...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...released a statement on Saturday that called on all Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham fighters in the East Ghouta to turn themselves and their weapons in.
Jaish al-Islam promised to not harm any Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham fighters that surrender to their forces and further added that they will release them later.
This statement from Jaish al-Islam comes just hours after Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and their fighters engaged in a violent battle in the East Ghouta, resulting in more than 75 dead between both jihadist entities.
Despite this demand by Jaish al-Islam, it is rather unlikely that Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham will surrender to the former in the East Ghouta; especially, since the latter is the larger of the two jihadist groups in Syria.