Mohammed zahran alloush biography

He believes that only armed struggle will force the Syrian regime to abandon power; therefore, he established the Battalion of Islam, which expanded to become the Brigade of Islam and then the Islamic Army. The group conquered most of the Eastern Ghouta near Damascus. As one of the most influential figures in Syria, he is a product of the ongoing civil war: a warlord.

He was born in in Douma, a city near Damascus and his current stronghold. Zahran has three wives and 10 children. Zahran studied Islamic jurisprudence sharia at Damascus University and later completed his Islamic education in Saudi Arabia under the auspices of senior sheikhs. He was affiliated with the Salafist Dawa group, and was arrested in for his alleged Islamist activities and possession of a weapon in his car.

Many call Zahran a master of tactical withdrawal. However, he has been accused of justifying his defeats in several areas where he fought against the Syrian regime as tactical withdrawals. Some have also accused Zahran of neglecting areas outside Douma and its environs because they are not considered as part of his Islamic emirate.

At the same time, Zahran and ISIS are deeply hostile to each other only because their interests and spheres of influence have clashed. His father, Abdullah Alloush, is a salafi theologian resident in Saudi Arabia. There, he formed close connections to many other Syrian Islamists, including people who now run large rebel factions like Ahrar al-Sham.

He was released from jail in June and quickly joined the armed uprising, eventually emerging as the strongman of his home region in the Eastern Ghouta and one of the most powerful rebel leaders in all of Syria. He was also one of the most controversial ones. His supporters were taken in by his forceful personality and his personal bravery, as a commander who lived with his men in the warzone and visited the frontline.

They admired his knack for organization and politics and credited him with the semi-stability that reigned inside the besieged Eastern Ghouta enclave—a bombed out and starved suburban region that resembles nothing so much as a giant version of the Gaza Strip in Palestine. The Ghouta has been under constant pressure since the marginalized Sunni suburbs of Damascus, where hatred against Bashar al-Assad and his government ran strong, began to throw out the police and security servies in and Since then, the region has been under siege and functioned as a world of its own.

Mohammed zahran alloush biography

Coordinating the rebels there and limiting their infighting was no less of an achievement, especially considering the all-out chaos that reigned in other areas of Syria, where conditions were much better. For many supporters of the opposition, defending and stabilizing the Eastern Ghouta despite unceasing war and artillery bombardment, including with nerve gas, was enough to make Zahran Alloush a hero of the Syrian revolution.

Alloush has denounced democracy and called for an Islamic state to succeed Assad; however, in a May interview with McClatchy journalists, his spokesperson used moderate rhetoric, claiming that Syrians should decide what sort of state they wanted to live under and that Alawites were "part of the Syrian people" and only those with blood on their hands should be held accountable.

His spokesman went on to say that the sectarian and Islamist rhetoric Alloush had previously made was only intended for internal consumption and to rally his fighters. In an interview with The Daily Beast in the same period, his spokesman disassociated Zahran from al-Nusra, denied that he wanted to impose Sharia law, and called for a technocratic government.

He was reported killed, along with other senior members of his faction in the village of Utaya, east of Damascus, on 25 December , in an airstrike on a meeting with rival rebel commanders from Ahrar al-Sham. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item.

Syrian Islamist Rebel Leader. Zahran Alloush attending a military parade in eastern Ghouta , 29 April Douma, Syria. Utaya , Rif Dimashq , Syria. Early life [ edit ]. Syrian Civil War [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. The Daily Star Lebanon. Archived from the original on 4 August Retrieved 11 June