-Assad , but also against parts of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Kurdish People's Defense Units . The aim of the separation from al-Qaeda is to reunite the rebel factions.

The United Nations Security Council , the Nusra Front was a 2013 terrorist organization classified.

Goals and structure

One of the declared goals of the Nusra Front after the elimination of the Assad regime was the establishment of a Salafism-oriented Sunni Islamic state in Syria and, ultimately, a caliphate in the Levant (area of ​​the eastern Mediterranean). To this end, all jihadist forces in Syria should be united to fight the secular opposition. In addition, the Nusra Front wanted to drive the Alawite and Christian minorities out of Syria. It also declared the United States and Israel to be enemies of Islam . Nonetheless, humanitarian support was provided from Israel, without distinction for fighters and civilians, in the form of relief supplies and medical care, some of which also benefited the al-Nusra Front.

One of the Islamist groups with which the Nusra Front cooperated was the Syrian Islamic Front . The Nusra Front also cooperated with parts of the FSA.

According to an estimate by the Australian government in June 2013, the Nusra Front had between 6,000 and 10,000 members, mainly Syrians, but also fighters from the rest of the Levant, as well as from North Africa and Europe. The BBC went out in a survey of the Syrian opposition from the October 17, 2013 from 5,000 to 7,000 fighters. Some of the leaders and functionaries of the Nusra Front had already gained experience as members of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) . The high proportion of Syrians in the organization stands in contrast to the previous organization AQI / ISI, in which a high proportion of non-Iraqis fought. The donors to the Nusra Front included above all al-Qaida in Iraq and Salafist donors from the Gulf region ; Up to June 2013, up to one billion euros were invested from Qatar alone .

The Nusra Front distributed its video messages via its own media network called al-Manara al-Baida (the White Minaret), which it uploaded to the Shumukh al-Islam jihadist al-Qaeda sympathizer forum .

history

The Nusra Front was founded by members of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI) in Syria in the second half of 2011. It first appeared at the end of January 2012 via a video message in which it made its foundation public. She confessed to various attacks in Syria, including in January in Damascus (26 dead), in February in Aleppo (28 dead), on March 16 in Damascus (27 dead). Up to and including February 2013, the Nusra Front killed over 300 people in Syria, mostly with car bombs and suicide bombers, most of them members of the Syrian armed forces . In contrast to AQI / ISI, the attacks on the Nusra Front were primarily aimed at military targets; the attacks were also portrayed as retaliation for massacres committed by the Assad government or its sympathizers. Since August 2012 at the latest, the Nusra Front has also undertaken humanitarian aid operations for the Syrian civilian population, for example by distributing food and fuel. Since November 2012 at the latest, there have been consistent reports from Syrian refugees that the Nusra Front is deliberately killing Christians, including members of the opposition.

The Nusra Front played a leading role in the offensive on the Syrian air force base in northwestern Taftanaz , which led to its capture by insurgents on January 11, 2013.

In January 2013 there were reports of attacks by the Nusra Front on secular civil organizations and demonstrations in Sarakeb . Also in January 2013, the Nusra Front was able to take over the production and distribution of bread in the rebel-controlled parts of Aleppo after the FSA was accused of stealing and stealing grain and the resulting shortage of bread. The Nusra Front also dominates the Sharia Council of Aleppo, which includes the Ahrar al-Sham members.

On June 9, 2013, Al-Jazeera published a letter from Aiman ​​al-Zawahiri to the leaders of al-Qaida and al-Nusra, in which he annulled the association and called for the settlement of disputes between the two al-Qaeda groups (for which he named Abu Musab al-Suri as a mediator) and assigned different areas of influence to both (ISIS Iraq, al-Nusra Syria). Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi refused to mediate in messages on June 15 and 28 that they would canonize the illegitimate colonial border; the Nusra Front continues to be viewed as part of ISIS and Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani is judged to be a renegade.

The Nusra Front, with the rather moderate groups Liwa al-Tawhid, Liwa al-Islam and Suqr al-Sham, was one of the eleven signatories of a declaration published on September 24, 2013, the signatories of which were all groups founded abroad and not returned to Syria reject as representatives (including explicitly the national coalition and the transitional government led by Ahmed Tomeh ), call for the unification of all military and civil forces under a clear Islamic framework based on Sharia as the sole source of legislation and the members of the opposition to settle disputes and to Invoke subordination of individual group interests to the interests of the Ummah .

Human Rights Watch released a report on October 11, 2013 after the Nusra Front, along with at least 19 other armed opposition groups, participated in organized massacres in rural areas of Latakia Governorate between August 4 and 18, killing at least 190 civilians and over 200 have been taken hostage; At least 67 were executed or illegally killed in the operation in Alawi villages loyal to the government. The five groups who mainly financed, organized and carried out this operation were Ahrar al-Sham , ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar and Suquor al-Izz . ISIS and Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar still have power over the hostages, most of whom are women and children.

On December 8, 2013, an article by journalist Seymour Hersh appeared in the London Review of Books , in which it was reported, citing intelligence sources, that the Nusra Front had access to the nerve agent sarin .

Spiegel Online reported on October 11, 2015 that troops from the Russian-Syrian alliance hadrecapturedareas in Idlib province with the support of the Hezbollah militia, which had been held by units from the al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham.

On July 28, 2016, Reuters / dpa reported that the al-Nusra Front was renaming itself, according to its current boss Abu Muhammad al-Jaulani, to the "Conquest Front of the Levant" (Jabhat Fath al-Sham) and allegedly from the global al-Qaeda network want to detach.

42 people were killed in a terrorist attack in Homs on February 24, 2017 , including many soldiers from government forces, including a senior officer. The attack was linked to the peace talks that began in Geneva on February 25, and Al-Nusra is excluded from these. The Syrian opposition condemned the attack, but at the same time accused their government of abusing it to sabotage the talks. Al-Nusra confessed to the attack, the United Nations interpreted the attack as an attempt at sabotage by the terrorist militia.

At the beginning of 2017, she and other extremist militias founded the Haiʾat Tahrir asch-Scham alliance and began attacking moderate rebels under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.

Classification as a terrorist organization

On December 11, 2012, on orders dated November 20, the United States Department of State aliased the Nusra Front to AQI, adding the Nusra Front to the list of terrorist organizations overseas designated by the United States Department of State . The reactions to this in the Syrian insurgent movement were negative; Rejection came from Islamist groups such as Suqr al-Sham and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, as well as from the Syrian National Council . On March 15, 2013, the Australian government added the Nusra Front to its list of terrorist organizations.

In April 2013, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq or the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi , declared the Nusra Front to be a mere part of ISI and abandoned the merger of the Nusra Front and ISI known as the new name Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant . One day later, the leader of the Nusra Front, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani , objected to the association with ISI, but swore allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Aiman ​​az-Zawahiri ( baiʿa ).

On May 30, 2013, both ISIS and al-Nusra were identified by the UN as aliases of AQI, placing the Nusra Front on the UN Security Council's list of terror and sanctions and placing an arms embargo on them. In July 2013, the British government, through the Home Office, designated the Nusra Front as the alias of al-Qaeda.

The US formally classified the Al-Nusra Front as a terrorist organization in May 2014.

The Al-Nusra Front is classified as a terrorist organization in Russia and is banned.

Individual evidence

  1. Dozens killed in Aleppo bomb blasts In: ABC. Retrieved July 29, 2013
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  3. https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/07/28/the-nusra-front-is-dead-and-stronger-than-ever-before/
  4. UN blacklists of Syria's al-Nusra Front . Al Jazeera, May 31, 2013, accessed November 25, 2013.
  5. a b c d e f g h Jabhat al-Nusra. In: National Security website. Australian Attorney-General's Department on June 28, 2013, archived from the original on July 21, 2013 ; Retrieved October 3, 2013 .
  6. a b Profile: Syria's al-Nusra Front. BBC News, April 10, 2013, accessed October 5, 2013 .
  7. New Front Golan Heights: Israel indirectly supports jihadists Spiegel Online (accessed: February 23, 2015)
  8. ^ Aaron Y. Zelin, Charles Lister: The crowning of the Syrian Islamic Front. June 24, 2013, accessed October 3, 2013 .
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  13. Islamists confess to attacks in Damascus. Zeit Online, March 21, 2012, accessed October 3, 2013 .
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  16. Tracey Shelton: Syrian rebels take major airbase in Taftanaz. Global Post, January 11, 2013, accessed October 3, 2013 .
  17. Hania Mourtada and Anne Barnard: Jihadists and Secular Activists Clash in Syria. The New York Times, January 26, 2013, accessed October 5, 2013 .
  18. Ruth Sherlock: Syria: how jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra is taking over Syria's revolution. The Telegraph, February 8, 2013, accessed October 5, 2013 .
  19. Basma Atassi: Qaeda chief annuls Syrian-Iraqi jihad merger. June 9, 2013, accessed October 1, 2013 .
  20. ^ Aron Lund: The Non-State Militant Landscape in Syria. CTC Sentinel, August 27, 2013, accessed October 5, 2013 .
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  23. Seymour M. Hersh: Whose sarin? . Article dated December 8, 2013 on the lrb.co.uk portal , accessed December 8, 2013
  24. Martin Kilian: The White House and the manipulated data . Article of December 8, 2013 in the tagesanzeiger.ch portal , accessed on December 8, 2013
  25. ^ [1] SPON: Russian air support: Assad troops on the advance, accessed October 11, 2015
  26. dpa / Reuters: Nusra Front renounces al-Qaeda. Retrieved July 28, 2016 .
  27. Attacks overshadow conversations. In: tagesschau.de. February 25, 2017. Retrieved March 20, 2017 .
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  31. Victoria Nuland, Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson: Terrorist Designations of the al-Nusrah Front as an Alias ​​for al-Qa'ida in Iraq. United States Department of State, December 11, 2012, archived from the original on July 12, 2013 ; Retrieved September 26, 2013 .
  32. Agence France-Presse: Qaeda in Iraq confirms Syria's Nusra is part of network. GlobalPost, April 9, 2013, accessed September 26, 2013 .
  33. BBC Monitoring: Profile: Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. BBC News, September 20, 2013, accessed September 26, 2013 .
  34. SC / 11019. Security Council Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee Amends Entry of One Entity on Its Sanctions List. United Nations Security Council • Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York, May 30, 2013, accessed September 26, 2013 .
  35. Syrian Al Qaeda offshoot: UN imposes sanctions on Nusra Front. Spiegel Online, May 31, 2013, accessed October 5, 2013 .
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  37. Renaming announced , July 30, 2016