| Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades | |
| Native Name: | ألوية أحفاد الرسول |
| Native Name Lang: | ar |
| War: | Syrian civil war |
| Active: | July 2012–early 2014 (defunct) |
| Ideology: | Sunni Islamism[1]
Syrian nationalism (factions)Secularism (factions) |
| Leaders: |
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| Area: | Syria |
| Size: | 7,000–9,000[8] |
| Partof: | Euphrates Islamic Liberation Front (2014)[9] Supreme Military Council (2012–14) Free Syrian Army (2012) |
| Successor: |
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| Allies: |  Qatar France (Allegedly)Kurdish Islamic Front (formerly) Ahrar ash-Sham[10] Al-Nusra Front[11] (until August 2013) Ansar al-Islam[12] People's Protection Units (occasionally)[13] |
| Opponents: | (since August 2013) Al-Nusra Front (since August 2013) Ahrar al-Sham (2013) People's Protection Units (2012–14) |
| Battles: | Syrian civil war |
The Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades (Arabic: ألوية أحفاد الرسول Al-wiat Aḥfād ar-Rasūl, "Grandsons of the Prophet Brigades") was a Syrian rebel group fighting against the Syrian government in the Syrian Civil War. It was funded by the Qatari government.[14] [15]
Its notable subgroups included the Justice Battalion, the Golan Martyrs Battalion, the Golan Hawks Battalion, the Falcons of Mount Zawiya Brigade,[3] and the Qalamoun Liberation Front.[16] By August 2013, the group had coopted some 50 groups from across Syria; however, it was strongest in Idlib Governorate.[6] Its leader, Colonel Ziad Haj Obaid, was on the Arms Committee of the Supreme Military Council.[3] The Allahu Akbar Brigade, based in al-Bukamal in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, was also part of Ahfad al-Rasul. In July 2013, Al Jazeera reported that the Allahu Akbar Brigade consisted of around 800 fighters.[4]
On 11 October 2012, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades, in coordination with Ansar al-Islam, conducted a bombing of Syrian military compounds west of the Umayyad Square in Damascus.[12]
In December 2012, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades executed a Syrian Army officer on allegations of heresy. By this time, the group was described as a Salafist jihadist group independent from the Free Syrian Army.[2]
In July 2013, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades, along with Ahrar al-Sham and the Kurdish Islamic Front, announced that they would fight alongside al-Qaeda's al-Nusra Front against the People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria.[11]
In August 2013, clashes erupted between the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the city of Raqqa. On 13 August, ISIL suicide bombers detonated 4 car bombs at the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades' headquarters at the Raqqa train station, killing 6 Ahfad al-Rasul fighters, including two commanders, Abu Mazin[5] and Fahd al-Kajwan, and 6 civilians.[17] By the next day, ISIL fighters fully captured the headquarter.[18] Clashes also erupted in Tabqa.[17] By 17 August, ISIL had defeated Ahfad al-Rasul in Raqqa and expelled it from the city.[5] [19] During the conflict between ISIL and the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades in Raqqa, the group organized protests against both ISIL and Ahrar al-Sham, and viewed Ahrar al-Sham as allowing ISIL to defeat the group due to their lack of intervention in the conflict, while Ahrar al-Sham also shared the view of ISIL, of the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades as being a common enemy. However, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades announced an end to its conflict with ISIL on 17 August, and resumed cooperation with it.[20]
The fighting soon spread to the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, and tensions also rose between Ahfad al-Rasul and the al-Nusra Front. In November 2013, Saddam al-Jamal, commander of Ahfad al-Rasul's Allahu Akbar Brigade, defected to ISIL.[4] Following al-Jamal's defection, 4 subunits of Ahfad al-Rasul also defected to ISIL.[21]
By early 2014, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades was described as defunct, with many subunits rebranding themselves as members of the Syrian Revolutionaries Front.[22] The Latakia Governorate-based Brigade of the Chargers, formerly part of Ahfad al-Rasul, received BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles in early 2014, and became the 1st Coastal Division in late 2014.[23] Reports appeared in early 2017 that possible remnants of the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades have reappeared as the Army of Grandsons in the northern Aleppo Governorate to fight ISIL as part of Operation Euphrates Shield.[24]