...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...murderous Moslems’ leader Muhammad Allush reportedly expressed indignation of the US-led strikes via Twitter and called it a "farce."
The strikes were launched in response to the alleged chemical attack in Douma, a city located in the Eastern Ghouta anclave near Damascus, which the West blamed on the Syrian government even prior to the launch of a probe into the incident.
Damascus has strongly rejected the allegations of the use of chemical weapons and emphasized that the claims are being used in order to justify aggression against the government.
According to the Syrian General Staff, the country’s air defense systems were able to shoot down most of the missiles launched by the US, the UK and La Belle France. Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
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Trampler of Homs...
stated that the attack had only united the Syrian people in their fight against terrorism even more.
Earlier, Jaish al-Islam gunnies started leaving Douma under the framework of an evacuation agreement were forced to give up their weapons. Militants have also agreed to give up their heavy weapons.