Zahid

Abdulaziz Dawood Hudaberdi, or Abu Muhammad Turkistani (born 7 March 1977), more commonly referred to by his nom de guerre Zahid, is a brigadier general in the Syrian Army, currently leading the 84th Division. He previously served as the emir of the Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria (TIP).

Early life Zahid is an ethnic Uyghur Muslim and was born into a farming family as Abdulaziz Dawood Hudaberdi in , Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang. After becoming a Hafiz in 1996 he joined the armed conflict within Xinjiang. He went back and forth into Chinese custody throughout the late 1990s and 2000s until he obtained a fake passport and left the country for Malaysia in 2010. He then travelled to Iran and then Afghanistan. Zahid joined the Turkistan Islamic Party and completed military training in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2012.

Syrian civil war As part of the TIP, Zahid was sent to Syria in 2012, where he quickly became a top commander among rebel forces. In 2021, Zahid graduated from a military institution in Idlib.

The TIP also played a prominent role in the battles of the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives. This was in line with videos released on their own website (Muhsinlar.net). In the closing days of 2024, the Syrian Armed Forces were restructured and Zahid was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. During a conference in Idlib on January 5, 2025, Abu Omar (Kawsar), the previous leader of the Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria, appointed Zahid as the new Emir of the Syrian branch of the TIP. On 18 May 2025, the Syrian TIP was integrated into the 84th Division, a newly created unit made up largely foreign volunteers.