Abu Khaled al-Suri
أبو خالد السوري
Also known as: Mohamed Bahaiah • Ahrar al-Sham co-founder
Biography
Abu Khaled al-Suri (real name Mohamed Bahaiah) was a senior Syrian jihadist who co-founded Ahrar al-Sham — one of the most powerful Islamist armed groups in the Syrian civil war — and served as al-Qaeda's representative in Syria. He had spent years in Afghan jihad and was imprisoned in Syria before 2011. After the uprising began he played a key role in establishing and leading Ahrar al-Sham, which distinguished itself from ISIS by focusing on Syrian territory rather than transnational caliphate ambitions, while remaining aligned with al-Qaeda ideology. He was assassinated in Aleppo in February 2014, almost certainly by ISIS, in a bombing that also killed several other senior Ahrar figures. His death accelerated the open conflict between ISIS and other Syrian rebel factions.