The Free Syrian Army (FSA) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the government of Bashar al-Assad. Initially a formal organization at its founding, its structure gradually dissipated by late 2012, and the FSA identity has since been used by various opposition groups.
Protests against the Syrian government and violence had been ongoing in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor since March 2011, as part of the wider Syrian Civil War, but large-scale clashes started following a military operation in late July 2011 to secure the city of Deir ez-Zor. The rebels took over most of the province by late 2013, leaving only small pockets of government control around the city of Deir ez-Zor.
The 2012–2014 Quneitra Governorate clashes began in early November 2012, when the Syrian Army began engaging with rebels in several towns and villages of the Quneitra Governorate. The clashes quickly intensified and spilled into the UN-supervised neutral demilitarized zone between Syrian controlled territory and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Battle of Ras al-Ayn was a series of armed clashes for control of the town of Ras al-Ayn during the Syrian Civil War, mainly between the Kurdish-majority People's Protection Units (YPG) and an alliance of Syrian rebel groups, with the occasional involvement of the Syrian Armed Forces. As result of the battle's first phase, the Syrian Army was expelled from the city by Syrian rebels, whereupon the latter attacked the YPG-affiliated fighters in Ras al-Ayn. In the following months, the city was effectively divided into rebel-held and YPG-held areas, with intermittent fighting resulting in the gradual expansion of the YPG's territory in the city and its surroundings. Islamist and jihadist factions soon became dominant among the rebels in the region, further contributing to tensions with the secular-leftist YPG. In July 2013, the battle's final phase erupted and ended when an alliance of YPG-led troops completely expelled the rebels from Ras al-Ayn.
The siege of Wadi Deif refers to the siege of two Syrian Army bases, Wadi Deif and Hamadiyah, by rebel forces, starting on 11 October 2012, during the Idlib Governorate clashes of the Syrian civil war.
The Rojava–Islamist conflict, a major theater in the Syrian civil war, started after fighting erupted between the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and Islamist rebel factions in the city of Ras al-Ayn. Kurdish forces launched a campaign in an attempt to take control of the Islamist-controlled areas in the governorate of al-Hasakah and some parts of Raqqa and Aleppo governorates after al-Qaeda in Syria used those areas to attack the YPG. The Kurdish groups and their allies' goal was also to capture Kurdish areas from the Arab Islamist rebels and strengthen the autonomy of the region of Rojava. The Syrian Democratic Forces would go on to take substantial territory from Islamist groups, in particular the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, provoking Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War.
The Rif Dimashq offensive was a Syrian government forces and allies offensive in the Rif Dimashq Governorate, that was launched in mid-September 2013, as part of the Syrian Civil War.
The Battle of Qalamoun started on 15 November 2013, with air strikes on the town of Qara, in the strategic Qalamoun region, in an attempt by the Syrian Army to cut rebel supply lines to Damascus from Lebanon. The strategic region had been used by rebel forces as a rear base for its operations around the capital Damascus. For its part, government forces had been using the nearby highway to link Damascus with the central Homs province and had multiple weapons depots in the area. The battle was primarily led on the rebel side by the Al-Nusra Front.
The 2014 Latakia offensive was a rebel offensive in the Latakia Governorate of Syria launched on 21 March 2014 by rebel Islamist groups including Al-Nusra Front, which called the offensive "Anfal", while a coalition of Supreme Military Council rebel groups called the offensive "The Martyrs Mothers". The objectives of the offensive have been stated to be the taking over of all strategic observatories, government villages and the Mediterranean coast. Observers have stated a strategic aim was to force the Syrian army to redeploy forces to Latakia, which would relieve pressure on other rebels elsewhere in Syria. They reportedly succeeded in this with government forces being sent from Idlib, Hama and Aleppo to bolster defenses.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war from August to December 2014. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The Deir ez-Zor offensive was executed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS, against all other opposition forces in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate as part of the Inter-rebel conflict during the Syrian Civil War.
The 2014 raid on Idlib city refers to a military operation in the Idlib Governorate, during the Syrian Civil War, conducted by mainly Salafi jihadists backed by Islamist rebels against the Syrian Government.
The 2015 Southern Syria offensive, code-named "Operation Martyrs of Quneitra", was an offensive launched in southern Syria during the Syrian Civil War by the Syrian Arab Army, Hezbollah and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces. Government forces also include Iranian sponsored Afghani Shi'ite volunteer militias. The name "Operation Martyrs of Quneitra" refers to the January 2015 Mazraat Amal incident, in which several high level Hezbollah and IRGC members were killed in an Israeli strike.
The Battle of Idlib was a military operation in the Idlib Governorate, during the Syrian Civil War, conducted by rebels against Syrian government forces defending Idlib city.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to July 2015. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
Relations between the People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are unclear and varied among the different FSA factions. Both are opposed to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. However, several clashes have taken place. Under pressure from the United States, some FSA groups coordinate with the YPG to battle ISIL under the name of the Syrian Democratic Forces, although some other FSA groups remained in conflict with the YPG and the SDF, including FSA groups in the SDF.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to July 2014. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The al-Hasakah Governorate campaign was a multi-sided military conflict between Syrian government forces, Kurdish forces, armed Syrian opposition groups, and Salafist jihadist forces, including al-Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the al-Nusra Front in the al-Hasakah Governorate as part of the Syrian Civil War. The clashes began with the People's Protection Units (YPG)'s entrance into the civil war in July 2012 and spread across the governorate.
The 2012–2013 escalation of the Syrian Civil War refers to the third phase of the Syrian Civil War, which gradually escalated from a UN-mediated cease fire attempt during April–May 2012 and deteriorated into radical violence, escalating the conflict level to a full-fledged civil war.
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, the Islamic State was destroyed in the territories held by the opposition.
al-Nusra Front 
