The current military campaign of the Syrian government to recapture southern Syria has raised serious questions regarding how the rebel factions and Islamic State affiliate Jaysh Khalid bin al-Waleed (JKBW) should respond. After all, like the southern rebels, most members of JKBW are from the wider Hawran area. Indeed, many members come from places in Hawran outside the Yarmouk Basin (which is controlled by JKBW) like Inkhil. By one estimate from a source from Inkhil, some 150-200 people from Inkhil have joined Jaysh Khalid bin al-Waleed.

The most notable exceptions I know of within JKBW are Abu Ja'afar al-Urduni (who currently heads the Hisba) and the head of JKBW's court, who is of Saudi origin and came to the Yarmouk Basin after the Raqqa campaign against the Islamic State concluded last year. This Saudi person has replaced Abu Ali Saraya, who is currently imprisoned by JKBW partly in relation to his erroneous judgements surrounding the assassination of JKBW's first amir Abu Hashim al-Idlibi.

On account of wider kinship between most JKBW members and the general population of Hawran and the perception of the need to fight a common enemy, it has been suggested that JKBW should cease its war with the rebels, unite ranks with the rebels and participate in the fighting alongside the rebels against the Syrian government and its allies. However, as this newly obtained internal document obtained from JKBW shows, the proposal faces serious obstacles. Simply put, the ideological rift is too great: each side demands that the other should repent of its erroneous ways. Of course, JKBW's takfir of the rebels is particularly problematic.

The new JKBW statement on the controversy is translated below by me. I affirm its authenticity.

Islamic State

Oversight and Tracking

Jaysh Khalid bin al-Waleed

No. 52

Date: 17 Shawwal 1439 AH.

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

To the brothers: in Jaysh Khalid bin al-Waleed (may God be pleased with him)- may God protect them.

As-salam alaykum wa rahmat Allah wa barakatuhu.

Subject: statement for distribution

Praise be to God the Lord of the Worlds, and prayers and peace be upon the seal of the Prophets and those sent, our Prophet Muhammad, and all his family and companions. As for what follows:

- The factions and apostates have been invited to repent and give allegiance to the Islamic State after disavowing their kufr [disbelief] and their loyalty to the disbelievers.

- There is no truth to the news circulated through rooms and social media pages about Jaysh Khalid bin al-Waleed entering and taking up fronts within the areas of the apostates to fight the Nusayris in them, and in the event an area is entered it will be under the authority of the Caliphate entirely , with no presence for the apostates in them by God's permission.

- We remind you it is forbidden to contact the apostates except after coordinating with the contact official (Abu Abdo al-Askari) and taking permission in that and within Shari'i regulations, and the one who engages in contact in an individual capacity without coordinating with the contact official will be reprimanded.

We ask God Almighty to help us and you to obey Him.

cc. For the record

Jaysh Khalid bin al-Waleed

Oversight and Tracking

Abu Ibrahim al-Shami

17 Shawwal 1439 AH.