Junud al-Sham (Soldiers of the Levant), sometimes also called Jund al-Sham,[4] was a group of Chechen and Lebanese Sunnimujahideen that fought in the Syrian Civil War and were led by Muslim Shishani until its disbanding in 2021.
History
Shishani traveled to Syria in 2012 at the request of Syrians who needed help training. Initially, the group was known as "the Chechen group", though the name of the group was changed once other nationalities started to join.[10]
According to an interview from 2013, Shishani planned to go to Chechnya, but was unable and instead went to Syria.[11]
Unlike many other foreign mujahideen, Junud al-Sham remained mostly independent from other Syrian rebel groups. Many of its fighters defected to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant commander Abu Omar al-Shishani in 2014. The remainder of the group remained "combat-ready", and continued to take part in military operations in 2015.[4] Financial difficulties caused a further decline, however, and some sources claimed that it was reduced to merely 30 fighters by early 2016. In a video address, Muslim Shishani consequently reproached other insurgent groups in Syria for not providing assistance, which regional expert Joanna Paraszczuk described as a "rant".[12] In September 2016, Junud al-Sham travelled to Hama Governorate in order to fight in a local rebel offensive.[13][better source needed] Later that year, there were reports according to which the group had dissolved, reportedly as result of clashes with Ahrar al-Sham,[14] with many of its Chechen fighters reportedly joining Ajnad al-Kavkaz.[15]
Despite these reports, however, other reports suggested remnants of Junud al-Sham were still active by 2018. In January 2018, pro-government media reported that "a military source in Damascus" said the group took part in a major military campaign against the government in northwestern Syria.[16][better source needed] Meanwhile, the Turkish newspaper Yeni Akit claimed Shishani was participating in the Turkish military operation in Afrin.[17] However, Shishani denied that he or his followers were in Afrin, and confirmed he was in Hama, fighting alongside another Chechen militia, Tarkhan Gaziyev's Katiba Abd Ar-Rahman.[18] A German foreign fighter with the group named Abu Khalid al-Shami said in an interview from 22 July 2019 that the group clashed with ISIL in Abu Dali.[19] Sometime between 2019 and 2021 the group relocated to Jisr as Shugour countryside.
During the summer of 2021 HTS arrested local criminals who were members of Junud al Sham. Shishani denied these claims and said that the criminals were not affiliated with the group. Despite this Junud al Sham were still forced by HTS to disband.[20] In October 2021 Junud al-Sham came in the crossfire of clashes between Jundullah, a fringe extremist group based out of Idlib, and HTS. HTS assured Shishani that Junud al Sham was not the target of these clashes but that Shishani and his fighters had to leave the area of operations.[21]
