Abu Humam al-Shami

Abu Humam al-Shami
Born	Syria
Died	5 March 2015 Idlib, Syria
Military career
Allegiance	al-Qaeda (Late 1990's)
Service/branch	al-Nusra Front (2012-present)
Rank	Military Chief of al-Nusra Front
Battles/wars	Syria Syrian Civil War Lebanon Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon Military intervention against ISIL American-led intervention in Syria

Samir Hijazi, known as Abu Humam al-Shami, was the military chief of al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate al-Nusra Front.^[1]

Early life

He is of Syrian origin.

He traveled to Afghanistan between 1998 and 1999 and is believed to have spent a year at Al Ghuraba training camp, run by Abu Musab al-Suri. He attended al-Qaeda's Al Farouq training camp, where he finished second in his class. He was later made a trainer at Al Farouq training camp and afterwards he was appointed the emir over the region of the Kandahar Airport training camp by Saif al-Adel.^[1]

He pledged allegiance to Osama Bin Laden, personally shaking his hand, and was placed in charge of Syrian jihadists in Afghanistan. He took part in al-Qaeda's battles at the time. He was appointed by Saeed al-Masri to work in Iraq prior to the fall of Baghdad in 2003. He stayed in Iraq “as an official representative of" al-Qaeda for four months prior to the Iraq War. During that time, he met with both Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.

He was arrested by Iraqi intelligence and transferred to Syrian custody but he was quickly freed by the Syrians and resumed his work in Iraq. At the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003, he was appointed as the military head “of the mujahideen services office that was working in the benefit of the jihad in Iraq.” Zarqawi “would send him men and he would train them militarily and [then] return them to” Iraq.

In 2005 he was subject to a series of arrests by the Syrian intelligence that forced him to flee to Lebanon. He then returned to Afghanistan. At some point he returned to the Levant under the orders of Atiyah Abd al-Rahman^[2] and in 2007 was arrested and imprisoned in Lebanon for five years.^[1] During this time he was held in the infamous Roumieh Prison.^[3]

Syrian Civil War

He was released from prison in Lebanon in 2012 and immediately traveled to Syria to participate in the Syrian Civil War. He joined al-Nusra Front and became the group's overall military chief.^[1][4]

Relations with ISIL

In 2014, al-Nusra was engaged in hostilities with the break away al-Qaeda faction, ISIL. Al-Shami was said to have spearheaded efforts in order to negotiate a ceasefire. He met with one of ISIL emir Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's chief deputies. Baghdadi’s deputy supposedly told al-Shami that either ISIL will annihilate everyone else, or ISIL itself will be annihilated. When al-Shami suggested that their differences could be settled in a common sharia court, Baghdadi’s deputy replied that they will bring their disagreements to a sharia court when the fight to the death is over.^[5]

The al-Nusra Front finally brokered a ceasefire with ISIL, when al-Shami met with Abu Omar al-Shishani, the Chechen ISIL commander. Before the deal could be ratified however, ISIL detonated a car bomb. The bombing presumably brought the peace process to a halt.^[5]

Death

On 5 March 2015, Syrian state media claimed that al-Shami had been killed in a Syrian Army operation in the Idlib Province. However, other sources, including the SOHR, reported that al-Shami had been killed by a US-led Coalition airstrike.^[6][7] His death was confirmed by al-Nusra Front.^[8]

References