Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades
ألوية أحفاد الرسول
Official logo of the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades
Leaders	Col. Ziad Haj Obaid (until September 2013)[1] Saddam al-Jamal (until November 2013)[2] Abu Mazin †[3]
Dates of operation	July 2012–early 2014 (defunct)[4]
Active regions	Syria Idlib Governorate[5] Aleppo Governorate Latakia Governorate Raqqa Governorate[6] Hasakah Governorate Rif Dimashq Governorate Damascus Governorate Daraa Governorate Quneitra Governorate Deir ez-Zor Governorate
Ideology	Sunni Islamism[7] Salafism (factions)[8] Salafist jihadism (factions) Syrian nationalism (factions) Secularism (factions)
Size	7,000–9,000[9]
Part of	Syrian Islamic Liberation Front (2012-2013) Euphrates Islamic Liberation Front (2014)[10] Supreme Military Council (2012–14)[6] Free Syrian Army (2012)[1]
Allies	Qatar  France (Allegedly) Kurdish Islamic Front (formerly)[11] Ahrar ash-Sham[12] Al-Nusra Front[11] (until August 2013)[2] Ansar al-Islam[13] People's Protection Units (occasionally)[14]
Opponents	Syria  Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (since August 2013) Al-Nusra Front (since August 2013)[2] Ahrar al-Sham (2013) People's Protection Units (2012–14)[11]
Battles and wars	Syrian civil war Raqqa campaign (2012–13) Battle of Ras al-Ayn (2012–13) Rojava–Islamist conflict 2013 Latakia offensive Inter-rebel conflict during the Syrian Civil War
Succeeded by *Idlib branch Syrian Revolutionaries Front Northern Aleppo branch: Army of Grandsons Deir ez-Zor branch: 77th Division

The Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades (Arabic: ألوية أحفاد الرسول Al-wiat Aḥfād ar-Rasūl, "Grandsons of the Prophet Brigades") was a Syrian rebel group fighting against the Syrian government in the Syrian Civil War. It was funded by the Qatari government.^[15][16]

Its notable subgroups included the Justice Battalion, the Golan Martyrs Battalion, the Golan Hawks Battalion, the Falcons of Mount Zawiya Brigade,^[1] and the Qalamoun Liberation Front.^[17] By August 2013, the group had coopted some 50 groups from across Syria; however, it was strongest in Idlib Governorate.^[5] Its leader, Colonel Ziad Haj Obaid, was on the Arms Committee of the Supreme Military Council.^[1] The Allahu Akbar Brigade, based in al-Bukamal in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, was also part of Ahfad al-Rasul. In July 2013, Al Jazeera reported that the Allahu Akbar Brigade consisted of around 800 fighters.^[2]

On 11 October 2012, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades, in coordination with Ansar al-Islam, conducted a bombing of Syrian military compounds west of the Umayyad Square in Damascus.^[13]

In December 2012, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades executed a Syrian Army officer on allegations of heresy. By this time, the group was described as a Salafist jihadist group independent from the Free Syrian Army.^[8]

In July 2013, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades, along with Ahrar al-Sham and the Kurdish Islamic Front, announced that they would fight alongside al-Qaeda's al-Nusra Front against the People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria.^[11]

In August 2013, clashes erupted between the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the city of Raqqa. On 13 August, ISIL suicide bombers detonated 4 car bombs at the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades' headquarters at the Raqqa train station, killing 6 Ahfad al-Rasul fighters, including two commanders, Abu Mazin^[3] and Fahd al-Kajwan, and 6 civilians.^[18] By the next day, ISIL fighters fully captured the headquarter.^[19] Clashes also erupted in Tabqa.^[18] By 17 August, ISIL had defeated Ahfad al-Rasul in Raqqa and expelled it from the city.^[3][20] During the conflict between ISIL and the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades in Raqqa, the group organized protests against both ISIL and Ahrar al-Sham, and viewed Ahrar al-Sham as allowing ISIL to defeat the group due to their lack of intervention in the conflict, while Ahrar al-Sham also shared the view of ISIL, of the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades as being a common enemy. However, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades announced an end to its conflict with ISIL on 17 August, and resumed cooperation with it.^[21]

The fighting soon spread to the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, and tensions also rose between Ahfad al-Rasul and the al-Nusra Front. In November 2013, Saddam al-Jamal, commander of Ahfad al-Rasul's Allahu Akbar Brigade, defected to ISIL.^[2] Following al-Jamal's defection, 4 subunits of Ahfad al-Rasul also defected to ISIL.^[22]

By early 2014, the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades was described as defunct, with many subunits rebranding themselves as members of the Syrian Revolutionaries Front.^[4] The Latakia Governorate-based Brigade of the Chargers, formerly part of Ahfad al-Rasul, received BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles in early 2014, and became the 1st Coastal Division in late 2014.^[23] Reports appeared in early 2017 that possible remnants of the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades have reappeared as the Army of Grandsons in the northern Aleppo Governorate to fight ISIL as part of Operation Euphrates Shield.^[24]

• List of armed groups in the Syrian Civil War

• Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades on Twitter (in Arabic)