The jihadi group Hurras al-Din on Jan. 1 claimed a rare attack against a Russian base in Syria, it was reported yesterday by Kurdistan 24 media network. The group is normally known to be operating in Idlib province, but the Russian base that was attacked is in northern Raqqa, roughly 200 km east of Idlib and about 20 km from Ain Issa, in an area controlled by the “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF). According to local media reports, five Hurras al-Din fighters were killed during the attack and two Russians were injured.
Exactly how and why Hurras al Din carried an attack so far outside its normal territory is the subject of speculation. Possibly, Hurras al-Din was acting at the behest of and with the support of a stronger power, perhaps Turkey or a Gulf state, Kurdistan 24 suggests. The attack on Friday “was far removed from the group’s main presence in Idlib province and a place (northeast Syria) where insurgent attacks are normally associated with the Islamic State. Indeed, to my knowledge, this is the first operation Hurras al-Din has claimed outside of northwest Syria,” Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, who is originally from Iraq and whose work has focused on militant groups, said. Hurras al-Din is a sometime collaborator/sometime rival of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), the main jihadi group in Idlib, the main difference between them being that Hurras al Din has maintained its loyalty to Al Qaeda, while HTS has styled itself as a Syrian armed opposition group.
