The Syrian Revolutionaries Front: Interview with Jamal Maarouf

Back in early 2014 when war broke out between the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the other Syrian insurgent groups, the Syrian Revolutionaries Front (SRF) rose to media prominence at the time as one of the leading Western-backed ‘moderate’ groups. Led by Jamal Maarouf, the SRF played a role in removing the ISIS from the Idlib area, with the latter instead consolidating its territorial holdings around al-Raqqa city. But the SRF and Maaroud’s fame would ultimately prove short-lived, as the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra (whose leader Ahmad al-Sharaa would subsequently become president of Syria following the collapse of the Assad regime) turned against the SRF and mostly extirpated it from northern Syria by the end of 2014.

Retrospectively, some may try to justify Jabhat al-Nusra’s move against the SRF as a necessary action against a ‘criminal’ group, but the more likely reason for why Jabhat al-Nusra, supported by some other groups, sought to dismantle the SRF was because they perceived the SRF as part of a Western-backed effort to undermine Jabhat al-Nusra and other more Islamist and Salafist groups. After all, a leading policy preference among more interventionist analysts at the time and in subsequent years was that the West should provide more support to more ‘moderate’ insurgent groups in order to ‘counterbalance’ Jabhat al-Nusra and similar groups. After dismantling the SRF, Jabhat al-Nusra similarly went after other Western-backed groups such as the Hazm Front and Division 13. Eventually, Jabhat al-Nusra’s successor Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham gained hegemony over the insurgency in the northwest by 2019, with Western policy and analyst preferences having by then largely shifted towards support for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and distancing from the insurgency.

Below is a recent interview I conducted with Jamal Maarouf regarding the history of the SRF, the conflict with Jabhat al-Nusra and how he views the current situation in Syria.

Photo: Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

Q: Could you speak about your life before the revolution? When and where you were born, your level of educational attainment and your work before the revolution? Were you among those opposed to the regime before the revolution broke out?

A: Peace be upon you with God’s mercy and blessings. Dear brother, I was born in the village of Dayr Sanbal in Idlib province. I studied to high school level specialising in literature. We own agricultural land. I continuously went to Lebanon for 20 years to work in all types of building contracting. Of course I was opposed to the regime of Hafez and his son Bashar, but I was secretly opposed and did not declare it.

Q: When did you bear arms for the first time and for what reasons? In what formations did you fight and in which battles did you participate?

A: At the beginning of the Arab Spring, I and some of my companions from Jabal al-Zawiya and Maarat al-Numan agreed to go out on a demonstration against Bashar. This was on 25 March 2011. Of course we broke the barrier of fear and we continued to demonstrate and our numbers grew day after day and the demonstrations continued to spread. This compelled Bashar’s regime to deal with the demonstrations in a barbaric and repressive way, as dozens of martyrs from our ranks died. And so it was necessary for us to bear arms to defend ourselves. The first clash with Bashar’s forces was in May 2011: we cut the Urum al-Joz-Jis al-Shughur road and besieged the Military Security in the town of Jisr al-Shughur where our numbers were in the hundreds. Our fighting at the time was in the form of calls for help and there was no coordination or organisation. After Bashar’s army arrived at the beginning of July 2011 and deployed more than 40 checkpoints in the villages of Jabal al-Zawiya and cut the routes between the towns and localities, military action and organisation of our ranks were necessary. In September, we formed the first battalion that was called the Martyrs of Jabal al-Zawiya Battalion, and then the Brigades and Battalions of Syria’s Martyrs. The battles were numerous and there isn’t the space to mention them, but the result of them was the liberation of more than 60% of Syria’s land with the participation of the other formations.

Q: In what context was the SRF formed? For example some say it was formed with support form external parties to fight Daesh [ISIS]. Is this true?

A: Our greatest role was in 2013 when we and more than 20 factions and brigades formed the Syrian Revolutionaries Front. The aim of the formation of the SRF was to unite the Free Army in a formation bringing together most of the Free Army’s factions. Our aim was not to fight Daesh but rather our first aim was to fight Bashar and his criminality. However, when Daesh stood as a firm stumbling block before us and prevented us from continuing the fight against Bashar’s army, we had to fight it and expel it from Idlib and its countryside, Hama countryside, Jabal al-Turkoman [in Latakia] and Aleppo countryside. It was not undertaken by a foreign decision but rather it was a revolutionary decision that sprung from the revolution’s will. True, we did receive some support from some states, but this support was so we could continue our fight and was not conditional support as some claim. For we were not mercenaries and we did not go to fight outside Syria’s borders and we did not receive instructions form outside, but rather out revolution and fight reflected popular and revolutionary will against a criminal repressive regime.

Q: What were the problems between you and Jabhat al-Nusra to the point that they mobilised to destroy the SRF? In media you were quoted as saying that you considered Jabhat al-Nusra ‘brothers’. Can you clarify why you said that? Also what was the position of other factions like Ahrar al-Sham and Suqur al-Sham on the fighting between you and Jabhat al-Nusra?

A: With regards to Jabhat al-Nusra and all the formations that were operating on the ground, we considered them our brothers as their aim and our aim was to bring down Bashar, but subsequently their evil intentions became apparent as they received their orders from intelligence apparatuses and they took actions against the Free Army, utilising takfiri slogans against the Free Army that they did not use against Bashar’s army. And so we had to stand against those unknown organisations. Of course, after we expelled Daesh- the true mother of Jabhat al-Nusra- most of the members of Daesh headed to Nusra’s bases and sought protection in them. This was a reason for the growth of Nusra’s power and the growth of its enmity towards us. Nusra and Daesh detonated more than 197 explosives in bases of the Free Army. Of course, the position of the Islamic factions was very negative, and indeed against the Free Army, though they did not announce that. Ahrar al-Sham, Suqur al-Sham and Faylaq al-Sham all stood with Jabhat al-Nusra in its fight against us.

Q: After SRF was destroyed, did you flee to Turkey? And what have you done since then?

A: You say in your question that I fled to Turkey. I don’t accept this formulation because those who know me know whether I would flee in battles or not. But what happened is that most of the factions were recruited against me through a lying media machine, such that the popular sentiment on the street began demanding an Islamic state and accusing us of being Sahwat and apostates, repeating slogans cooked up by intelligence apparatuses and used by Daesh and Nusra. So we had to leave as we considered that doing so and saving our lives would be a victory for our revolution that we would continue to fight for. For we continued to preserve the evolution’s ember and roots even outside our land’s borders. I engaged in all types of work that would provide me the minimum to live, but I continued to stand for my revolution and I worked by day and by night I would contact my companions of the path, the noble revolutionaries.

Q: How do you assess the current situation in Syria, in particular the rule of the new president Ahmad al-Sharaa?

A: Of course the revolution has gone through stages and is still doing so. It transformed from demonstrations to an armed revolution and was then subject to conspiracy and Islamisation and tainted with the dye of terrorism and the theatrics of Bashar’s downfall and the conveying of al-Jowlani to power in Damascus. He claims to have ended the revolution and tells the criminals to go free, and he has committed multiple crimes against the components of the Syrian people, and he talks a lot. But this erases the facts, and the one who was unknown yesterday cannot become known today. And the killer should be held to account, not honoured. For wll what has happened is a filthy game of intelligence apparatuses undertaken by colonial states that have a history full of criminality.

The revolution will continue as it came out against Bashar’s regime and criminality and repression, and it will continue. We did not come out against Bashar because he is an Alawite but because he is an oppressor and criminal. Our revolution will continue against all who engage in oppression and criminality against our people whoever they may be. Our revolution will continue through the awareness of its noble Syrian sons. The revolution comprises all noble ones from all of the Syrian people’s components. Our aim is to preserve Syria’s land and people. Our aim is for our people to live with freedom and dignity just as the other peoples live.

Published originally on October 14, 2025.