...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...(Islam Army) bombed on Saturday Syrian regime's security headquarters in the capital Damascus, killing dozens of pro-Assad troops, military sources reported.
"At least 28 pro-Assad security forces were killed and dozens more maimed in a strategic operation by fighters of Jaish al-Islam," the group said in a statement on Saturday.
"Forces of Jaish al-Islam have infiltrated into security headquarters of pro-Assad troops in Joubar neighborhood in Damascus and detonated a large amount of explosives," the leadership of Jaish al-Islam said.
This comes only one day after a Russian
Speaking to ARA News in Damascus, media activist Zuher al-Ghoutani said that the bombardment of the regime's security headquarters in Joubar comes in response to the killing of Alloush.
"A state of alert hit the ranks of pro-Assad troops in Joubar and other areas of Damascus after the operation of Jaish al-Islam, that claimed lives of dozens of security forces," al-Ghoutani said. "The regime's troops imposed a curfew on several districts across Damascus in a bid to minimize the chance for the rebels to move or infiltrate into other regime headquarters in the capital."
On Friday, a Russian
The raid has also claimed lives of several leading members of the group, including the deputy of Alloush.
Zahran Alloush is the founder of al-Islam Army, the largest rebel group in Damascus province. He had led rebel operations against pro-Assad army in Damascus and its countryside for nearly three years after deserting the Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
(FSA) and establishing his own rebel group. Regime-held districts of Damascus have been repeatedly exposed to bombardment by the rebels of al-Islam Army.