“Yusuf al-Jader”, known as Abu Furat, was born in the city of Jarablus in 1970. He is a father of three sons and one daughter. He studied at the Sadik Hindawi school in Jarablus and graduated from Ahmad Salim Mala high school. During his high school years, he joined a music group where he played the trumpet. He also participated in theater performances formed at the Jarablus Youth Club, presenting several plays in Jarablus and at the Al-Kawakbi Hall in Aleppo.

Later, he joined the Teachers’ Training Institute in Aleppo. After one year, he joined the Military College in Homs on November 1, 1990. He graduated in December/January 1993 with the rank of First Lieutenant and continued his military career, eventually rising to the rank of Colonel, leading an armored battalion in Latakia.

Colonel Abu Furat defected from the Assad regime in June 2012, joining the popular revolution. He joined the rebels in the Al-Haffa region, northeast of Latakia, after refusing orders to bomb it. He soon left the Latakia countryside and returned to eastern Aleppo countryside to join the rebels in his hometown, Jarablus.

Abu Furat took on leadership roles within the “Liwa al-Tawhid” brigade, fought numerous battles against the regime forces in Aleppo and its northern and eastern countrysides. He also participated in liberating the Seif al-Dawla and Salah al-Din neighborhoods in Aleppo as part of the Free Syrian Army’s initial entry into the city in the summer of 2012.

Colonel Abu Furat became famous for a video that went viral on social media, touching the hearts of all Syrians. When asked about the Free Syrian Army’s victory in the summer of 2012 by liberating the Infantry School, he said: “By God, I am upset! These tanks are our tanks, this equipment is ours, and every time I see someone killed, I feel pain. If Assad had resigned and left the presidency, none of this would have happened.”

Just hours after this video spread among Syrians, news came of Abu Furat’s martyrdom during military clearing operations at the Infantry School, on December 15, 2012.

In recognition of the above, and in appreciation of his service, we award this week’s Syrian Future Movement Medal to the free and martyred Colonel “Yusuf al-Jader” Abu Furat.
This Syrian symbolic medal embodies our national, inclusive vision and approach.

Colonel Abu Furat Yusuf al-Jader