...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...(Army of Islam) jihadist group managed to repel an attack by Syrian Arab Army (SAA) on Hawsh Dawahra town in East Ghouta region of Damascus province.
Government forces reactivated their military operations in the region on May 30, when 105th Brigade of the Elite Republican Guard, alongside with National Defense Forces (NDF) of Damascus and Paleostine Liberation Army (PLA) began a fresh assault targeting the aforementioned town.
Initially, the attack developed successfully as government troops were able to seize a farmland situated between Hawsh Dawahra and Hawsh Zarqiyah.
After that, Syrian Army and allies tried to storm the town itself twice, but both attempts failed due to fierce resistance put up by krazed killers.
Over the course of past 48 hours government forces lost around 10 soldiers on this front. However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
they are still in control of their positions in the farmland surrounding Hawsh Dawahra.
Media wing of Jaish al-Islam published a video footage today that shows islamists targeting SAA troops in Hawsh Dawahra farms