The Free Syrian Army (FSA) is a big-tent coalition of decentralized resistance militias in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by Colonel Riad al-Assad and six officers who defected from the Syrian Armed Forces. The officers announced that the immediate priority of the Free Syrian Army is 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 2011–2013 Daraa Governorate clashes are a series of military confrontations between the Syrian Army and the Free Syrian Army in Daraa Governorate, Syria, which began in November 2011, after widescale protests and crackdown on protesters in Daraa had lasted since April 2011. The clashes had been ongoing as part of the Syrian civil war, until the U.N. brokered cease fire came into effect on 14 April 2012. Sporadic clashes continued since then, however.
The 2013 Daraa offensive was a campaign during the Syrian Civil War launched by the FSA in the Daraa Governorate to capture the strategic border area. The offensive began in early March 2013. During the campaign, rebel forces captured several bases and towns. The offensive was eventually halted following an Army counter-offensive in mid-April, which resulted in the recapture of a few towns and villages. After that, the rebels continued their advance by launching a counter-offensive of their own.
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.
Alwiya al-Furqan is an independent Islamist rebel group involved in the Syrian Civil War. It claimed to be the largest Islamist rebel faction that operated in the eastern Quneitra Governorate and Damascus. The group also held ties to Jordan which allowed fighters from the group to cross into the country to receive medical aid. During a sermon the group's leader stated that the Syrian opposition was building a Caliphate in Syria, that the rebels should emulate the Prophet Muhammad and his companions in doing so.
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.
Jabhat Ansar al-Islam, originally formed as Tajamu' Ansar al-Islam in August 2012, is an independent Sunni Islamist Syrian rebel group active in the Quneitra and Daraa Governorates.
The Youth of Sunna Forces or Sunni Youth Forces, formerly the Youth of Sunna Division and the Youth of Sunna Brigade, was a Syrian rebel group affiliated with the Free Syrian Army's Southern Front that was armed with U.S.-made BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles. It operated in the Daraa and Quneitra Governorates until it surrendered and later joined ranks of Syrian Arab Army in 2018.
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 Army of Conquest or Jaish al-Fatah, abbreviated JaF, was a joint command center of Sunni Islamist Syrian rebel factions participating in the Syrian Civil War.
The Daraa and As-Suwayda offensive was launched in eastern Daraa Governorate during the Syrian Civil War, by the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army and allied Islamic Front rebel group against government positions in and around the 52nd Mechanized Brigade base, which housed an infantry unit, an artillery battalion and a T-72 tank battalion. The offensive moved directly onto nearby al-Thula airbase in western As-Suwayda Governorate after the swift capture of Brigade 52. However, after initially managing to capture parts of the airbase, the rebels were forced to withdraw.
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 Khalid ibn al-Walid Army was an armed Salafi jihadist group active in southern Syria. It was formed by a merger of the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, the Islamic Muthanna Movement, and the Army of Jihad on 21 May 2016. The faction controlled a strip of territory southeast of the Golan Heights, and was in conflict with other forces of the Syrian rebels. The group was defeated and lost all of its territory to the Syrian Government on 31 July 2018, with many members surrendering. Many captured members of the Khalid Bin Walid Army were executed on the same day.
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 Alliance of Southern Forces was a Syrian rebel coalition consisting of 8 rebel factions from the Free Syrian Army's Southern Front. The group operated in southwestern Syria. The coalition supported the High Negotiations Committee and its participation in the Geneva peace talks on Syria.
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.
The March 2020 Daraa clashes was an armed conflict between rebel fighters aligned with the Free Syrian Army and Syrian government forces in the Daraa Governorate. Clashes began after the start of a government security operation against FSA insurgent cells in Al-Sanamayn and other areas in the Daraa governorate that have been active since 2018 after the defeat of rebel forces in the province. This crackdown led to actions of retaliation by rebels across the province that lead to levels of fighting unseen on such a scale since the government offensive in 2018. The fighters involved in the attack are believed to be former rebel fighters that surrendered to the government in 2018, as well as former rebels that defected to the government, and had been working against the government from within.
Free Syrian Army Syrian Revolutionaries Front southern branch (former)
Saudi Arabia 
Criterion Brigades 
Tahrir al-Sham 
Islamic Muthanna Movement (Until 2016)
Syria 
Iran 
Hezbollah 
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Since 2016)
