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Junud al-Makhdi

Active jihadist group

Katibat Junud al-Makhdi
Flag of Junud al-Makhdi
Leaders	Sayfuddin al-Tatari
Dates of operation	July 2016 - Present
Group(s)	Jamaat Bulgar Jaish al-Shomal al-Islami
Headquarters	Latakia Governorate, Syria
Active regions	Latakia Governorate, Syria
Ideology	Salafi Jihadism Wahabism Separatism
Size	400
Allies	Tahrir al-Sham Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria Syrian Turkmen Brigades
Opponents	Syria  Russia  United States  Iran Hezbollah
Battles and wars	Syrian Civil War 2016 Latakia offensive[1]

Katibat Junud al-Makhdi (commonly referred to as just Junud al-Makhdi) is an active armed jihadist group created by a merger of two smaller groups operating in Northern Syria, composed exclusively of Tatar and Bashkir fighters mainly from Tatarstan and Bashkortostan as well as other areas in Russia with Tatar and Bashkir populations.

History[edit]

The group was created by a merger of Jamaat Bulgar and Jaish al-Shomal al-Islam in mid-2016 (each made up of Tatar fighters from Russia). Jamaat Bulgar was initially founded in Afghanistan with its headquarters in Waziristan by an Avar from Dagestan and its fighters fought alongside the Taliban while not being formally part of it for 10 years ^[2][1] and became involved in the Syrian Civil War during the beginning with several fighters arriving in 2012. The second group was founded in Syria to combat the Assad regime. The leader of Jaish al-Shomal al-Islam is the current leader of the Junud al-Makhdi.^[3]

The group cooperates with the Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria as well as local Syrian Turkmen Brigades in the Latakia Governorate because of linguistic similarities in the Turkic languages. The group also calls on Russian Muslims to join its ranks as well as wage war domestically, and claims to have members active in both Russia and Yemen.^[4]

References[edit]