The White Shroud: A Syrian Resistance Movement To The Islamic State
04 October 2014
By Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
I have previously written on Sunni groups created
within Iraq to fight against the Islamic State [IS],
but what about in Syria? Some attention has been
devoted to the group "Al-Kafn Al-Abyad" (The White
Shroud), but on social media I have seen some
controversy as to the nature of The White Shroud. For
example, people ask: is it Jabhat al-Nusra, or 'FSA'?
To answer this question, one needs to bear in mind
that The White Shroud is an anti-IS outfit originally
set up in the Deir az-Zor locality of Albukamal on the
border with Iraq (now declared part of IS' 'Euphrates
Province' spanning the borders, including al-Qa'im
just over the border with Iraq): indeed describing
itself as "the brigades of popular resistance in
Albukamal."
It will be recalled from my prior work that the town
of Albukamal originally had six factions, listed below
with their wider affiliations where applicable:
- Liwa Allahu Akbar (SMC/Hayat al-Arkan)
- Kata'ib Allahu Akbar (Authenticity and Development
Front)
- Liwa al-Mujahid Omar al-Mukhtar (independent;
one-time pro-Ahrar al-Sham)
- Liwa al-Qadisiya al-Islamiya (independent;
pro-Caliphate, tied to seeing the Syria and Iraq
struggle for Sunnis as one)
- Katiba Bayariq al-Sunna (independent; pro-Caliphate)
- Kata'ib Junud al-Haq (Jabhat al-Nusra; evolved from
Katiba Junud al-Haq)
Note that there were other factions in the wider area
that emerged over time with influence such as Liwa al-Fatah
al-Mubin which belonged to the now defunct coalition
Euphrates Islamic Liberation Front, which had once
played a role in the fight against IS in the northern
Euphrates area in Syria.
Of the six main groups of Albukamal, Liwa Allahu Akbar
became part of what was then the Islamic State in Iraq
and ash-Sham (ISIS) after the November 2013 defection
of leader Saddam al-Jamal (also known as Saddam
Rakhaytah), who had clashed with Jabhat al-Nusra in
September 2013. The Authenticity and Development Front
is a Salafi coalition backed by Saudi Arabia that only
conceives of Syria as an Islamic state within a
national framework, while Liwa al-Mujahid Omar al-Mukhtar
did not have a political program beyond the fall of
the regime despite the one-time affinity with Ahrar
al-Sham that was subsequently disavowed in rejection
of fighting ISIS at the end of January 2014. Kata'ib
Junud al-Haq had defected to ISIS when ISIS was first
announced by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but re-defected to
Jabhat al-Nusra after Zawahiri's call to annul ISIS.
It will be noted in the picture of the logo above
(taken from The White Shroud's official Facebook page)
that members of three of the factions I have just
mentioned are included within The White Shroud: Liwa
al-Mujahid Omar al-Mukhtar, Authenticity and
Development Front, and Liwa al-Qadisiya al-Islamiya.
Of the other factions, two other sources from
Albukamal- one the former spokesman for the defunct
Kata'ib Junud al-Haq- have told me that Katiba Bayariq
al-Sunna members all became part of IS once the town
fell under IS control (undoubtedly ideological overlap
played a role), while no members of Kata'ib Junud al-Haq
are known to have joined The White Shroud thus far.
Some of course will have become part of IS (again
something undoubtedly facilitated by ideological
overlap), but others will have simply laid arms aside
as part of declaring 'tawba' ('repentance') before IS
and then returned to civilian life with acknowledgment
of IS' supremacy. Others too- even of those factions
now part of The White Shroud- simply fled the
Albukamal area to head to other fronts: this was the
case for the leader of a local Albukamal Authenticity
and Development battalion- Liwa Basha'ir al-Nasr- who
fled to Qalamoun in Damascus province after the fall
of Albukamal.
The operations conducted by The White Shroud, like
those of the anti-IS Sunni resistance movements in
Iraq, have mostly been small-scale claimed
assassinations so far, but apparently the group has
been trying to expand its activities in Deir az-Zor
province, with a contingent supposedly now in Deir
az-Zor city in a video released by the Authenticity
and Development Front. It will certainly be of
interest to see if The White Shroud develops into a
broader umbrella front for a variety of former rebel
factions in Deir az-Zor province of a variety of
orientations.
Update and Further Note
My friend and colleague Alfred Hackensberger, drawing
on his own sources, contends that The White Shroud is
not a real group. I would disagree with this notion
but a more general point needs to be made about real
manpower and capabilities. In truth, I do not think
The White Shroud at present has any more than a few
dozen fighters. Indeed, it has to be remembered that
the component battalions of The White Shroud lost
significant numbers of members to an ISIS assault on
the town of Albukamal in April. Not overstating
manpower and capabilities also applies to other
anti-IS resistance movements: if, for example, a
Kata'ib Mosul component representative gives
contingent numbers into the hundreds, it is a safe bet
to downgrade the actual manpower by several factors.
As far a operations go, nothing suggests the attacks
on IS- even if successful- have truly damaged the
group's power base in the areas it controls.
Also in my own experience, though Abu al-Layth of the
Dawn of Freedom Brigades affirmed to me that 250
fighters of his coalition had been sent to Kobani to
aid the YPG in its fight against IS, he affirmed that
this number had declined to 160 in a subsequent
conversation. Meanwhile, a representative of the Sun
of the North/Northern Sun Battalions- the contingent
of Dawn of Freedom Brigades in Kobani- only affirmed
the presence of some 70 fighters for the group in a 12
October conversation with me.