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Northern Division
الفرقة الشمالية
Logo of the Northern Division Flag of the Knights of Justice Brigade
In June 2013, the group was one of the founding members of the 13th Division, but later left the group.[12]
The group received funding, including salaries for its fighters, from the CIA, before being cut off in December 2014 following battlefield reversals at the hands of the al-Nusra Front.[13]
The brigade joined a "quick response unit" of 600 fighters alongside other moderate and jihadist groups on 8 July 2014 to fight the Syrian Army and the Islamic State of Iraq and the LevantinAleppo.[14] It suspended its cooperation with al-Nusra Front on 21 July 2014.[15] On 7 September 2014, the Knights of Justice Brigade announced that they were allying their forces with four other rebel groups, including the 101st Division[16] and the 13th Division,[11] into the 5th Corps.[16]
In March 2015, the "Famous Brigade" which consisted of 170 fighters joined the Knights of Justice Brigade.[17]
In September 2015 the 117 recruits from the group graduated after 3 months of training.[18]
In December 2015 the Knights of Justice Brigade and the 101st Infantry Division formed the Northern Division.[4] However, the 101st Division later left the group in June 2016, making the Knights of Justice Brigade the only component of the group.[19]
In June 2016, Mohammed Khaled Bayoush survived an assassination attempt by car bomb near Kafr Nabl. He later became the deputy commander in the Free Idlib Army which the Northern Division is part of, and survived another assassination attempt near Kafr Nabl.[2]
31 January 2017, Lt. Col. Fares Bayoush resigned from his positions in the Northern Division and the Free Idlib Army, citing "Black Standards" in Idlib. Bayoush claims that 12,000 rebel fighters have recently sought refuge in Turkey.[1]
^"Rebels in northern Syria say U.S. has stopped paying them". McClatchy Newspapers. 9 December 2014. Retrieved 9 February 2015. "In November we received all kinds of support including salaries. This month support stopped completely," said Col. Fares Bayyoush, leader of the Fursan al Haqq Brigade in Kafr Nabel, a town about 20 miles south of the city of Idlib.
