The Sham Liberation Army (Arabic: جيش تحرير الشام, romanized: Jaysh Tahrir al-Sham), originally called the Sham Liberation Brigade (Arabic: لواء تحرير الشام, romanized: Liwa Tahrir al-Sham), is an armed rebel group active in the Syrian Civil War. It was founded and is led by Firas Bitar, a former Syrian Army captain who defected from the Syrian Army in 2012. Until 2016, its sole opponent was the Syrian Armed Forces and its allied militias;[7] it rejected any fighting with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant until ISIL attacked its fighters in February 2016.[8]
In September 2015, the Sham Liberation Army and other rebel groups in the Qalamoun Mountains formed Saraya Ahl al-Sham (Arabic: سرايا أهل الشام; Company of the People of the Levant).[1]
On 30 September 2015, Sham Liberation Army, along with 12 other FSA and Islamist rebel factions, formed Saraya Ahl al-Sham in the western Qalamoun Mountains. The group maintained "good" relations with al-Qaeda's al-Nusra Front and other groups in the former Army of Conquest's Qalamoun branch.[1]
In February 2017, negotiations between Saraya Ahl al-Sham and Hezbollah began in order to install a ceasefire and for residents to return to the contest towns and villages between Hezbollah and the rebels.[12]
On 27 July 2017, a ceasefire agreement was reached by Hezbollah with Tahrir al-Sham and Saraya Ahl al-Sham in the Lebanese portion of the Qalamoun Mountains. The agreement called for Tahrir al-Sham forces to withdraw from Lebanon to Idlib, Saraya Ahl al-Sham forces to withdraw to the eastern Qalamoun Mountains, where opposition forces maintain a pocket of control, and exchanges of prisoners from both sides.[13]
On 14 August 2017, the last 400 fighters of Saraya Ahl al-Sham coalition and their families departed the Lebanon–Syria border and headed to the eastern Qalamoun Mountains.[6]
In April 2018, the SLA, along with the rest of Saraya Ahl al-Sham evacuated to Afrin.
On 7 April 2018, the group published a statement condemning the Syrian Government, the Russian intervention and Hezbollah involvement in the war and requested that the United Nations send in military forces to intervene.[14]
