Liwa al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, Brigade of Emigrants and Supporters or literally Banner of the Emigrants and Supporters), also known as Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, formerly the Muhajireen Battalion, is a Salafi jihadist group consisting of both Arabic-speaking fighters and fighters from the North Caucasus that has been active in the Syrian Civil War against the Syrian government. The group was briefly affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in 2013, but after changes in leadership, it took an increasingly hostile stance against it. In September 2015, JMA pledged allegiance to the al-Nusra Front.
Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, known by his nom de guerreAbu Omar al-Shishani or Omar al-Shishani, was a Chechen-Georgian jihadist who served as a commander for the Islamic State, and was previously a sergeant in the Georgian Army.
Kata'ib Ansar al-Sham is an armed Sunni Islamist rebel group active in the Syrian Civil War, mainly fighting against Syrian government forces.
Murat Akhmetovich Margoshvili, also known by his nom de guerre Muslim Abu Walid al Shishani, was the emir of the defunct Junud al-Sham group in Syria.
The Ajnad al-Sham was an independent Idlib and Hama-based rebel group active during the Syrian Civil War. The group is named after Ajnad al-Sham. It joined the Army of Conquest on 24 March 2015 and took part in the Second Battle of Idlib. On 29 March 2014, it announced that its military leader, Abu Abdullah Taoum, was killed during clashes around al-Fouaa.
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), also referred to as Tahrir al-Sham, is a Sunni Islamist political organisation and militia involved in the Syrian civil war. It was formed on 28 January 2017 as a merger between several armed groups: Jaysh al-Ahrar, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS), Ansar al-Din Front, Jaysh al-Sunna, Liwa al-Haqq, and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement. The unification process was held under the initiative of Abu Jaber Shaykh, an Islamist militant commander who had been the second emir of Ahrar al-Sham. HTS, along with other Syrian opposition groups, launched an offensive and toppled the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, and now controls most of the country.
Malhama Tactical is a private military contractor operating in the Syrian Civil War. The group, founded by a pseudonymous Uzbeki jihadist called Abu Rofiq, is closely allied with Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and its successor group Tahrir al-Sham. Its around dozen members occasionally participate in combat and run guns, but primarily provide training. The company has worked with Ahrar al-Sham and the Turkistan Islamic Party. According to the pro-government Al-Masdar News, its leader Abu Rofiq was killed in an airstrike on 7 February 2017, though his death has been questioned. The group stands in opposition to ISIS.
Abdulaziz al-Mahdali, known as Abu Usamah al-Maghrebi, was a Moroccan senior military commander of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Ajnad al-Kavkaz is a Chechen-led Salafi jihadist militant group in northwestern Syria, operating primarily in the mountainous and forested areas of Latakia Governorate. Although it was formed by former fighters of the Caucasus Emirate and was tentatively linked to the organization, AK operated autonomously from the beginning and later cut ties with the Caucasus Emirate. Though it had become "the largest of the Muslim factions from the former Soviet Union fighting in Syria" by September 2016, AK's activity dwindled in the following years. In 2022, the group's centre of operations shifted from Syria to Ukraine, as most AK militants had begun mobilizing to fight against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As of 2023, AK has largely been engaged in the battle of Bakhmut in Ukraine. The following year, members of the group were active in the November Battle of Aleppo, which precipitated the fall of the Assad regime the next month.
The northwestern Syria campaign was a large-scale military operation that initially started with an offensive conducted by ISIL forces on areas controlled by Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the northern Hama Governorate. Subsequently, the Syrian Armed Forces launched their own offensive against HTS and other rebel groups in the area. The campaign took place at the intersection of the provinces of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo.
The Syrian Salvation Government was a de facto unrecognized quasi-state in Syria formed in November 2017 by Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other Syrian opposition groups during the Syrian civil war. It controlled much of northwest Syria, and had an estimated population of over 4,000,000 in 2023. Its de facto capital was Idlib.
Katibat Junud al-Makhdi is a Syrian Civil War-era jihadist rebel group created by a merger of two smaller groups operating in Northern Syria, composed exclusively of Tatar and Bashkir fighters. The group's fighters hail mainly from Tatarstan and Bashkortostan as well as other areas in Russia with Tatar and Bashkir populations.
Ansar al-Tawhid is an armed Islamist group fighting in the Syrian Civil War. The group is made up of former Jund al-Aqsa members. It was allied with Al-Qaeda and part of the Hurras al-Din-led Rouse the Believers Operations Room until May 2020, when it announced its departure from the coalition.
The Idlib demilitarization was an agreement between Turkey and Russia to create a demilitarized zone (DMZ) in Syria's rebel-held Idlib Governorate, to be patrolled by military forces from Russia and Turkey. On 17 September 2018, the Russian president Vladimir Putin and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, reached an agreement to create a buffer zone in Idlib.
Foreign fighters in the Syrian civil war have come to Syria and joined all four sides in the war. In addition to Sunni foreign fighters arriving to defend the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or join the Syrian rebels, Shia fighters from several countries have joined pro-government militias in Syria, and leftists have become foreign fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces.
The Tahrir al-Sham–Junud al-Sham conflict was a series of violent clashes between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and several rival jihadist factions operating in the Idlib and Latakia governorates. The clashes began on 25 October 2021 after HTS demanded that the jihadist leader Muslim Abu Walid al Shishani should stand trial after they accused him and his group of sheltering members of the Islamic State.
Chechen mujahideen in Syria are ethnic Chechen members of Sunni Islamist armed groups. They are organized into military factions, and take part in the civil war in Syria to fight against the government of Bashar al-Assad on the side of the Syrian opposition and Tahrir al-Sham, also on the side of the Islamic State.
Rustam Magomedovich Azhiev also known by the pseudonym Abdul Hakim al-Shishani is commander-in-chief of the Chechen battalion OBON fighting on the Ukrainian side in the Russo-Ukrainian war. Azhiev is a veteran of the Second Russo-Chechen war and fought on the side of the opposition in the Syrian civil war. In the latter he was the leader of the rebel group Ajnad al-Kavkaz.
Giorgi Kushtanashvili, later known as Feyzullah Margoshvili and commonly known by his nom de guerreSalahuddin Shishani, was briefly the head of Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar and later headed Jaysh Usrah in Syria until his death in December 2017.
Ruslan Machalikashvili, commonly known by his nom de guerreSayfullakh Shishani, was a jihadist active in Syria from 2012 until his death in February 2014.
Ahrar al-Sham [6] 
Tahrir al-Sham [1] 
Group of the One and Only [8] 
Syria 
Iran 
Russia 
Syrian Resistance 
Hezbollah 
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant 
