The Levant Front (Arabic: الجبهة الشامية, romanized: al-Jabhat aš-Šāmiyya, Jabhat al-Shamiyah, also translated as the Sham Front or the Levantine Front)[20] is a Syrian rebel group based around Aleppo involved in the Syrian Civil War.[21] It was formed in December 2014.
The northern branch of the Levant Front is part of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army. The Netherlands' public prosecutor declared it to be a terrorist organisation in 2018, despite the Dutch government having earlier provided it with support.[22][23]
On 20 February 2015, the Levant Front successfully forced Syrian Army forces to retreat from rural towns in Aleppo;[28] during the clashes group claimed to have killed 300 Syrian soldiers and captured 110.[29] During the same month, the group signed an agreement with the YPG and installed Sharia courts in Sheikh Maqsood and Afrin.[30]
Dissolution and reestablishment in 2015
Mudar al-Najjar, chief of staff of the Levant Front until his resignation on 11 October 2015.[31]
On 18 April 2015, the Levant Front announced its dissolution as an alliance, however it stated that the member factions would continue to coordinate with each other militarily. Reasons behind the split were believed to include a lack of coordination between the groups and increasing defections of its members to other factions.[32][33] Following its end as a single unified group, it continued to act as a joint operations room.[34]
On 26 April 2015, along with other major Aleppo based groups, the Levant Front established the Fatah Halab joint operations room.[13][35]
Between May and June 2015, the TrotskyistLeon Sedov Brigade joined the Levant Front. In June 2016, it largely separated from the group, before completely leaving in October 2016.[36]
The group announced its reactivation on 18 June. Its new leader is Abu Amr, who was an Ahrar ash-Sham commander.[1][2] On 29 June, the Levant Front released their charter.[37]
Since its reactivation on 18 June, the Levant Front operates as a unified group with former members acting as independent groups. Various groups have joined and left the group since its reactivation, such as Abu Amara Battalions and the Thuwar al-Sham Battalions.[38]
On 10 February 2016, the SDF successfully drove out the Levant Front from the Menagh Military Airbase. After days of fierce clashes, the YPG and the Army of Revolutionaries captured a series of villages before reaching and capturing the airbase and the town of Menagh from the Levant Front. According to sources quoted by Reuters, the SDF were supported by Russian airstrikes. The SDF initiated this offensive following the recent Syrian Army offensive on rebel forces in Aleppo supported by Russian airstrikes. The SDF advanced from the Afrin Canton, the westernmost part of Rojava, which had been attacked multiple times by Islamist groups such as the al-Nusra Front. The aim was to prevent attacks on Afrin canton and close the Turkish border to these various Islamist groups.[40][41][42]
On 24 August 2016, Turkey launched a large-scale military campaign in the northern Aleppo Governorate against both ISIL and the SDF. The Levant Front's northern branch was one of the Syrian National Army factions (SNA) that participated in the operation, which captured Jarabulus, al-Bab, and dozens of other towns in northern Aleppo.[4]
On 24 January 2017, the al-Nusra Front backed by Nour al-Din al-Zenki attacked the Army of Mujahideen and the Levant Front west of Aleppo, defeating both. The former two groups then merged with several other Islamist factions and declared the formation of Tahrir al-Sham.[43] The Levant Front's western Aleppo branch and several other former Levant Front groups, such as the Army of Mujahideen and the Fastaqim Union, joined Ahrar al-Sham.[citation needed]
In July 2017, the Levant Front's northern branch attacked its former ally and co-SNA group, the Descendants of Saladin Brigade, kidnapping its leader and raiding its bases with other SNA units. This followed the Descendants of Saladin Brigade's declaration that it would not take part in a planned Turkish-led offensive against Afrin Canton, which is ruled by the secular, Kurdish-dominated PYD. The Levant Front reportedly justified this operation by claiming that the Descendants of Saladin Brigade's leader Mahmoud Khallo was an al-Qaeda member and allied to the PYD; according to Khallo, the Levant Front tortured him until he was handed over to the Turkish security forces.[44]
Foreign support
The government of the Netherlands provided materials to the Levant Front as part of a program of non-lethal assistance for 22 rebel groups in Syria from 2015 to 2018. In September 2018, the Dutch public prosecution department declared the Levant Front to be a "criminal organisation of terrorist intent", describing it as a "salafist and jihadistic" group that "strives for the setting up of the caliphate".[22][23]
In an interview an official from the group stated that the Levant Front takes ISIL members and their families captive and will sell them to foreign governments and intelligence agencies for revenue, among the nations listed included the United States and United Arab Emirates, rewards for captured ISIL members are over 10 million USD and the transactions are arranged by brokers and Turkish officials.[45]
^"OCTOBER 12–18, 2015". Aleppo Weekly. Shattuck Center on Conflict, Negotiation and Recovery, Central European University. Recent protests in and near Aleppo, including ones in the eastern part of the city and Tall Refaat, north of Aleppo on the main road to Turkey, contributed to the resignation of Deputy Levant Front leader Mudar Najjar. Najjar wrote in his October 11 resignation that he would "continue the fight along with jihadis and revolutionaries in the struggle for justice and what's good for Syria and Syrians."
Mare' Operations Room[16]
Hawar Kilis Operations Room
Turkey
Sham Legion
Syrian Turkmen Brigades (sometimes)
Other FSA groups in northern Aleppo
Syria
Syrian Democratic Forces
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant[18]
Tahrir al-Sham
Liwa Ahfad Saladin
Hazzm Movement (March 2015)
