...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...attempted to create some much needed breathing space.
Islamist forces attacked newly fortified government positions at Hawsh Nasri, a village in the East Ghouta which was captured by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) last week.
Jaish al-Islam did make some initial headway, seizing several positions inside Hawsh Nasri itself during the morning hours.
However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
a source embedded with the SAA’s Elite Republican Guards assured Al-Masdar News that all lost checkpoints had been recovered by government troops during the afternoon.
The source added that 11 holy warriors were killed with approximately a dozen more maimed; the casualties were exclusively inflicted by armored vehicles.
Nevertheless, a front man of Jaish al-Islam said rebel fighters had destroyed one T-72 tank along with a BMP during the festivities.
Neither side mentioned today’s SAA corpse count.
Hawsh Nasri represents a gateway into Douma, a major Islamist stronghold just east of Damascus which has been under Jaish al-Islam rule since 2012.
Around half the East Ghouta rebel pocket has evaporated over the past three years as government soldiers have gradually rolled back hard boy gains in the Syrian capital.
Hundreds of SAA tanks and thousands of Elite Republican Guards are tied up in Damascus, making it a major priority for the SAA’s Military High Command.