Known Also As: Ahmad Ihsan Fayyad al-Hayes; Al-Hayes, Ahmed Ihsan Fayyad; AL-SHAQRA, Abu Hatim; SHAKRA, Abu Hatem; SHAQRA, Abu Hatim; SHAQRA, Abu Hattam;

Citizenship: Syria;

DOB: 1987;

POB: Al-Shaqra, Deir ez-Zor, Syria;

Country: Syria;

Activities:
Ahmad Ihsan Fayyad al-Hayes (Ahmad al-Hayes), commonly known as “Abu Hatem Shaqra,” is Ahrar al-Sharqiya’s leader and is directly complicit in many of the militia’s human rights abuses.

Al-Hayes commanded Ahrar al-Sharqiya’s prison outside of Aleppo, where hundreds of detainees have been executed since 2018.

Ahmad al-Hayes has been implicated in the trafficking of Yazidi women and children and has integrated former ISIS members into the ranks of Ahrar al-Sharqiya.

A number of former ISIS officials had sworn allegiance to al-Hayes and worked to support Ahrar al-Sharqiya’s ransom and extortion efforts.

Ahmad al-Hayes is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13894 for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Ahrar al-Sharqiya.

OFAC is sanctioning Syrian armed group Ahrar al-Sharqiya, which operates in northern Syria, for abuses against civilians.

Syrian armed group Ahrar al-Sharqiya has a record of human rights abuse that includes the unlawful killing of Hevrin Khalaf, a Kurdish politician and Secretary General of the political party Future Syria, as well as her bodyguards in October 2019.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights identified the murders as a possible war crime. Ahrar al-Sharqiya has killed multiple civilians in northeast Syria, including health workers.