18 March Division | |
---|---|
Arabic: فرقة 18 آذار | |
Leaders | Col. Mohammed Khaled al-Duhni [1] Hosam Abazid † [2] |
Dates of operation | 11 April 2013 [1] – 31 July 2018[ citation needed ] |
Group(s) | |
Active regions | Daraa Governorate [1] |
Part of | Free Syrian Army |
Opponents | Syrian Armed Forces National Defense Force ContentsAl-Nusra Front |
Battles and wars | Syrian Civil War |
The 18 March Division (Arabic : فرقة 18 آذار) was a rebel group part of the Free Syrian Army. The 18 March Division named after the 18 March 2011 protests in Daraa and was active during the Syrian Civil War. The group was created on 11 April 2013 by Colonel Mohammed Khaled al-Duhni out of three affiliated groups. On 18 July 2013, the Southern Tawhid Brigade, one of the affiliated groups, left the 18 March Division due to internal disputes. [1] It joined the Southern Front on 14 February 2014, and also joined the Hawks of the South alliance on 27 December 2014. [4] [5]
In April 2015, after five Southern Front groups unilaterally rejected all forms of cooperation with the al-Nusra Front, the 18 March Division clashed with al-Nusra in the Dar'a al-Balad district of Daraa. Conflicting reports stated that the al-Nusra Front captured a member of the Southern Tawhid Brigade and threw a grenade at the latter group's headquarters. [6]
On 28 September 2016, one of the group's field commanders, Hosam Abazid, was assassinated in the eastern Daraa countryside. Hosam Abazid was previously a member of the al-Nusra Front, then defected to the Southern Tawhid Brigade, then to the Islamic Muthanna Movement, and re-defected back to the 18 March Division. [2]
The Free Syrian Army is a big-tent coalition of decentralized resistance militias in the Syrian civil war founded on 29 July 2011 by Colonel Riad al-Asaad and six officers who defected from the Syrian Armed Forces. 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. In late 2011, the FSA was the main Syrian military defectors group. 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.
The al-Tawhid Brigade, named after Tawhid, the "oneness of God," was an armed Islamist insurgent group involved in the Syrian Civil War.
The Kurdish Front is a predominantly Kurdish Syrian rebel faction participating in the Syrian Civil War.
The Supreme Military Council (SMC) was the highest military leadership of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) from late 2012 to at least mid-2014. The establishment of the organisation was announced on 7 December 2012 with the backing of western and Arab powers as a means of financing and arming Syrian rebel forces.
The inter-rebel conflict during the Syrian Civil War has continued throughout the Syrian Civil War as factions of the Syrian opposition and Free Syrian Army have fought each other, with shifting alliances among various Islamist factions such as Jabhat al Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam and the Islamic Front.
The Syrian Revolutionaries Front is an alliance of 14 relatively moderate religious and some secular armed groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, formed in December 2013, thus according to Arutz Sheva further sidelining the FSA and its leadership Supreme Military Council. It was established as a response to the merger of Islamist Syrian rebels into the Islamic Front.
The 2014 Daraa offensive was a campaign during the Syrian Civil War launched by rebel forces, including the Free Syrian Army and the Islamic Front and Al-Nusra Front, to push back government forces in the Daraa Governorate, Quneitra Governorate, and As-Suwayda Governorate, in southwestern Syria, and thus opening the road to Damascus.
The Hazzm Movement was an alliance of Syrian rebel groups affiliated with the Free Syrian Army in northwestern Syria that existed from 25 January 2014 until 1 March 2015, when many of them dissolved into the Levant Front. Some other members joined the Army of Revolutionaries.
The Dawn of Freedom Brigades was a Free Syrian Army-affiliated Syrian rebel alliance which participated in the Syrian Civil War. It coordinated with the joint operations room Euphrates Volcano and eventually became part of the Army of Revolutionaries in 2015.
The Battle of Al-Shaykh Maskin started with a Syrian Arab Army attempt, during the Syrian civil war in Daraa Governorate, to capture Al-Shaykh Maskin and thus secure the Daraa–Damascus highway. Two days later, the rebels launched their offensive, code-named "Edkholo Alayhem al-Bab" and "Hadm al-Jedar", to take control of Al-Shaykh Maskin and the nearby town of Nawa.
The Southern Front was a Syrian rebel alliance consisting of 54 or 58 Syrian opposition factions affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, established on 13 February 2014 in southern Syria.
The Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade was a rebel group in southern Syria during the Syrian Civil War. For part of its existence it was connected to the Islamic State. It fought against several Syrian Opposition groups for dominance in the Yarmouk Basin. On 21 May 2016, it merged with other Islamist groups into the Khalid ibn al-Walid Army.
The Hawks of the South was a Free Syrian Army coalition that was active during the Syrian Civil War. It was created on 27 December 2014 by Colonel Mohammed Khaled al-Duhni to strengthen the Southern Front. The coalition operated in eastern Daraa Governorate. According to the colonel, the Falcons of the South was the biggest rebel group operating in Daraa Governorate in regard to arms and fighters.
The Daraa offensive was a rebel operation in the Daraa Governorate, during the Syrian Civil War. It was led by the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army and also included the Army of Conquest "southern sector", of which the Al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham are part of, against Syrian government forces defending Daraa city and the surrounding towns.
The Daraa offensive was a military operation of two groups allegedly affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade and the Islamic Muthanna Movement, against Syrian opposition forces in the Daraa Governorate.
The Army of the Revolution was a Syrian rebel alliance affiliated with the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army. It was composed of 5 FSA factions which mainly operated in the Daraa Governorate in southwestern Syria. One of its commanders stated that the group is a "temporary operations room" due to the separation between western and eastern Daraa, and that the "door is open" for other groups to join the alliance.
The Raqqa campaign (2012–2013) was a series of battles and offensives launched by various Syrian rebel groups, led by Ahrar al-Sham and the al-Nusra Front, against Syrian government forces in the Raqqa Governorate as part of the Syrian Civil War. The campaign was launched at the second half of 2012 and ended in the capture of the city of Raqqa as well as dozens of smaller towns and facilities.
The Sultan Pasha al-Atrash Battalion was an armed Syrian rebel group affiliated with the Free Syrian Army that operated in southern Syria during the first 3 years of the Syrian Civil War. The group consisted of rebels from the Druze community in Syria, particularly in the Suwayda Governorate. The group disbanded in the beginning of 2014 after frequent attacks on it by Sunni Islamist groups, particularly al-Qaeda's al-Nusra Front.
The Saladin Ayubi Brigade was a mainly-Syrian Kurdish armed rebel group that fought in the Syrian Civil War as part of the Free Syrian Army. Formed in May 2012 and named after the early Kurdish Muslim leader Saladin, the group was led by defected Syrian Army Captain Bewar Mustafa and fought against Syrian government forces in and around the city of Aleppo. It was also strongly opposed to the Kurdish-led Democratic Union Party (PYD), and have clashed with the PYD-affiliated People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) several times.
Opposition–ISIL conflict during the Syrian Civil War started after fighting erupted between Syrian opposition groups and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In early January 2014, serious clashes between the groups erupted in the north of the country. Opposition groups near Aleppo attacked ISIL in two areas, Atarib and Anadan, which were both strongholds of the fundamentalist Sunni organization. Despite the conflict between ISIL and other rebels, one faction of ISIL has cooperated with the al-Nusra Front and the Green Battalion to combat Hezbollah in the Battle of Qalamoun. By 2018.