| Saddam al-Jamal | |
| Native Name: | صدام الجمل |
| Birth Date: | 1987 |
| Birth Place: | Abu Kamal, Syria[1] |
| Nationality: | Syrian |
| Years Active: | 2011-2018 |
Saddam Omar al-Jamal (Arabic: صدام الجمل; born 1987) is a Syrian Islamic militant and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant leader. He is known for taking part in a 2014 massacre of the Al-Shaitat and for his involvement in the death of Jordanian pilot Muath Al-Kasasbeh.[2]
He originally led the Allahu Akbar Brigade, a faction of the Free Syrian Army operating in Deir Ezzor with over 800 fighters. According to Al-Jazeera, "Jamal was not only the leader of a battalion but also a top FSA commander for the whole of Syria's eastern region." He led the Eastern Front of the Supreme Military Council (Syria). The Allahu Akbar brigade was a component of the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigade.
On 16 December 2013, he appeared in a video titled Revealing the biggest conspiracy targeting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, in which he announced that he had joined the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.[3]
The degree to which his decision to join ISIL was voluntary is disputed. Some characterize his defection as a form of "surrender" to ISIL after two of his brothers were abducted, his brother's house was bombed, and several of his combatants were killed. During this period, Jamal narrowly evaded an assassination attempt when a man detonated himself at his headquarters. Jamal established a state bank branch.
From 2014 onwards, he served as the ISIL emir for Abu Kamal, Syria, which is his hometown.[4]
In September 2015, he was reportedly appointed as a deputy to Abu Firas al-Iraqi, the governor of the ISIL Euphrates province located on the border between Iraq and Syria.
Saddam al-Jamal and four other commanders were apprehended by Iraqi forces on 9 May 2018 on the Syria-Iraq border.[5]