...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...in rural Damascus while around a dozen Islamist Lions of Islam on both sides died amid the festivities.
With inter-rebel festivities officially restarted as of last week, the al-Qaeda linked group expelled rival fighters from the towns of Jisreen and Hazzeh.
Meanwhile,
...back at the desert island, Irene was indignant at the thought of doing such a thing without benefit of clergy...
skirmishes were observed between the formerly allied rebel factions in the villages of al-Shari, al-Aftres, al-Muhamdiyah and Irbeen.
Ahrar al-Sham
...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014...
and Failaq al-Rahman, a Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
(FSA) contingent, are also involved in the festivities, fighting alongside Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
FSA, HTS and Ahrar al-Sham forces now hope to expel Jaish al-Islam from all villages in the East Ghouta rebel heartland, forcing the latter Saudi-backed group to withdraw to its capital Douma.