Al-Nusra Front

Jabhat Al-Nusra, also referred to as Al-Nusra Front and later known as Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham was a Sunni Islamist political organization and paramilitary group that fought against Ba'athist regime forces in the Syrian civil war. Its aim was to overthrow Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and establish an Islamic state ruled by Sharia in Syria. Formed in 2012 by Ahmed al-Sharaa, The Washington Post described Al-Nusra Front in November of that year as "the most aggressive and successful" of the rebel forces. While secular and pro-democratic rebel groups of the Syrian Revolution such as the Free Syrian Army were focused on ending the decades-long reign of the Assad family, Al-Nusra Front also sought the unification of Islamist forces in Syria, anticipating a new stage of the civil war. It denounced the international assistance in support of the Syrian opposition as "imperialism"; viewing it as a long-term threat to its Islamist goals in Syria. In December 2012, the US Department of State designated it as a "foreign terrorist organization". In April 2013, Al-Nusra Front was publicly confirmed as the official Syrian affiliate of Al-Qaeda, after Al-Qaeda Emir Ayman Al-Zawahiri rejected the legitimacy of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, leader of the newly-formed Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. In March 2015, the militia joined other Syrian Islamist groups to form a joint command center called the Army of Conquest. In July 2016, Al-Nusra announced that it was breaking ties with Al-Qaeda and re-named itself to Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham ("Front for the Conquest of the Levant"). The announcement caused defections of senior Al-Nusra commanders and criticism from Al-Qaeda ranks: Al-Qaeda Emir Ayman Al-Zawahiri denounced the move as an "act of disobedience". On 28 January 2017, following violent clashes with Ahrar Al-Sham and other rebel groups, Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham (JFS) merged with four other groups to...