leaders who founded this faction are as follows.
Abū Ja’far, the general commander of Aknāf Bayt
al-Maqdis, is a known personality in Hamas. Abū
Ahmad az-Zaghmūt, known as “the Chancellor,”
is the military commander. His previous position
in Hamas was the personal bodyguard of Khālid
Mash’al. Nidāl Abū al-‘Alā, the founding member
of Aknāf, used to work as a personal escort for the
prominent Hamas leader, Abū Marzūq.
We have the conversations of a person called “Abū
Suhayb” Yahyā Hawrānī. He is the commander
of ash-Shatāt camp and he is the connecting link
between Hamas and Aknāf ’s general commander
Abū Ja’far. These conversations expose the support
sent to Aknāf by Hamas.
As for Aknāf ’s war against the Islamic State, at the
time of the Islamic State’s announcement, Aknāf
did not dare to wage war against the Islamic State
militarily. However, it was content with fighting
the Islamic State ideologically, politically, and
through propaganda. But after the announcement
of the Islamic Khilāfah on 1 Ramadān 1435 and
due to the greed of the factions and Sahwāt found
in the region, Aknāf participated for the first time
militarily in the war against the Islamic State.
The fight persisted for about 8 months. At that
The tawāghīt of Palestine
and Qatar
68 INTERVIEW
time, we were short in numbers while the Sahwāt
heavily outnumbered us. But by Allah’s grace
alone, we were able to expel them from al-Hajar
al-Aswad, the stronghold of the Islamic State in
Dimashq. We inflicted on them large human
losses, leaving more than 300 of their soldiers
wounded and killed. Most of their wounded went
to the regime’s hospitals for treatment.
Dābiq: What was the agreement between Aknāf
Bayt al-Maqdis and the Nusayrī regime? What
are the details of the “reconciliation”1 the two
sides almost executed?
Yarmūk: The agreement was to make the Yarmūk
Camp neutral in the ongoing conflict in the region,
and to hand it over to the Palestinian factions that
were allied with the Nusayrī regime represented
by Ahmed Jibrīl’s “General Command” militia,
the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO),
and some of the other factions. The “Chancellor”
Abū Ahmad was tasked with the job of the
negotiations and handover. He was assigned by
Abū Ja’far and began the cooperation in a public
fashion near the end of the plot. Our security
sources are certain about this betrayal. The
1 This term refers to the plot between various Sahwah factions and the regime whereby
the Sahwah hands over its territory to the regime after being guaranteed privileges for
their treachery.