...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful..., the last remaining rebel group in Eastern Ghouta, has agreed to leave its holdout in Douma for an opposition-held area in northern Syria, according to opposition negotiators and the Russian foreign ministry.
The deal came a day after a chemical attack killed scores of people and affected hundreds of other Douma residents. The attack prompted global outrage but was dismissed as "fabrication" by the Syrian government, whose forces on Friday launched an offensive against the rebels under the cover of air raids.
The agreement, which was reached between Jaish al-Islam and Russia on Sunday, includes a ceasefire and the evacuation of fighters and civilians from the area.
"According to people who helped negotiate this agreement, Jaish al-Islam has agreed with the Russian forces to begin evacuating with their families, as well as anyone else who wants to leave," Al Jazeera's Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from Amman, said.
Under the agreement, Russian military police will move into Douma to keep Syrian forces out, added Ghoneim.
The Russian army also said on Sunday it had struck a deal with Jaish al-Islam to withdraw about 8,000 of its fighters and some 40,000 of their relatives.