Abu Firas al-Suri

Due to the infighting between jihadist groups in Syria, Al Qaeda’s senior leaders dispatched al-Suri to Syria, where he participated in failed mediation efforts between al-Nusra Front and ISIL.

In an article published in the 19th edition of the Turkistan Islamic Party's magazine "Islamic Turkistan", Radwan Nammous (Abu Firas al-Suri) denounced the United Nations, secularism, civility and democracy. "Doğu Türkistan Haber Ajansı" published a Turkish language version of an interview between Nusra Magazine El Risale and Abu Firas al-Suri

Radwan Nammous (1950 – April 3, 2016), also known by his nom de guerre Abu Firas al-Suri, was a senior official in the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front, serving as the group's spokesman.

On 3 April 2016, Abu Firas al-Suri (at the age of 65), his son and 20 other al-Nusra Front fighters were killed in a US airstrike in Syria's Idlib province.

Al-Suri's role as a senior figure in the al-Nusra Front was not publicly known until March 2014 when he appeared in a Nusra video speaking against ISIL. In the following months. al-Suri took on an increasingly prominent role within al-Nusra. Al-Suri became a spokesman for events such as the group's hostage taking of UN peacekeepers in 2014. In July 2014, an audio recording of a major rally of fighters in Syria was leaked. In it, al-Suri could be heard introducing Abu Mohammad al-Julani, al-Nusra’s emir, who spoke of establishing an Islamic emirate in Syria. In a video released by al-Nusra on 8 August 2014, al-Suri said al-Nusra would declare an emirate in Syria only after consulting with other factions.

Ahrar's alleged compliance with non-Muslims was Abu Firas's criticism. Ahrar was compared to a non-virgin girl by Abu Firas. The approval of the Revolutionary covenant of May 2014 was deemed as "nationalism" of Ahrar by Abu Firas Abu Ammar al Shami rebuked Abu Firas Al Suri over Ahrar criticism. A photo of Abu Khaled al-Suri, Hassan Abboud of Ahrar ash-Sham, and Abu Firas al-Suri was released.

After the 9/11 attacks, al Suri helped the families of al-Qaeda members escape Afghanistan. From 2003 to 2013 he was in Yemen, until the dispute between the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant erupted.

Abu Firas appeared in a Nusra video which released more information on him, such as his previous Muslim Brotherhood affiliation and his association with bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam. Abu Firas al Suri and Abu Sulayman al Muhajir appeared in "The Heirs of Glory" a video released by Nusra Front, which vowed to bring back the caliphate, included old audio by Osama bin Laden (such as his 1998 announcement that "So we seek to incite the Islamic Nation so it may rise to liberate its lands and perform Jihad in the path of Allah, and to establish the law of Allah, so the Word of Allah may be supreme"). The video glorified the September 11 attacks and the Islamists Sayyid Qutb and Abdullah Azzam.

He then joined the Muslim Brotherhood of Syria and was reportedly a military trainer in the Muslim Brotherhood's Fighting Vanguard group during the Islamist uprising in Syria against the Hafez al-Assad regime between 1979 and 1980.

Suri was born in 1950 in the Syrian town of Madaya, near Damascus. He joined the Syrian military and attained the rank of lieutenant but was discharged due to his Islamist leanings in 1979.