Al-Qaeda, Syrian Jihadism and Foreign Fighters: an 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.