Syrian Free Army | |
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Arabic: جيش مغاوير الثورة | |
Leaders |
|
Dates of operation | May 2015 – Dec 2016 (New Syrian Army)Dec 2016 — Nov 2022 (Maghaweir Al-Thowra)Nov 2022 — present (Syrian Free Army) |
Group(s) |
|
Headquarters | Al-Tanf |
Active regions | Homs Governorate, Rif Dimashq Governorate, and Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria Anbar Governorate, Iraq |
Ideology | Syrian opposition |
Status | Active |
Size | |
Part of | Free Syrian Army Authenticity and Development Front (until August 2016) [14] |
Allies | Southern Front [15] United States United Kingdom [17] Norway (until 2018) [18] Jordan (until 2018) [15] |
Opponents | Islamic State [19] Syrian Armed Forces Islamic Resistance in Iraq |
Battles and wars | Syrian Civil War
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The Syrian Free Army (SFA), [lower-alpha 1] also known as the New Syrian Army (NSA), [lower-alpha 2] or Revolutionary Commando Army, [20] is a Syrian opposition faction which controls territory near Syria's border with Iraq and Jordan. It has been trained by United States Army and hosted at al-Tanf. [20] [19] [21]
Founded as an expansion of the Allahu Akbar Brigade by Syrian Arab Army defectors and other rebels during the Syrian Civil War on 20 May 2015, the New Syrian Army sought to expel the Islamic State from southeastern Syria. In December 2016, the New Syrian Army dissolved, and the remnants of the group formed Maghawir al-Thawra. [22] In 2022 it rebranded as the Syrian Free Army following disputes between different factions of its leadership.
The New Syrian Army was established by remnants of the Allahu Akbar Brigade, part of the Authenticity and Development Front and formerly based in Abu Kamal. [23] [24] The NSA was formed on 20 May 2015, and its fighters were trained in Jordan. [2]
On 16 November 2015, the New Syrian Army was deployed at al-Tanf in southeastern Syria, near Iraq and Jordan, and carried out a raid, with or without US aerial support. No further information was given. [25]
On 5 March 2016, the NSA and another FSA group, the Forces of Martyr Ahmad al-Abdo, captured the al-Tanf border crossing from ISIL in a cross-border raid from Jordan. [26]
In May 2016, an Islamic State suicide attack struck an NSA base near al-Tanf, which resulted in a large number of casualties. The attack brought to the surface underlying tensions and a lack of morale within the group, whose members alleged that the US failed to provide them with the equipment promised. [14]
In June 2016, the NSA's base near al-Tanf was hit by multiple cluster bombs from Russian airstrikes, killing 2 and injuring 18. [27] Russia denied responsibility for the airstrike, although photos released by the NSA identified the bombs as Russian RBK-500 cluster bombs which were delivered from Khmeimim Air Base in Latakia. [28]
Later in June, the group launched an offensive against ISIL in Abu Kamal. The offensive was repelled by ISIL. [29]
On 3 August 2016, the New Syrian Army was expelled from the Authenticity and Development Front. [30]
The Ghosts of the Desert was an NSA-affiliated anti-ISIL insurgent group that covertly operated in ISIL-held towns in southeastern Syria and southwestern Iraq such as Abu Kamal, Mayadin, and al-Qaim. Since March 2016, they initially sprayed graffiti and raised Syrian and Iraqi flags in the towns, but began to conduct covert military activities the next month, such as sabotage, assassinations of ISIL fighters, and marking positions for airstrikes. The group supplied military intelligence to the US Air Force that allowed them to kill Abu Waheeb in May 2016 in the Iraqi town of Rutbah after the group marked his location. [8]
In December 2016, the New Syrian Army dissolved after internal disputes. Some of its remnants regrouped under the name of the Maghawir al-Thawra (Commandos of the Revolution), led by Captain Abdullah al-Zoubi. [3]
On 30 April 2017, the Maghawir al-Thawra launched an offensive into eastern Syria, reaching the Deir ez-Zor Governorate and capturing the village of Humaymah, south of the T2 pumping station. [31] [32] Two days later, the rebels attacked and captured several sites in the region, including: Tarwazeh al-Wa`er, Sereit al-Wa`er, Mount Ghrab, Swab desert, al-Kamm Swab, the T3 Pumping Station, Me`izeileh and Tarwazeh al-Attshaneh. [33] On 6 May, FSA groups including the MaT captured several sites in the Badiya region of Homs Governorate to the south of Palmyra including Dahlouz and al-Halbeh areas. [34] The MaT was supplied with IAG Guardian armoured personnel carriers by the US during the operation. [35]
In late November 2017, at least 180 fighters in the Maghawir al-Thawra were relieved of duty. According to the United States Central Command, the fighters "completed their military service", while according to the group's spokesman, they were removed due to their "weak performance". As result, between 40 and 60 fighters were left in the group. [5] The unit increased in numbers after that point, with c. 300 fighters serving with the Maghawir al-Thawra by October 2018. [12]
In 2021, reports emerged that several explosions took place in al-Tanf. The Maghawair al-Thawra stated that they came from training exercises that it was conducting in the region. [36] On 20 October 2021, the Maghaweir al-Thawra, other Opposition elements at al-Tanf, and the US garrison there were attacked by drones, causing no injuries. [37]
On 23 September 2022, the US-led coalition dismissed Maghawir al-Thawra's commander Brigadier General Muhannad Ahmad and replaced him with Captain Muhammad Farid, a former leader of the Qaryatayn Martyrs' Brigade. This caused a group of MaT leaders styling themselves as the military council of MaT to reject the new leader and seize control of part of the al-Tanf base, leading to a brief siege in which the military council was confronted by the main MaT group and US forces, submitting to the new leadership soon after. [1] Following another meeting with US forces, the group changed its name to the Syrian Free Army on 23 October 2022. [20]
Al-Waleed border crossing is one of three official border crossings between Iraq and Syria. It is located in the Ar-Rutba District of the Al-Anbar Governorate in western Iraq, close to the northeasternmost point of Jordan in the Syrian Desert. It serves as the main border checkpoint on the highway between Damascus and Baghdad. The al-Waleed checkpoint is close to al-Tanf on the Syrian side of the border in the Homs Governorate. The Al-Waleed Palestinian refugee camp is nearby.
The Mujahideen Army was a Sunni Islamist rebel group formed in order to fight the Syrian government and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the Syrian Civil War. Originally a coalition of several Islamist rebel groups, it accused ISIL of disrupting "security and stability" in areas that had been captured from the Syrian government. During its establishment in January 2014, the spokesperson of the coalition said it would start operations in Idlib and Aleppo and gradually expand towards the rest of Syria. In December 2016, the Army of Mujahideen was briefly reorganized as Jabhat Ahl al-Sham, but this formation soon fell apart during rebel infighting in January 2017.
On 22 September 2014, the United States officially intervened in the Syrian civil war with the stated aim of fighting the terrorist organization ISIS in support of the international war against it, code named Operation Inherent Resolve. The US currently continues to support the Syrian rebels and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces opposed to both the Islamic State and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
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 Forces of Martyr Ahmad al-Abdo is a Syrian rebel group previously affiliated with the Free Syrian Army's Southern Front. The group was named after either Ahmad al-Abdo al-Saeed, a Syrian civilian who was killed in the early 2011 protests, or first lieutenant Ahmad al-Abdo, a rebel commander who was killed in action during the war. The group received support from the Friends of Syria Group.
The Lions of the East Army is a Syrian rebel group formerly affiliated with the Free Syrian Army's Southern Front that was formed in August 2014 and is based in southeastern Syria. Many of the group's fighters are al-Shaitat tribesmen from the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. The group was also active in Damascus city between January and July 2015, when its unit in Damascus merged into Jaysh al-Islam's 8th Brigade. It mainly focused on defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the eastern Syrian Desert, where it gained control over large areas since 2016.
The Syrian Train and Equip Program is a United States-led military operation launched in 2014 that identified and trained selected Syrian opposition forces inside Syria as well as in Turkey and other US-allied states who would then return to Syria to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The program reportedly cost the US $500 million. It is a covert program, run by U.S. special operations forces, separate from Timber Sycamore, the parallel covert program run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). As of July 2015, only a group of 54 trained and equipped fighters had been reported to have been deployed, which was quickly routed by al-Nusra, and a further 75 were reported in September 2015.
The Jaysh al-Nukhba (Elite Army, formerly called the Liberation Army is a group operating in the Hama and Aleppo Governorates, backed and supported by Turkey. The group was formed from five units, some of which received BGM-71 TOW missiles from the United States.
The 2016 Abu Kamal offensive, also known as Operation Day of Wrath, was launched on the town of Abu Kamal on the Syrian–Iraqi border led by the US-backed New Syrian Army (NSA).
The northern al-Bab offensive was a military offensive and part of the third phase of Operation Euphrates Shield launched by the Turkish Armed Forces and factions from the Free Syrian Army and allied groups, with the goal of capturing the city of al-Bab located north of Aleppo from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The Hawar Kilis Operations Room is a Syrian rebel coalition formed in the village of Hawar Kilis in April 2016 in the northern Aleppo Governorate on the Syria–Turkey border.
The Syrian Desert campaign was a military campaign launched by Syrian rebel forces affiliated with the Free Syrian Army's Southern Front and their allies in the southern Syrian Desert and the eastern Qalamoun Mountains. The aim of the offensive was to expel the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant from the desert in southern Syria and to open a supply route between two rebel-held areas.
The Syrian Desert campaign was a large-scale military operation of the Syrian Army that initially started along the highway from Damascus to the border with Iraq against rebel forces during the Syrian civil war. Its first intended goal was to capture both the highway and the al-Tanf border crossing, thus securing the Damascus countryside from a potential rebel attack. Later, multiple other fronts were opened as part of the operation throughout the desert, as well as operation "Grand Dawn" against ISIL with the aim of reopening the Damascus-Palmyra highway and preparing for an offensive towards Deir ez-Zor.
The Al-Tanf offensive was a two-day offensive launched by the Free Syrian Army backed by the U.S.-led Coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), aiming to recapture al-Tanf, Syria. Al-Tanf had been captured by ISIL from the Syrian Government in May 2015 and had been used by ISIL to shift militants and resources across the border.
Al-Tanf is a U.S. military base in an American occupied part of the Homs Governorate, Syria. It is located 24km west of the al-Walid border crossing in the Syrian Desert. The surrounding deconfliction zone is located along the Iraq–Syria border and the Jordan–Syria border. The garrison is located along a critical road known as the M2 Baghdad–Damascus Highway. The Rukban refugee camp for internally displaced Syrians is located within the deconfliction zone.
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 origins of the Islamic State group can be traced back to three main organizations. Earliest of these was the "Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād" organization, founded by the Jihadist leader Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi in Jordan in 1999. The other two predecessor organizations emerged during the Iraqi insurgency against the U.S. occupation forces. These included the "Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah" group founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004 and the "Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah" group founded by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his associates in the same year.
The US intervention in the Syrian civil war is the United States-led support of Syrian opposition and the Federation of Northern Syria during the course of the Syrian Civil War and active military involvement led by the United States and its allies — the militaries of the United Kingdom, France, Jordan, Turkey, Canada, Australia and more — against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Nusra Front since 2014. Since early 2017, the U.S. and other Coalition partners have also targeted the Syrian government and its allies via airstrikes and aircraft shoot-downs.