Primary Sources:
United Media Office of Homs — About the Issue of Jabhat al-Nusrah
Secondary Source:
Major salafi faction criticizes Jabhat al-Nosra by Aron Lund
Road to the Caliphate: April 18-May 4, 2013
Category: Uncategorized
Road to the Caliphate: April 11, 2013
Primary Sources:
Secondary Sources:
Hassan Hassan: Pouring in: Responses from Syrian Islamist Rebels about Al Qaeda Merger
Designations and Sanctions Related to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Its Predecessor Groups
In light of the recent booklet I wrote on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, its transformation, and the question of its terrorism designation, I thought it would be worthwhile as a follow-up to share what the group, its predecessors, and individuals in it, or used to be in it, are currently designated/sanctioned for. From an organizational perspective, as one can see, it’s more complicated than being only taken off of the State Department’s FTO list. There’s also the Treasury Department’s SDGT list, plus the UN’s sanction’s list, which the US is legally bound to follow. Therefore, even if hypothetically Washington took the step to remove HTS from both its State and Treasury lists, legally the US would still have to follow the UN list, which we know HTS will not be removed from since Russia is on the Security Council. Plus, then there are the individuals that are designated separately, too.
Either way, I hope the below details are useful. And it should be noted that the descriptions related to the reasons why individuals are listed is from the original press release date of when they were designated. Thus, the information presented as such could be irrelevant today to their current circumstances or flat out wrong. That’s why at the bottom of each individual I noted their current status. Though some, I don’t know where or what they are up to now. So if anyone wants to fill in the ‘unknown’ gaps feel free to reach out.
As An Organization:
The State Department’s Foreign Terrorism Organization List
Jabhat al-Nusrah added on December 11, 2012 as an alias of al-Qaeda in Iraq
Jabhat Fatah al-Sham added on November 10, 2016 as an alias of Jabhat al-Nusrah
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham added on May 31, 2018 as an alias of Jabhat al-Nusrah
The Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Global Terrorists List
Jabhat al-Nusrah added on December 11, 2012 as an alias of al-Qaeda in Iraq
Jabhat Fatah al-Sham added on November 10, 2016 as an alias of Jabhat al-Nusrah
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham added on May 31, 2018 as an alias of Jabhat al-Nusrah
The State Department’s Entities of Particular Concern (EPC) – non-state actors that have engaged in particularly severe violations of religious freedom
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham added on December 7, 2020
United Nations Sanctions List
Jabhat al-Nusrah added on May 30, 2013 as an alias of al-Qaeda in Iraq
Jabhat Fatah al-Sham added on June 7, 2017 as an alias of Jabhat al-Nusrah
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham added on June 5, 2018 as an alias of Jabhat al-Nusrah
Individuals:
Maysar Ali Musa Abdallah al-Juburi (Abu Mariya al-Qahtani)
Maysar Ali Musa Abdallah al-Juburi (al-Juburi) moved from Mosul, Iraq to Syria in late 2011 to exploit Syria’s more permissive security environment with the objectives of transferring al-Qa’ida’s ideology to Syria and forming likeminded terrorist groups. As of mid 2012, al-Juburi became the religious and military commander for al-Nusrah Front in eastern Syria and also operated a training camp for the network. Al-Juburi is suspected of participating in a 2004 attack against a Coalition Forces checkpoint in Ninawa Province, Iraq.
Status: Senior Leader in HTS
Anas Hasan Khattab
As of mid 2012, Anas Hasan Khattab (Khattab) was involved with the formation of al-Nusrah Front for AQI. He communicated periodically with AQI leadership to receive financial and material assistance and helped facilitate funding and weapons for al-Nusrah Front. Khattab works closely with al-Qa’ida-linked facilitators to provide logistical support to al-Nusrah Front.
Status: Senior Leader in HTS
Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani
Al-Jawlani is considered the leader of al-Nusrah. He has stated in videos that his ultimate goal is the overthrow of the Syrian regime and the institution of Islamist shari’a law throughout the country. Al-Jawlani was specifically tasked by al-Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI) to carry out these objectives. Under al-Jawlani’s leadership, al-Nusrah Front has carried out multiple suicide attacks throughout Syria. These attacks have been primarily in Damascus but the group has targeted other areas of the country as well. Many of these attacks have killed innocent Syrian civilians. Al-Nusrah’s claimed operations since the group’s December 2012 designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization have included a January 26, 2013 suicide attack on a military base in Syria’s Quneitra Province, near the Golan Heights; a February 15, 2013 statement claiming responsibility for early February suicide attacks on regime targets in Damascus and the nearby town of al-Shadadi; and a March 20, 2013 statement claiming responsibility for two separate suicide attacks that targeted a bridge and bunker near the city of Homs on March 6, 2013.
Although al-Nusrah Front was formed by AQI in late 2011 as a front for AQI’s activities in Syria, recently al-Jawlani publicly pledged allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qa’ida’s leader.
Status: Leader of HTS
Usamah Amin al-Shihabi
Al-Shihabi is an associate of FAI, a Lebanese-based militant group formed in 2006, whose ultimate goal is the institution of Islamist sharia law in the Palestinian refugee camps and the destruction of Israel, and at times has played a key leadership role in the organization. He has also recently been appointed head of Syria-based al-Nusrah Front’s Palestinian wing in Lebanon.
Status: Allegedly based in Lebanon
Said Arif
Syria-based Algerian national Said Arif is wanted for arrest in France, and is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice. In October 2013, Arif fled house arrest in France, traveled to Syria, and joined the terrorist group al-Nusrah Front.
Arif is an Algerian army officer deserter, who traveled to Afghanistan in the 1990s, where he trained in al-Qa’ida camps with weapons and explosives. Arif is a long-time terrorist who was a suspect in the al-Qa’ida December 2000 plot to bomb the Strasbourg Christmas market.
In 2003, Arif was arrested and was put on trial in France with 25 others as part of the “Chechen Network.” The Chechen Network was accused of plotting to blow up the Eiffel Tower and conducting chemical attacks and attacks on malls and police stations in France. In 2006, Arif was convicted and sentenced for his role in these planned attacks. After his arrest, Arif publicly declared that al-Qa’ida was planning to attack an American military base in Spain using chemical weapons.
Status: Allegedly killed in late May 2015 as a leader of Jund al-Aqsa
Abdul Mohsen Abdullah Ibrahim al-Sharikh
Al-Sharikh is a senior ANF leader and al-Qaida facilitator based in Syria. He moved to Syria in the spring of 2013 with other al-Qaida fighters and joined ANF, later becoming one of its top strategists. In this role, al-Sharikh has used social media posts to demonstrate his aspiration to target Americans and U.S. interests. He is included on Saudi Arabia’s list of most wanted terrorists.
Prior to his work in Syria with ANF, al-Sharikh served in early 2013 as chief of al-Qaida’s Iran-based extremist and financial facilitation network before the return of already designated al-Qaida facilitator Yasin al-Suri to the position. Al-Sharikh has also previously served al-Qaida as a key financial facilitator in Pakistan.
Status: Killed in Airstrike on October 18, 2015
Hamid Hamad Hamid Al-‘Ali
Al-‘Ali has raised tens of thousands of dollars to help ANF purchase weapons and supplies as well as directed donors in Kuwait to send financial and material support to the terrorist organization. Al-‘A1i has traveled to Syria to deliver funds to ANF and used students in Kuwait to courier funds to the group. Al-‘Ali has also facilitated the travel to Syria of individuals wishing to fight for ANF and provided these individuals with money to deliver to the terrorist organization. Al-‘A1i has referred to himself as an “al-Qaida commando” and has raised money for ANF and al-Qaida.
Status: Allegedly based in Kuwait
Nusret Imamovic
A Bosnian terrorist leader operating in Syria. After his arrival, Imamovic actively supported violent extremism, and is now believed to be fighting with al-Nusrah Front.
Status: Allegedly based in Idlib
Sa’d bin Sa’d Muhammad Shariyan al-Ka’bi
As of early 2014, al-Ka’bi reported that he had set up donation campaigns in Qatar to aid with fundraising in response to a request from an ANF associate for money to purchase both weapons and food. In that same time period, an ANF official requested that al-Ka’bi act as an intermediary for collecting a ransom for a hostage being held by ANF, and al-Ka’bi worked to facilitate a ransom payment in exchange for the release of a hostage held by ANF.
In 2013, al-Ka’bi worked closely with U.S.- and UN-designated Kuwaiti ANF fundraiser Hamid Hamad Hamid al-‘Ali and received funding from him to support ANF. Since at least late 2012, al-Ka’bi has provided support to ANF in Syria.
Status: Allegedly based in Qatar
Abdullah Hadi ‘Abd al-Rahman Fayhan Sharban al-‘Anizi
Treasury designated Kuwait-based Abdullah Hadi ‘Abd al-Rahman Fayhan Sharban al-‘Anizi (al-‘Anizi) for providing financial, material, or technological support for, or financial or other services to or in support of, al-Qaida in Afghanistan and al-Nusrah Front in Syria between late 2013 and late 2015.
Al-‘Anizi sent money for al-Qaida in early 2015. In mid-2014, al-‘Anizi provided funding to support the movement of al-Qaida members from Pakistan. In late 2013, he made plans to solicit funds from donors to help move al-Qaida extremists from Pakistan to Syria. As of 2010, al-‘Anizi served as a communications conduit for al-Qaida senior leadership.
In 2014, al-‘Anizi obtained money to support al-Nusrah Front and made arrangements to send funding to al-Nusrah Front in Syria.
Status: Allegedly based in Hawali, Kuwait
Abd al-Muhsin Zabin Mutib Naif al-Mutayri
Treasury designated Kuwait-based Abd al-Muhsin Zabin Mutib Naif al-Mutayri (al-Mutayri) for providing financial, material, or technological support for, and financial or other services to or in support of, al-Nusrah Front.
As of 2015, al-Mutayri was an al-Nusrah Front supporter in Kuwait who was collecting money for the group from other Gulf-based facilitators. As of 2013, al-Mutayri worked with al-Nusrah Front facilitators to collect and deliver funds to the organization. Between 2012 and 2013, he also provided funds to individuals traveling to join al-Nusrah Front in Syria. Since 2012, al-Mutayri has provided funds to al-Nusrah Front, used charities to raise money for the terrorist organization, and worked with al-Nusrah Front facilitators to collect money to support the organization’s fighters in Syria.
Status: Allegedly based in Kuwait
Mostafa Mahamed (Abu Sulayman al-Muhajir)
Treasury designated Syria-based Mostafa Mahamed (Mahamed) for acting for or on behalf of and providing financial support to al-Nusrah Front.
Mahamed occupies a senior leadership position in al-Nusrah Front and was subjected to targeted economic sanctions by his home country of Australia in August 2015. Mahamed has recruited Australians to fight for al-Nusrah Front and has solicited funds to finance al-Nusrah Front’s terrorist activities.
Status: Based in Idlib, Not a Member of HTS
Omar Diaby
Omar Diaby leads a group of French foreign terrorist fighters in Syria. The group of approximately 50 fighters has participated in terrorist operations alongside the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) group, al-Nusrah Front. Although assumed killed in August 2015, Diaby, re-emerged in May 2016, claiming his death was a ploy to allow him to travel to Turkey for an operation. Diaby came to the attention of French intelligence due to his involvement with a French extremist group and his online propaganda video series. Diaby’s videos have been credited as the chief reason behind why so many French nationals have joined militant groups in Syria and Iraq.
Status: Based in Idlib, Not a Member of HTS
Abdallah Muhammad Bin-Sulayman al-Muhaysini
Abdallah Muhammad Bin-Sulayman al-Muhaysini was designated for acting for or on behalf of, and providing support and services to or in support of, al-Nusrah Front.
As of late 2015, al-Muhaysini was an accepted member of al-Nusrah Front’s inner leadership circle. As of July 2015, Abdallah al-Muhaysini served as al-Nusrah Front’s religious advisor and represented al-Nusrah Front in an Idlib Province, Syria, military operations room. He has been involved in recruiting fighters to join al-Nusrah Front and helping to form a new al-Nusrah Front “state” in northern Syria. In April 2016, Muhaysini launched a campaign to recruit 3,000 child and teenage soldiers across northern Syria for al-Nusrah Front.
Al-Muhaysini has played a crucial role in providing financial aid to al-Nusrah Front. Between 2013 and 2015, al-Muhaysini raised millions of dollars to support al-Nusrah Front governance efforts in Idlib Province, Syria. As of early October 2015, al-Muhaysini had set up institutions providing financial aid to terrorist groups, including a highly successful campaign that he claimed had secured $5 million in donations to arm fighters.
Status: Based in Idlib, Not a Member of HTS
Jamal Husayn Zayniyah
Jamal Husayn Zayniyah was designated for acting for or on behalf of al-Nusrah Front.
As of late 2015, Zayniyah was al-Nusrah Front’s emir of al-Qalamun, Syria and Lebanon. As al-Nusrah Front’s emir of al-Qalamun, Zayniyah was responsible for planning operations in al-Qalamun and Lebanon. Zayniyah was also responsible for al-Nusrah Front’s abduction of a group of Christian nuns in Ma’alula, Damascus Province, Syria. As of mid-2015, Zayniyah had established himself as an intermediary for the negotiations over hostages, including 16 Lebanese soldiers, held by al-Nusrah Front.
Status: Unknown
Abdul Jashari (Shaykh Abu Qatada al-Albani)
Abdul Jashari was designated for acting for or on behalf of al-Nusrah Front.
Jashari is a Syria-based al-Nusrah Front military advisor who has also helped to raise funds for the families of al-Nusrah Front fighters. During the summer of 2015, Jashari led al-Nusrah Front military operations in northern Syria. Previously, during the summer of 2014, al-Nusrah Front emir and SDGT Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani appointed Jashari as leader of al-Nusrah Front’s military operations.
Status: Military Leader in HTS
Ashraf Ahmad Fari al-Allak
Ashraf Ahmad Fari al-Allak was designated for acting for or on behalf of al-Nusrah Front.
As of April 2016, al-Allak was an al-Nusrah Front military commander in Dara Province, Syria. He has provided support to al-Nusrah Front military operations in southern Syria by mobilizing al-Nusrah Front fighters and weapons. He has also served as the al-Nusrah Front emir of Saraya, Syria and Dara City, Syria.
Status: Unknown
Iyad Nazmi Salih Khalil (Abu Julaybib al-Urduni)
Khalil was designated for acting for or on behalf of ANF.
As of early 2016, Khalil was ANF’s third highest-ranking official and appointed as the group’s emir for Syria’s coastal area by ANF emir and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) Abu-Muhammad al-Jawlani (al-Jawlani). As a senior ANF official, Khalil took part in discussions among the group’s senior leadership regarding ANF’s overall strategy and the feasibility of establishing an emirate in Idlib, Syria.
For at least two years prior to being appointed emir for Syria’s coastal area, Khalil served as ANF emir of Dar’a, Syria. Under his leadership, he empowered ANF’s security and intelligence operatives responsible for assassinations, ran prisons notorious for torture, and encouraged the looting of vehicles and possessions of Free Syrian Army members.
Khalil was originally sent to Syria with six other individuals in 2011 by former al-Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI) official and current ISIS leader and SDGT Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to establish what would eventually become ANF. Prior to his involvement with ANF, Khalil joined AQI in the mid-2000s, and remained close to AQI’s former head Abu-Musa’b al-Zarqawi until Zarqawi’s death in 2006.
Status: Killed in Airstrike on December 29, 2018
Bassam Ahmad al-Hasri
Al-Hasri was designated for acting for or on behalf of ANF.
As of June 2016, al-Hasri served as ANF’s emir of Dar’a, a position he took over from Khalil starting in December 2015 at the behest of al-Jawlani. As emir of Dar’a, al-Hasri oversaw the group’s military operations in southern Syria. Previously, al-Hasri served as a religious advisor for ANF. Al-Hasri has longstanding ties to al-Qa’ida, and was released in 2011 by Syrian authorities after spending six years in prison for his association with the group.
Status: Unknown
Muhammad Hadi al-`Anizi
Muhammad Hadi al-`Anizi was designated for providing support and services to ANF and AQ.
Al-`Anizi, a terrorist facilitator and financier based in Kuwait, has provided extensive material and financial support to ANF since at least 2014. In late 2015, al-`Anizi solicited donations for ANF fighters in Syria and sent approximately $20,000 to an ANF member in Syria. In late 2014, al-`Anizi worked with an ANF associate to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to ANF members in Syria.
Al-`Anizi has also provided extensive material and financial support to AQ since at least 2007. In late 2015, al-`Anizi sought assistance from AQ financier and U.S.- and UN-designated terrorist Sa’d al-Ka’bi to facilitate the travel of AQ-associated individuals. In mid- to late-2014, al-`Anizi obtained passports for an AQ associate in Syria, provided medical supplies to an injured Syria-based AQ associate, and was appointed as AQ’s representative in Syria by AQ senior leadership. Prior to 2014, al-`Anizi provided financial support to his brother, AQ facilitator and SDGT Abdullah al-`Anizi, who used the money to fund terrorist operations.
Status: Allegedly based in Kuwait
Tarek Sakr
Tarek Sakr is a Syrian-born Canadian citizen who has conducted sniper training in Syria and periodically travels to Turkey. Sakr has been linked to the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and SDGT al-Nusrah Front, al-Qa’ida’s affiliate in Syria.
Status: Unknown
Farrukh Furkatovitch Fayzimatov (Faruq al-Shami)
Fayzimatov utilizes social media to post propaganda, recruit new members, and solicit donations for HTS. Fayzimatov organized community fundraising campaigns to purchase equipment for the benefit of HTS, including motorbikes.
Status: Based in Idlib
Omar Alsheak (Abu Ahmed Zakour)
Omar Alsheak, more commonly known as Abu Ahmed Zakour, has been a leader or official of HTS and its predecessor terrorist group al-Nusrah Front in various roles since at least 2003. Omar Alsheak continues to occupy a position of leadership in HTS as a Shura council member, emir of the Aleppo army, and supervisor of the HTS economic portfolio abroad under the umbrella of the financial arm of HTS. As of March 2022, Omar Alsheak served as the HTS security department emir, and as of February 2019, as the financial leader of HTS’s predecessor terrorist group, al-Nusrah Front. As of October 2022, Omar Alsheak functioned as the General Relations Office chief and received situational updates from HTS military commanders.
Status: Senior leader within HTS
Rewards for Justice:
Rewards for Justice is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information on Muhammad al-Jawlani, also known as Abu Muhammad al-Golani and Muhammad al-Julani. Al-Jawlani leads the al-Nusrah Front (ANF), al-Qa’ida’s (AQ) affiliate in Syria. In January 2017, ANF merged with several other hardline opposition groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). While al-Jawlani is not the leader of HTS, he remains the leader of AQ-affiliated ANF, which is at the core of HTS.
Under al-Jawlani’s leadership, ANF has carried out multiple terrorist attacks throughout Syria, often targeting civilians. In April 2015, ANF reportedly kidnapped, and later released, approximately 300 Kurdish civilians from a checkpoint in Syria. In June 2015, ANF claimed responsibility for the massacre of 20 residents in the Druze village of Qalb Lawzeh in Idlib province, Syria.
In April 2013, al-Jawlani pledged allegiance to AQ and its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. In July 2016, al-Jawlani praised AQ and al-Zawahiri in an online video and claimed the ANF was changing its name to Jabhat Fath Al Sham (“Conquest of the Levant Front”).
Status: Leader of HTS
Round-up of recent Syrian war and jihadi-related plots/prosecutions in Europe
Netherlands:
On July 2, a Dutch prosecutor called for a 27-year prosecution for a Syrian individual named Ahmad al K. He allegedly went by Abu Khuder and was a commander in Jabhat al-Nusrah. According to the prosecution, in 2012, Ahmad was involved in the execution of a lieutenant colonel in the Syrian regime’s Air Force on the bank of the Euphrates river. Ahmad then sought asylum in the Netherlands in 2013. He would eventually be arrested in Kapelle in Zeeland in 2019 after video proof of the war crime was unearthed.
Italy:
On July 5, four individuals were arrested in Andria region of Italy for the “‘crime of financing conduct for terrorist purposes’, as they disbursed through a ‘money transfer’ center in Andria money intended to support the activities of anti-government fighting organizations in Syria and, specifically, aimed at financing jihadists belonging to and affiliated with the self-proclaimed Islamic State.” This was done in coordination with a French judicial authority that “ascertained that two subjects residing in Andria, on 10.01.2017, had completed two money transfers (both €950.00), which took place just 3 minutes within one another to a Lebanese citizen, considered a ‘collector’ of money available to the so-called “foreign terrorist fighters”.
On July 11, “an internationally sought after jihadist fighter was arrested in the province of Salerno.” An international alert about this individual was released by the Moroccan Attorney General at the Court of Appeal of Rabat on June 28. He allegedly went to “Syria in 2012 to participate in the conflict in ranks of Jabhat al-Nusrah and later of the Islamic State, in which he would have held the position of military leader.” He apparently went by the kunya Abi Al-Barae according to news reports.
United Kingdom:
On July 6, Hisham Chaudhary was “was found guilty of seven terrorism offences, including membership of a proscribed organisation, entering into terrorist funding arrangements and disseminating terrorist publications.” Chaudhary allegedly, “created videos to spread the ideology of IS and to call others to arms… He even sought assistance to protect the legacy of his videos, to prevent them from being deleted or taken down.” He also was allegedly involved in helping finance the release of IS women based in the al-Hawl camp, using Bitcoin in particular.
Syrian Jihadism 
