By Kharon Staff
August 21, 2019
Social media-based fundraising campaigns by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have become more prominent in recent months as the group continues to battle Assad regime forces in Syria.
The group, sanctioned by the U.S. government as an alias of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham in May 2018, has controlled parts of northwestern Syria since 2015, having established a government apparatus. The region, anchored by the province of Idlib, is the last opposition stronghold in the country; the government led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies, including Russia, have launched a full-scale assault on Idlib. The Russian military has troops stationed in Idlib, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said to Interfax.
Over the weekend, the Popular Resistance Brigades of HTS launched the “Prepare a Volunteer Fighter Campaign” on both Twitter and Telegram to “raise funds in order to equip the youth of the Popular Resistance Brigades” with military equipment and supplies. Donors are encouraged to contact the campaign directly through WhatsApp and Telegram for details on how to donate. The campaign advertises levels of donations starting at $2 for a mask and up to $200 for military boots. The Popular Resistance Brigades were launched in May by an administrative arm of HTS to mobilize support and bolster defenses against Assad and his allies.
This, and other HTS fundraising campaigns, call for monetary support on behalf of frontline “mujahideen,” or freedom fighters, to “stand up to the military campaign launched by the Russian occupation on the liberated North,” according to a report by HTS’s Ebaa News.
HTS levied taxes on border crossings with Turkey, and regime-held areas have been an important revenue stream for the group since HTS established control in Idlib, according to a France24 report. The Syrian Salvation Government, an administrative arm of HTS, has further enabled HTS to generate funds by charging residents for electricity and water, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The group has continued to search for additional revenue streams, as the pace of its frontline military operations has increased in the face of continued assaults by Assad and his allies.
HTS is aiming its fundraising campaigns at the group’s supporters in and outside of Syria. On August 15, in a series of announcements, Ebaa News proclaimed the establishment of phase three of the Jahid Bi Malak Campaign under the name “Jahid Bi Malak - to Expel the Enemy from your Country.” The fundraising initiative, in all its phases, aims to raise money to support fighters on the Idlib front lines to offer “support for the mujahideen.”
In June, the Ministry of Endowments in the Syrian Salvation Government coordinated with campaign official Abdul Rahman al-Khatib to establish phase two of the Jahid Bi Malak Campaign, encouraging donors to take part in the jihad in northwest Syria through their monetary contributions. The campaign has advertised phone numbers and a social media account as channels for inquiring on how to privately contribute to the campaign. The Jahid Bi Malak Campaign’s Telegram channel has also advertised U.S.-dollar donations claiming to have received more than $185,000 as of June 22, and more than $120,000 during a two-week period in July.
In July, leaders in the Syrian Salvation Government’s Popular Resistance Brigades met with organizers of the Trench Campaign to discuss potential “coordination.” Supervisors of the Trench Campaign include former HTS officials ‘Abdallah Muhammad bin-Sulayman al-Muhaysini, Muslih al-Aliyani, and Abd al-Razzaq al-Mahdi. Al-Muhaysini was sanctioned by the U.S. government in November 2016 for his previous fundraising support for Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.
The Trench Campaign calls for the “fortification of...liberated areas” through solicitation of donations “from the Gulf, Turkey, Syria, or any country in the world” to build tunnels bolstering the defense of the opposition region, according to a social media account of al-Muhaysini.
Through advertisements on various social media and encrypted messaging platforms, the campaign directs supporters to contact the campaign for further details on how to donate.
Al-Muhaysini supervises the distribution of donations from the campaign, while his social media posts report that the Trench Campaign has received donations in U.S. dollars and Turkish lira.
Two prominent leaders outside of the HTS network have come out in support of the campaign and have solicited money on its behalf. The first is Serraj al-Deen Zareqat, a senior leader of the Abdallah Azzam Brigades, described by the U.S. as “a militant organization based in both Lebanon and the Arabian Peninsula” that was sanctioned as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in May 2012.
The second is Hakim al-Mutairi, a leader and founder of the Turkey-based Ummah Conference. Al-Mutairi has called Usama bin Laden a “lion of Islam” and worked with sanctioned Jabhat Fatah al-Sham fundraiser Hajjaj al-Ajmi on efforts to support groups in Syria.
Both Al-Mutairi and al-Ajmi participated with others to establish an advisory committee for the Syrian Revolution, according to al-Mutairi.
Analysts from the Counterterrorism/Middle East team contributed to this report.
