The Fragmentation of Al Qaeda in the Levant ajis-2024-0136

Abstract

In the Levant, the Islamic jihadist ideology has occupied international attention for decades. During the Syrian crisis, the country became an incubator for radical movements to invest in a power vacuum and flourish under chaotic circumstances. Rapidly, Syria began attracting jihadists from all over the world to join radical organisations while a new kind of jihad - global jihad - indulged in a world-wide ideological firesale. Firstly, between 2011-2013, we saw jihadist armies associated with ISIS and al-Qaeda acting freely without a central authority, but on April 9, 2013, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi shifted from localised jihadism to global jihadism, by declaring an Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, to attack the international coalition as well as the Syrian regime. As a response, six months later in October 2013, Hay’at Tahrir Al Sham was launched in refusal of al-Nusra’s annexation to ISIS, and uniting all anti-ISIS militias on the ground against their common enemy. Since then, jihadism has become conflicted, especially when Hay’at Tahrir Al Sham cut its ties with al-Qaeda, and all three entered into conflict. This paper follows the breakdown of the al-Qaeda project, the setbacks of ISIS, and the crisis between al-Qaeda and its offshoot branch, al-Nusra, culminating in the creation of the “Guardian of Religion” or, Hurras al-Din. The methodology utilises an institutionalisation approach and primary resources of al-Qaeda's leadership and spokespersons in order to closely follow the confrontations it has had with other movements, and the steps it has taken in order to eventually fragment. The study seeks to answer what is happening on the terrorist scene today, and to evaluate the role of al-Qaeda in the Levant. The outcome is that there is a new group that has grabbed the baton from al-Qaeda and is continuing its work in the Levant, named Hurras Ad-Din.    Received: 2 May 2024 / Accepted: 30 June 2024 / Published: 5 July 2024