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Free Syrian Army

The Free Syrian Army (FSA; Arabic: الجيش السوري الحر, romanizedal-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) was a big-tent coalition of decentralized Syrian opposition rebel groups in the Syrian Civil War[33][34] founded on 29 July 2011 by Colonel Riad al-Asaad and six officers who defected from the Syrian Armed Forces.[35][36] The officers announced that the immediate priority of the Free Syrian Army was to safeguard the lives of protestors and civilians from the deadly crackdown by Bashar al-Assad's security apparatus; with the ultimate goal of accomplishing the objectives of the Syrian revolution, namely, the end to the decades-long reign of the ruling al-Assad family.[37][36][38] In late 2011, the FSA was the main Syrian military defectors group.[39][40] Initially a formal military organization at its founding, its original command structure dissipated by 2016, and the FSA identity has since been used by various Syrian opposition groups.[41][42][43][44]

Not to be confused with Syrian Army or Syrian National Army.

Free Syrian Army

Decentralised (2015–present):

  • 29 July 2011 – 2015 (central organization)
  • 2015 – present (decentralisation of organization, ad hoc use of the FSA identity)

25,000 (late 2011)[12][13]
75,000 (mid-2012)[14]
40,000–50,000 (2013)[15]
35,000 (2015)[16]

The Free Syrian Army aims to be "the military wing of the Syrian people's opposition to the regime",[12] through armed operations and the encouragement of army defections.[45] In 2012, military commanders and civilian leadership of the FSA issued a joint communique pledging to transition Syria towards a pluralistic, democratic republic, after forcing Assad out of power.[46] As the Syrian Army is highly organized and well-armed, the Free Syrian Army adopted a military strategy of guerrilla tactics in the countryside and cities, with a tactical focus on armed action in the capital of Damascus. The campaign was not meant to hold territory, but rather to spread government forces and their logistical chains thin in battles for urban centers, cause attrition in the security forces, degrade morale, and destabilize the government.[47]


The FSA considered itself to be the armed wing of the Syrian revolution and was able to mobilise the popular anger toward Bashar al-Assad into a successful insurgency. By waging guerilla warfare across the country, it enjoyed a string of successes against far better-equipped government forces.[48][49] Assad's policy of ignoring protesters' demands alongside the regime's intensifying violence on civilians and protestors led to a full-blown civil war by 2012. The FSA initially pursued a strategy of quickly eliminating the regime's top leadership; successfully assassinating intelligence chief Assef Shawkat and Defence Minister Dawoud Rajiha in July 2012.[50] In early 2012, Iran's IRGC launched a co-ordinated military campaign by sending tens of thousands of Khomeinist militants to prevent the collapse of the Syrian Arab Army; polarising the conflict along sectarian lines.[51][52] After 2013, the FSA became affected by decreasing discipline, absence of a centralised political leadership, lack of substantial Western support, deteriorating supply of weapons, and diminishing funds; while rival Islamist militias emerged dominant in the armed opposition.[53][54][55] Russian military intervention in 2015 ensured Assad's survival and halted the expansion of the FSA. A series of Russian and Iranian-backed counter-offensives launched by the regime in 2016 eroded the significant territorial gains made by the FSA and severely weakened its command structure.[56][57]


After the Turkish military intervention in Syria in 2016, and as other countries began to scale back their involvement, many FSA militias became more dependent on Turkey, which became a sanctuary and source of supplies.[58] From late August 2016, the Turkish government assembled a new coalition of Syrian rebel groups, including many that were in the FSA; the core of this new coalition was the Hawar Kilis Operations Room. Initially referred to as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA), this force would adopt the name Syrian National Army (SNA) in 2017.[59][60] A majority of the FSA militias are currently under the command of the Syrian Interim Government; while the rest have either allied with the Syrian Salvation Government, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, or are in the Al-Tanf Deconfliction Zone.

History[edit]

2011 – formation[edit]

The first defections from the Syrian Army during the Syrian uprising may have occurred at the end of April 2011 when the army was sent into Daraa to quell ongoing protests. There were reports that some units refused to fire on protesters and had split from the army.[63]


Defections, according to unverified reports, continued throughout the spring as the government used lethal force to clamp down on protesters and lay siege to protesting cities across the country, such as Baniyas, Hama, Talkalakh, and Deir ez-Zor, and there were reports of soldiers who refused to fire on civilians being summarily executed by the army.[64][65][66]


At the end of July 2011, with the Syrian uprising (or civil war) running since March 2011, a group of defected Syrian Army officers established the 'Free Syrian Army' to bring down the Assad government. On 29 July 2011, Colonel Riad al-Asaad and a group of uniformed officers announced the formation of the Free Syrian Army or 'Syrian Free Army',[67] with the goals of protecting unarmed protesters and helping to "bring down this regime", in a video on the Internet where Riad al-Asaad spoke alongside several other defectors.[36][45]


Paying homage to the victims killed by the "criminal gangs" of regime's apparatus, Riad Al-Asaad declared the formation of Free Syrian Army:

Battalion

Hamza al-Khatib

Freedom Battalion

Saladin Battalion

Al-Qashash Battalion

On 22 May 2012, the kidnapped 11 Lebanese pilgrims coming from Iran.[544] Four of them were killed in an airstrike by the Syrian Air Force and the rest were released unharmed.[545]

Northern Storm Brigade

On 20 July 2012, Iraq's deputy interior minister, , said that Iraqi border guards had witnessed the FSA take control of a border post, detain a Syrian Army lieutenant colonel, and then cut off his arms and legs before executing 22 Syrian soldiers.[546]

Adnan al-Assadi

On 21 July 2012, Turkish truck drivers said that they had their trucks stolen by members of the FSA when it captured a border post. They said that some of the trucks were burnt and others sold back to their drivers after the goods were looted.

[547]

The United Nations report on war crimes states that the FSA's execution of five Alawite soldiers in Latakia, post-July 2012 was a war crime. The report states, "In this instance, the FSA perpetrated the war crime of execution without due process."

[532]

On 13 August 2012, a series of three videos surfaced showing executions of prisoners by rebel forces, in Aleppo province. In one video, six postal workers were being thrown off the main postal building in Al-Bab to their deaths by FSA fighters. The gunmen claimed they were shabiha.[549][550][551]

[548]

On 9 September 2012 the FSA exploded a car bomb near al-Hayat Hospital and the Central Hospital in Aleppo. According to Syrian state media, at least 30 people were killed and more than 64 wounded.[553] The FSA claimed that the army had occupied the hospital buildings and were using them as a base.[554]

[552]

On 10 September 2012 the FSA's Hawks of Syria brigade executed more than 20 Syrian soldiers captured in Hanano military base.

[555]

On 2 November 2012 the FSA's al-Siddiq Battalion kidnapped and executed prominent Syrian actor , claiming he was a member of the shabiha and was carrying a gun and military ID.[556][557]

Mohammed Rafeh

In May 2013, a video was posted on the internet showing a rebel cutting organs from the dead body of a Syrian soldier and putting one in his mouth, "as if he is taking a bite out of it". He called rebels to follow his example and terrorize the Alawite sect, which mostly backs Assad. Humans Rights Watch (HRW) confirmed the authenticity of the footage, and stated that "The mutilation of the bodies of enemies is a war crime". The rebel was Khalid al-Hamad, known by his nom de guerre "Abu Sakkar", a commander of the Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade. The BBC called it an offshoot of the FSA's , while HRW said it is "not known" whether the brigade is part of the FSA. The incident was condemned by the FSA's Chief of Staff and the Syrian National Coalition said that Abu Sakkar would be put on trial.[558][559] Abu Sakkar said the mutilation was revenge. He claimed to have found a video on the soldier's cellphone in which the soldier sexually abuses a woman and her two daughters,[560] along with other videos of Assad loyalists raping, torturing, dismembering and killing people, including children.[561] He further stated that if the war was to continue, "all Syrian people" would be like him.[561] He was killed in northwest Latakia province on 6 April 2016 by the Syrian Army, while being affiliated to the al-Qaeda linked Al-Nusra Front.[562]

Farouq Brigades

In December 2012, militants of six journalists around NBC's chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel. Engel initially blamed pro-regime Shabiha militants, but it turned out the perpetrators were most likely the FSA-affiliated rebel group North Idlib Falcons Brigade.[563]

abducted an NBC News Team

Since July 2013, the , at times in coordination with other armed groups, carried out a series of killings of Kurdish civilians in al-Youssoufiyah, Qamishli and al-Asadia (al-Hasakah). During a raid by ISIL, al-Nusra, the Islamic Front and FSA groups, fighters killed a Kurdish Yazidi man in al-Asadia who refused to convert to Islam.[564]

al-Nusra Front

After their capture of the town of Jarabulus from ISIL in September 2016, opposition militias of the published pictures of themselves torturing four YPG members prisoners of war, who were captured by the rebel group while, according to YPG claims, trying to evacuate civilians.[565]

Sultan Murad Division

The FSA group have taken civilians, including children, as prisoners, mainly from Latakia. 112 of them were released in February 2017 as part of a prisoner exchange.[566]

Army of Victory

List of armed groups in the Syrian Civil War

Syrian Armed Forces

Syrian Democratic Forces

Army of Conquest

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

Holliday, Joseph (March 2012). (PDF) (Report). Vol. 3. Institute for the Study of War. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 May 2012.

Syria's Armed Opposition

Holliday, Joseph (June 2012). (PDF) (Report). Vol. 5. Institute for the Study of War.

Syria's Maturing Insurgency

O'Bagy, Elizabeth (March 2013). (PDF) (Report). Vol. 9. Institute for the Study of War.

The Free Syrian Army

on Wayback Machine (in Arabic)

Original video declaration of formation

. 4 June 2017. Archived from the original on 4 June 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

"The launch of the second conference of the National Democratic Alliance Syrian"