Army of Conquest

Army of Conquest
جيش الفتح Participant in the Syrian Civil War
Active	24 March 2015 – present
Ideology	Sunni Islamism
Groups	Ahrar ash-Sham Al-Nusra Front Liwa al-Haqq Jaysh al-Sunna Ajnad al-Sham Imam Bukhari Jamaat Turkistan Islamic Party Jaysh al-Nasr (alleged)
Headquarters	Idlib,Syria
Area of operations	Syria
Strength	10,000+ fighters (in Idlib)
Allies	Saudi Arabia Turkey Qatar Jaish al-Haramoun Battle of Victory Saraya Ahl al-Sham Jund al-Malahm Northern Homs Countryside Operations Room
Opponents	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Hezbollah Syrian Armed Forces Syrian Army Syrian Air Force National Defence Force Syrian Democratic Forces
Battles and wars	Syrian Civil War 2015 Idlib offensive Second Battle of Idlib 2015 Northwestern Syria offensive Qalamoun offensive (May 2015) Quneitra offensive (2015) Aleppo offensive (May 2016)
Website	<strong%20class= "error"><span%20class="scribunto-error"%20id="mw-scribunto-error-1">Lua%20error%20in%20Module:Wd%20at%20line%20405:%20invalid%20escape%20sequence%20near%20'"^'. http://<strong%20class="error"><span%20class="scribunto-error"%20id="mw-scribunto-error-1">Lua%20error%20in%20Module:Wd%20at%20line%20405:%20invalid%20escape%20sequence%20near%20'"^'.

The Army of Conquest (Arabic: جيش الفتح‎‎) or Jaish al-Fatah, abbreviated JaF, is a joint operations room of Islamist Syrian rebel factions participating in the Syrian Civil War.

The alliance was formed in March 2015 by Islamist rebel factions mainly active in the Idlib Governorate, with some factions active in the Hama and Latakia Governorates. In the course of the following months, it seized most of Idlib province. It is actively supported by Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

In an October 2015 publication, the Washington D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War considered Jaish al-Fatah as one of the "powerbrokers" in Idlib, Hama, Daraa and Quneitra provinces, though not in Damascus province, being primarily "anti-regime" and "anti-Hezbollah" but not necessarily "anti-ISIS".

Participants

At its founding, Jaish al-Fatah contained seven members, three of them — al-Nusra, Ahrar ash-Sham, and Jund al-Aqsa are directly connected to Al-Qaeda or have a similar ideology. With Ahrar ash-Sham being the largest group, al-Nusra and Ahrar ash-Sham together were reported to represent 90 percent of the troops. Another prominent Islamist faction in the operations room was the Muslim Brotherhood of Syria-linked Sham Legion (Faylaq Al-Sham). Jaish al-Fatah collaborated with more moderate Free Syrian Army factions such as Knights of Justice Brigade.

The coalition's initial success has been attributed to its strong coherence, with the name of individual factions being forbidden when the group conducts joint operations.

List of members

• Ahrar ash-Sham
• al-Nusra Front
• Liwa al-Haqq
• Jaysh al-Sunna (It's Hama branch merged with Ahrar ash-Sham)
• Ajnad al-Sham
• Imam Bukhari Jamaat
• Sham Legion
• Turkistan Islamic Party
• Jund al-Aqsa (former member)

History

Formation

Jaish al-Fatah declared its formation on 24 March 2015. On the same day, a pro-opposition source claimed that about fifty Syrian government soldiers defected to the new operations room. The Army of Conquest captured Idlib City on 28 March 2015. In the following months, they spearheaded an offensive that drove out government forces from almost all of Idlib Governorate. Following this success, additional branches of the Army of Conquest were established in other parts of Syria.

The Army of Conquest coalition was partially modelled upon the success of the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army, and in turn newer coalitions, like the Battle of Victory, were modelled on the Army of Conquest.

Expansion to other parts of Syria

In early May 2015, the Army of Conquest formed a new branch in Western Qalamoun, called Jaish al-Fatah al-Qalamoun. On 1 October 2015, after defeats by pro-Assad forces, Jaish al-Fatah al-Qalamoun was replaced by an independent faction called Saraya Ahl al-Sham, which aims to unite all rebel factions in Western Qalamoun.

Also in June, the al-Nusra Front issued a statement calling on the opposition in the Eastern Ghouta area of Damascus to form a similar coalition, but this call was rejected by the Unified Military Command of Eastern Ghouta, a grouping which includes the most prominent factions in the area.

In October 2015 Army of Conquest members al-Nusra Front and Ahrar ash-Sham (also a member of the Unified Military Command of Eastern Ghouta), along with other groups formed Jund al-Malahm, an operations room in the Eastern Ghouta area of Damascus, in direct competition with the Unified Military Command of Eastern Ghouta operations room. Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union, which is another military council member also joined this new operations room.

Restructuring

On 23 October 2015, Jund al-Aqsa announced a split from Jaysh al-Fatah, reportedly due to disagreements with Ahrar al-Sham over the application of Islamic law in areas under their control. Following this development, there were unconfirmed reports that al-Nusra Front, in an act of solidarity with Jund al-Aqsa, left the coalition, or that Jund al-Aqsa would be rejoining Jaysh al-Fateh. In January 2016, the Sham Legion announced it was leaving the group, ostensibly to redeploy it's forces to Aleppo, but also due to tensions with Jund al-Aqsa.

In May 2016, the Army of Conquest announced it was restructuring, ending ties with Jund al-Aqsa while readmitting the Sham Legion. It was also joined by the Turkistan Islamic Party, a Jihadist group composed of Uyghurs from western China.

Battles

Date	Battle	Place	Against	Result
24–28 March 2015	Second Battle of Idlib	Idlib	Syria	Victory
23–25 April 2015	Battle of Jisr al-Shughur	Jisr al-Shughur	Syria	Victory
4 May–21 June 2015	Qalamoun offensive	Qalamun	Hezbollah Syria	Defeat
18 May 2015	Battle of Al-Mastumah	Al-Mastumah	Syria	Victory
28 May 2015	Battle of Ariha	Ariha	Syria	Victory
16–26 June 2015	Quneitra offensive (2015)	Quneitra Governorate	Syria	Defeat
25 June–10 July 2015	Daraa offensive (June–July 2015)	Daraa Governorate	Syria	Defeat
28 July–28 August 2015	Al-Ghab Offensive	Idlib Governorate	Syria	Victory
28 March 2015–Ongoing	Siege of Al-Fu'ah and Kafarya	Idlib Governorate	Syria	Ongoing
March – 9 September 2015	Siege of Abu al-Duhur Airbase	Idlib Governorate	Syria	Victory
7 October– 10 November 2015	Northwestern Syria offensive (October–November 2015)	Hama Governorate	Syria	Indecisive
3 May 2016–present	Aleppo offensive (May 2016)	Aleppo Governorate	Syria	Victory

See also

• List of armed groups in the Syrian Civil War

References

1. REDIRECT Template:Syrian civil war

• http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/05/jaysh-al-fath-coalition-launches-new-offensive-in-aleppo-province.php
• http://syriadirect.org/news/victory-army-commander-on-restructuring-infighting-led-to-%E2%80%98breakdown-of-our-operational-effectiveness%E2%80%99/
• "Syrian Insurgent gains expose Assad Weaknesses" AP sourced article in The New York Times. "Muayad Zurayk, an activist in Idlib city, attributed the opposition's success in the province to the joint operations room [...] "All operations stemming from the coordinated command center are done in the name of Jaish al-Fatah," he said, referring to the unified command. "It is forbidden to mention the name of any faction.""