The Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union

The Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union is a group comprised of five Damascus-based opposition brigades (The al-Habib al-Mustafa Brigades, The Ajnad al-Islam Gathering, The Sahaba Brigades and Battalions, The Shabab al-Houda Battalions, and The Der al-Isima Brigade) that was formed in formed in February 2014. The group is lead by Abu Mohammed al-Fateh, the former leader of The Shabab al-Houda Batallions, and claimed that it had 15,000 fighters in 2014. The Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union fights the Islamic State and the Assad Regime around the Damascus governorate, and is part of an opposition campaign to retain control of the Darayya suburb in the city of Damascus. In February 2016, the group’s fighters in East Ghouta defected and joined Faylaq al-Rahman, a Damascus based group supported by former Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, amid rising tension with Jaysh al-Islam.