Jaysh al-Nasr

The Army of Victory (Jaysh al-Nasr) is a Free Syrian Army-affiliated, armed opposition faction participating in the Syrian Civil War. Founded in August 2015 as a joint operations room of 16 member groups, three of the groups later fully merged into Jaysh al-Nasr. The group was supplied with US-made BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles.

Formation as a joint operations room
Jaysh al-Nasr was formed in early August 2015 as a joint operations room with the stated objective being the "liberation of the northern countryside of Hama, breaking the regime's first defense line toward Hama the city." It was announced as a first step towards unifying the Free Syrian Army in Idlib and Hama provinces into a single operations room. The alliance initially comprised the following 16 groups:


 * Falcons of al-Ghab
 * Gathering of Glory
 * Sham Front
 * Inqaz Front
 * Falcons of Mount Zawiya Brigade
 * 6th Brigade
 * Brigade 111
 * Brigade 60
 * Bilad ash-Sham Brigade
 * Regiment 111
 * Revolutionary Fedayeen Movement (former member of the Army of Revolutionaries)
 * Hawks of Jihad Battalion
 * Martyrs of Tremseh Brigade
 * al-Mashhour Battalions
 * Antiquities Brigade

Reformation as a unified group
In late October 2015, it was announced that three of its component groups, the Regiment 111, the Falcons of al-Ghab and the al-Inqaz Front, completely merged into Jaysh al-Nasr with Suqour al-Ghab's commander, Major Muhammad Mansour, assuming the leadership of the new unified group. In late September 2016, the group previously known as Liwa Ahrar Darayya (who had been evacuated from Darayya due to a deal made with the Syrian government) announced they merge into Jaysh al-Nasr.

Jaysh al-Nasr have taken mainly-Alawite civilians, including children, as prisoners. 112 of them were released from Qalaat al-Madiq on 7 February 2017 as part of a prisoner exchange.

Rebel infighting
On 7 February 2017, Jund al-Aqsa attacked the headquarters of Jaysh al-Nasr near the town of Murak in northern Hama. Jund al-Aqsa captured more than 250 fighters from Jaysh al-Nasr. On 14 February, they reportedly killed at least 80 Jaysh al-Nasr prisoners before withdrawing from their positions north of Khan Shaykhun. Kafr Nuboudah and Kafr Zita villages were the origin of the Jaysh Nasr members whom Liwa al-Aqsa executed according to Moussa al-Omar. The casualties given for Jaysh Nasr were 56 fighters, 3 media reporters, and 11 military commanders, according to Moussa al-Omar. After Jund al-Aqsa committed slaughter at Khan Shaykhun, only one person lived to tell the tale.

After the infighting with Jund al-Aqsa, Captain Muhannad Junaid of Jaysh al-Nasr stated that "The whole of Idlib will be painted black".

On 22 May 2017, first lieutenant Alaa Rakhmon of Jaysh al-Nasr was assassinated by unknown assailants in the village of Kafr Nabudah. Rakhmon was a prominent operator of BGM-71 TOW missiles and was responsible for destroying several Syrian Army tanks during the 2017 Hama offensive.