Kurdish Islamic Front

The Kurdish Islamic Front (KIF) was founded by Islamic activist Sheikh Abu Abdullah al-Kurdi and the Syrian militant group Ahrar al-Sham in 2013. The KIF joined the Islamic Front, an alliance of Syrian opposition forces operating in the Syrian civil war. The KIF allegedly joined the Islamic Front to combat the impression that the Islamic Front's conflict with the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) was ethnically motivated. The KIF was the Islamic Front’s smallest member, and it began targeting the Assad Regime, the Islamic State, and the YPG as part of the Islamic Front’s offensives in early-2014 in northern Syria. The KIF fought alongside Ahrar al-Sham and adopted its ideologies and military goals. The group officially merged with Ahrar al-Sham after the Islamic Front fragmented in mid-2014.