The Syrian Army, officially the Syrian Arab Army, was the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It was the dominant military service of the four uniformed services, controlling the most senior posts in the armed forces, and had the greatest manpower, approximately 80 percent of the combined services. The Syrian Army originated in local military forces formed by the French after World War I, after France obtained a mandate over the region. It officially came into being in 1945, before Syria obtained full independence the following year.
Riyad Farid Hijab is a Syrian politician. He was Prime Minister of Syria from June to August 2012, serving under President Bashar al-Assad. From 2011 to 2012, he was Minister of Agriculture.
The Free Syrian Army is a big-tent coalition of decentralized Syrian opposition rebel groups 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.
Riad Mousa al-Asaad is a Syrian military officer and politician who is the founding leader of the Free Syrian Army. One of the prominent faces of the Syrian Civil War, he led the armed resistance to the Assad regime as commander-in-chief of FSA, during the early phase of the Syrian Civil War. Under Riad al-Asaad's command, FSA expanded into a paramilitary force of 75,000 guerilla fighters and insurgents in March 2012; capable of ousting regime forces from Damascus. He currently serves as the Deputy Prime Minister for Military Affairs of the Syrian Salvation Government, a position he has held since 2 November 2017. He was a former Colonel in the Syrian Air Force who defected to the opposition in July 2011 and became the first Acting Commander-in-chief of the Free Syrian Army.
A battle for control of Rastan, a city of 60,000 residents in Homs Governorate, Syria, occurred from 27 September to 1 October 2011. In late September, there were reports of numerous Syrian Army defections in the area, following which the Free Syrian Army took control of Rastan. After a four-day battle, the city was retaken by the Syrian Army.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to April 2012, during which time the spate of protests that began in January 2011 lasted into another calendar year. An Arab League monitoring mission ended in failure as Syrian troops and anti-government militants continued to do battle across the country and the Syrian government prevented foreign observers from touring active battlefields, including besieged opposition strongholds. A United Nations-backed ceasefire brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan met a similar fate, with unarmed UN peacekeepers' movements tightly controlled by the government and fighting.
A second battle between the Syrian Army and the Free Syrian Army for control of the city of Rastan took place from 29 January to 5 February 2012. Located in Homs Governorate, Rastan is a city of 60,000 residents. The FSA captured Rastan after days of intense fighting, according to residents and the opposition.
The Jabal al-Zawiya massacres took place on 19–20 December 2011, in the Idlib province of Syria during the 2011-2012 Idlib Governorate clashes between the Syrian Army and opposition forces, within the larger scope of the 2011-2012 Syrian uprising. Human rights and opposition activists said that some 200 people were killed by Syrian security forces in the hills and villages of the north-western province of Idlib on 19 and 20 December 2011. The Syrian state news agency claimed that 1 terrorist was killed and several more wounded.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from May to August 2012. The majority of death tolls reported for each day comes from the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition activist group based in Syria, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another opposition group based in London.
Mustafa Ahmad al-Sheikh is a Syrian former military officer and rebel commander who was the founder and head of the Free Syrian Army's Higher Military Council in 2012, during the Syrian Civil War. He was a brigadier general in the Syrian Army prior to his defection in December 2011.
Hassan Hamada, full name Hassan Mirei al-Hamada, also spelled as Hammadeh, is a former colonel in the Syrian Air Force who, together with his MiG-21, defected to Jordan on 21 June 2012 during the Syrian civil war.
Manaf Tlass or Manaf Tlas is a former Brigadier General of the Syrian Republican Guard and member of Bashar al-Assad's inner circle who defected in 2012. He was the first Syrian Republican Guard commander to defect from the Syrian military and declare support for the opposition.
Firas Tlass is a Syrian businessman and a member of a significant Sunni family who had close relations with former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, but defected to the rebels during the Syrian Civil War.
Lamia al Hariri is Syria's former chargée d'affaires in the Republic of Cyprus who defected to Qatar in July 2012.
Babbila is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Rif Dimashq Governorate, located on the southern outskirts of Damascus to the east of the Yarmouk Camp. Nearby localities include al-Hajar al-Aswad, Jaramana, Sayyidah Zaynab, al-Sabinah and Yalda. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Babbila had a population of 50,880 in the 2004 census. The town is also the administrative center of the Babbila nahiyah consisting of 13 towns and villages with a combined population of 341,625.
Al-Malihah is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Rif Dimashq Governorate, located on the eastern outskirts of Damascus to the west of Jaramana, in the Ghouta area. Nearby localities include 'Aqraba, Deir al-Asafir, Zabdin, Kafr Batna and Babbila. According to the Syrian Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Malihah had a population of 23,034 as of the 2004 census. The town is also the administrative centre of the al-Malihah nahiyah, which is composed of eight towns and villages having a combined population of 56,652. Malihah is considered strategic due to its proximity to the main road between Damascus and its airport.
The Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades was a Syrian rebel group fighting against the Syrian government in the Syrian Civil War. It was funded by the Qatari government.
The Mountain Hawks Brigade, known as the Hawks of Mount Zawiya Brigade between 2012 and 2015 and the Mountain Hawks Division since 2020, is a Syrian rebel group affiliated with the Free Syrian Army operating in northwestern Syria, mainly in the Idlib Governorate. The group is supported by Turkey and previously by Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The early insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war lasted from late July 2011 to April 2012, and was associated with the rise of armed oppositional militias across Syria and the beginning of armed rebellion against the authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic. Though armed insurrection incidents began as early as June 2011 when rebels killed 120–140 Syrian security personnel, the beginning of organized insurgency is typically marked by the formation of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) on 29 July 2011, when a group of defected officers declared the establishment of the first organized oppositional military force. Composed of defected Syrian Armed Forces personnel, the rebel army aimed to remove Bashar al-Assad and his government from power.
Ba'athist Syria (previously)
Syrian opposition (2012)
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