Al-Qaeda, Syrian Jihadism and Foreign Fighters: the second interview with Muzamjir al-Sham.
The interview I conducted with Muzamjir al-Sham, is my second with him, a year later. He is known for revealing, via his Twitter account, detailed information about the inner workings of the various jihadist groups in Syria. While his identity remains unknown, his Twitter page describes him as “a Shami voice from inside the jihadist mainstream”. Some analysts believe he once belonged to Ahrar al-Sham, a Syrian Islamist militant group. The interview is an up-to-date overview of a part of Syrian jihadism and has evolved to delve into important details about al-Qaeda and its leadership, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the foreign fighters of the groups operating in Syrian territory.
Q1: First, I would like to ask you about the Guardians of Religion (Hurras al-Din). What is their condition? Are they dispersed in cells?
Hurras al-Din, after the repeated clashes with Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, in particular the battles of 'Arab Saeed' and the instructions received from al-Zawahiri, started a new approach, based on relocating their activities to the regime areas and the eastern region, avoiding activities in Idlib.
Q2: How are they operating? What are their objectives?
They have recently started to adopt a policy of not claiming the operations they are carrying out in Damascus and elsewhere, such as Raqqa, for security and political reasons.
Q3: Are there other groups in Syria close to al-Qaeda?
Regarding groups close to al-Qaeda, there are two types: those close to Hurras al-Din (HaD), in the form of cooperation and good relations, such as Ansar al-Islam and Al-Ghuraba Division. Then there are groups intellectually close to HaD (Salafism-jihadist) such as Ansar al-Din and Ansar al-Tawhid.
Q4: Ansar al-Islam has recently claimed responsibility for several attacks against the Russians and the Syrian government. What is their relationship with al-Qaeda and Hurras al-Din (HaD)?
Ansar al-Islam is a very old group in the Middle East, even older than al-Qaeda itself.
Ansar al-Islam's relationship with al-Qaeda was good even before the invasion of Iraq, as it embraced al-Zarqawi and many leaders.
Ansar al-Islam entered Syria in 2012, was very close to the Ahrar al-Sham movement and was about to join the movement in 2013.
The relationship between them became strained after the declaration of the Islamic State of Iraq, but after Hurras al-Din defected from al-Julani and returned to al-Qaeda, their relationship became quite good.
Q5: What operational capabilities do they possess?
Operational capabilities are few, their number does not exceed 300 members. Its militants are of different nationalities: Syrian, Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish.
Q6: Is their leadership in Syria?
The original general emir of the group is detained in Turkey, but the current emir is in Syria, never appears and adopts very strict security measures, interfaces manually with the rest of the leaders and does not use any electronic devices.
Q7: Why does HTS allow them to operate?
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham restricts Ansar al-Islam a lot, arresting Ansar al-Islam's military commanders and some of its most important leaders.
But it avoids getting into a military confrontation with them because Ansar al-Islam enjoys good popularity as it is not a takfiri group and has not been involved in any internal fighting.
Q8: It has been a long time since we heard of Junud al-Sham (Soldiers of the Levant) and its charismatic leader, Muslim al-Shishani, what happened to the group?
Its organisation was completely disbanded and its soldiers dispersed, the majority joined Ansar al-Islam and some joined the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP).
Q9: Is Muslim al-Shishani still alive? Where is he?
Yes, he is alive. Muslim al-Shishani is now in a village called Al-Yaqubiyah, near the city of Jisr Al-Shughur.
Q10: How do you assess the presence in Syria of groups composed of foreign fighters such as the Xhemati Albanians? What objectives do they have? What relationship do they have with Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham?
The Albanians are divided into two groups: a section led by Abu Qatada al-Albani, who is loyal to Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham and works with it, and a group opposed to HTS led by Musa Al-Albani.
Q11: Are there still jihadist contractors of Malhama Tactical in Syria?
Yes, they are present and have operational camps in Syria.
Q12 What about Uzbek fighters (Katibat Tavhid vo Jihad Uzbek) or Tajiks?
About the Uzbeks and Tajiks, they are like the Albanians: there are groups loyal to HTS and there are groups opposed to it, but they prefer silence and not engage in problems with HTS, for fear of being killed or extradited abroad and then because they have no other choice.
Q13: Given the above, are there still Chechen jihadist groups operating in Syria?
Yes, there is Ajnad al-Kavkaz (Soldiers of the Caucasus) led by Abdul Hakim al-Shishani, who is on good terms with HTS.
And then there is a small group called Junud al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate) which was previously affiliated with al-Qaeda.
Q14: Is it possible that Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham reported the positions of the arrested and dead Islamic State leaders? And for what reason?
There is a previous agreement between Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham and the Islamic State (IS), concluded by Abu Ahmed Hodoud, the organisation's general security officer. This agreement required IS not to carry out any attacks against HTS in Idlib in exchange for not attacking the families of IS fighters and leaders in Idlib.
As for the Commission reporting their whereabouts, this is not the case.
The Commission facilitated the process for the Americans but did not inform them at first.
This is as far as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is concerned.
As for Abdullah Qardash, who was killed in Atma, one of the Commission's security forces told me that he had previously been arrested by the Commission, and he had seen him personally, and the Commission was aware of his existence.
Q15: Recently, a UN report reported that the successors to al-Qaeda's leadership are, in this order: Saif al-Adl, Abd al-Rahman al-Maghrebi, Yazid Mubarak (AQIM) and Ahmed Diriyah (al-Shabaab). Do you agree?
After the killing of Abu Muhammad al-Masri, the most important candidate to succeed al-Zawahiri could be Saif al-Adl. But after him in the hierarchy is Abu Abd al-Karim al-Masri, who is in Syria.
But his presence in Syria may be an obstacle to his assuming the leadership of the organisation.
However, I do not believe that there will be a non-Egyptian person in the leadership of al-Qaeda.
Daniele Garofalo is a researcher and analyst on Jihadist terrorism and an expert in monitoring Jihadist media channels.
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