Liwa Ahfad Salah al-Din

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This is an alternate history wiki. It mixes fact and fiction, and should not be mistaken for a reliable source.

Liwa Ahfad Salah al-Din

Details
Active: 2015-2018
Area: Aleppo Governorate
Ideology: Secularism
Kurdish nationalism
Part of: 99th Division
Operations Rooms: Alliance of Revolutionaries in Aleppo
Euphrates Volcano


Liwa Ahfad Salah al-Din was a largely Kurdish Free Syrian Army unit based in northern Aleppo. It was formed in late 2015 by Mahmoud Khallo, a Kurdish opposition activist and former subcommander of the Yusuf al-'Azma Brigade. Although Khallo and several other leaders professed support for the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Syria led by Saud Malla, Malla denied any party links to the group. The brigade, one of several Kurdish formations named after the legendary Saladin, claimed to include several Arabs and Turkmen, in addition to a few religious minorities. It was harshly critical of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its YPG militia. Initially, Khallo declared that the YPG was allied with the Assad regime and implied that Liwa Ahfad Salah al-Din would fight the YPG if it continued to oppress the revolutionary forces of Syria. For this reason, he refused to bring his group into the Kurdish Military Council, which was also critical of the PYD but favored a less confrontational approach. Khallo called on the United States to stop its military support for the YPG. Despite this, the brigade participated in the US military's Train & Equip Program, as part of the 99th Division. As cooperation between the YPG and certain FSA groups increased in eastern Syria, some northwestern rebel factions began pushing for war with the YPG and the wider Syrian Democratic Forces. Khallo and his brigade found themselves opposing these calls, citing their refusal to shed Kurdish blood. A few members defected to other groups (such as the Elite Battalion) as a result of this stance, but most stayed. Liwa Ahfad Salah al-Din ended up taking part in Euphrates Volcano operations in eastern Aleppo, fighting alongside the YPG/SDF to rid the governorate of the Islamic Emirate of the Levant. Despite frequent tensions with PYD supporters, major clashes were avoided, often with the mediation of other groups. The brigade was also among the FSA groups to confront and disband violently anti-SDF groups like the Sultan Murad Brigade.