By early 2015, the Islamic Front was being described as virtually defunct, with the largest member groups Ahrar ash-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam remaining separate entities, and the smaller IF factions (Liwa al-Haqq, Suqour al-Sham Brigade and Kurdish Islamic Front) being absorbed into Ahrar ash-Sham.

[20] The leadership of the Islamic Front at the time of its founding was announced as Shura Council Leader: Ahmed Abu Issa (Suqour al-Sham), Deputy Shura Council Leader: Abu Omar Hreitan (Liwa al-Tawhid), General Secretary: Sheikh Abu Rateb (Liwa al-Haqq), Sharia Office: Abul-Abbas al-Shami (Ahrar ash-Sham), Political Office: Hassan Abboud (Ahrar ash-Sham) and Military Office: Zahran Alloush (Jaysh al-Islam)[21] A Liwa al-Tawhid member said the old names "will disappear and the groups will now melt [sic] into the new merger.

He added that the group would cooperate with what it called "loyal fighters" in the country, including the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

[22] In December 2013, the Islamic Front seized the FSA headquarters, along with key supply warehouses in Atmeh, as well as the nearby border crossing with Turkey at Bab al-Hawa.

[27] The FSA confirmed on 13 December 2013 that the Islamic Front had obtained machine guns and ammunition that were not supposed to be in the possession of the Islamists.

[8] In May 2014, analyst Charles Lister estimated that the Front had 50,000-60,000 fighters, making it "largest and most militarily powerful alliance in Syria".

[31] Several defections from the Islamic Front to Free Syrian Army groups were reported in 2014, including around 800 fighters in eastern Aleppo Governorate in August 2014, with new FSA units created by the defectors, who condemned the Islamic Front's Islamist and sectarian practices, especially against Christians and Alawites who initially supported the opposition.

[32] On 9 September 2014, Hassan Abboud, the Islamic Front's political leader, and Abu Abdulmalek al-Sharei, the head of the Islamic Front's Sharia Council, were killed along with many other senior Ahrar ash-Sham commanders, when a bomb went off as a high-level meeting was going on near an ammunition dump in Idlib province.

[39] A leaked German intelligence document from May 2015 suggested the Islamic Front and Ahrar ash-Sham in particular had received weapons from Turkey.

[42] The United States has not designated the Islamic Front (Syria) as a global jihadist group because they do not want to establish a caliphate.

[42] The Islamic Front released its charter on the Internet in late November 2013, outlining its aims and objectives, although the document avoided providing a clear vision of the future.

It acknowledges the ethnic and religious minorities that live in Syria, while also welcoming the foreign fighters who have joined the anti-Assad forces and rejecting non-military means of ending the civil war.

[4] One member of the political assembly of the group has stated that the Islamic Front could accept Syria as a democracy, as long as sharia is "sovereign".

[42] The Islamic Front (Syria) has been very open to allowing other smaller rebel groups join their movement as long as they share similar beliefs.

[45][better source needed] In 2013, before the Front was formed, its future military leader Zahran Alloush gave a speech attacking Shi'ites, whom he called "Rafidis", the Alawites and "the Zoroastrians", saying "the mujahediin of Sham [the Levant] will wash the filth (رجس) of the Rafida and the Rafidia from Sham... if Allah wills it, until they cleanse Bilad al-Sham [the land of the Levant] from the filth of the Majous [Fireworshippers] who have fought the religion of Allah"; "Shia are still servile and small (أذلاء صاغرين ) throughout history"; and "I bid you, o unclean (أنجاس) Rafida, that as the Banu Umayya [ Umayyads] destroyed your skulls in the past, the people of the Ghouta and the people of Sham will destroy your skulls in the future".

His spokesman went on to claim that the sectarian and Islamist rhetoric Alloush had previously made was only intended for internal consumption and to rally his fighters.