Ahrar Al-Sham Reshapes Leadership

The Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement announced the formation of a new leadership council consisting of 12 leaders, after a dispute that rocked the movement over the past months.

The General Commander of the movement, Amer Al-Sheikh, announced the formation of a new leadership council, based on the agreement between the conflicting parties within the movement.

The new council included Major Hussein al-Ubaid, nicknamed “Abu Suhaib,” Abu Omar al-Sahel, and Lieutenant Colonel Abu al-Mundhir al-Hamwi, who are affiliated with the former leader of the movement, Hassan Soufan, according to what a source in the movement told Al-Souria Net.

The council also included Abu Bakr Farooq, Abu Salman al-Hamwi, Ahmad al-Rifai (Sheikh Abu Ubaidah), Alaa Joudi (Abu Omar al-Tawbah), Abu Hassan al-Hamwi and Abu al-Khair al-Shami, Walid Suleiman (Abu Hamza) and Ahmad al-Dalati (Abu Muhammad al-Shami), affiliated with the new leadership.

The source explained that Abu al-Mundhir and Abu Suhaib were imposed by the Turkish side.

Ahrar al-Sham, which is affiliated with the National Liberation Front, witnessed an internal rebellion in October and an attempted coup led by the military wing, led by “Abu al-Mundhir” and the former commander, “Hassan Soufan”, against the leadership represented by the Commander-in-Chief, Jaber Ali Basha.

The agreement also provided for Abu Ubaida Daraa to assume the duties of leading the military wing, in addition to overseeing the formation of a new leadership council in the college in Ahrar al-Sham.

The total number of the movement’s fighters is about 4,500 now.

Activists circulated on social media on Thursday a video recording that shows the assassination of two members of the pro-Turkey “Sultan Murat” division, in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, reportedly at the hands of fighters from Ahrar al-Sham.

The circulating video provoked angry reactions to the state of security chaos in those areas, especially since the operation took place in broad daylight and in front of bystanders, and that the gunmen did not hide their faces.