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Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
Thu Dec 10, 2015, 06:56 PM Dec 2015

Syria conflict: Who are the groups fighting Assad?


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34710635
By Ghadi Sary Chatham House

... The FSA (Free Syria Army) was constantly splintering into competing factions. And as the war in Syria became more atrocious, it began to be reshaped along sectarian lines. A rise in the number of jihadists - both Syrian and foreign - soon followed.

By the end of 2012, jihadist groups were at the core of the anti-Assad front, securing and maintaining territorial control.

Islamist groups in Syria can, however, be distinguished from one another by their goals, the source of their funding and the composition of their manpower.

While many groups are predominantly Syrian, others are of a more international structure. The main Syrian Islamist groups include Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh Al Islam.

The most notorious international jihadist groups remain the Islamic State (IS) and the Nusra Front
- al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria. The Nusra Front split with IS in 2013, with IS declaring the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in Syria and Iraq a year later...


The rest of the article can be described as history dressed as propaganda bolstering perceptions of whatever 'rump' FSA is represented.

I'm still looking for a list of the 'Opposition groups' attendant at the Saudi meeting.
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Syria conflict: Who are the groups fighting Assad? (Original Post) Ghost Dog Dec 2015 OP
Gotta love the Orwellian title of the Saudi meeting story: Syrian opposition groups discuss peace leveymg Dec 2015 #1
AYYYYYYYYYY! KoKo Dec 2015 #2
Thanks. Wikipedia has this on the group that doesn't agree with the rest... Ghost Dog Dec 2015 #3
Interesting... KoKo Dec 2015 #4

leveymg

(36,418 posts)
1. Gotta love the Orwellian title of the Saudi meeting story: Syrian opposition groups discuss peace
Thu Dec 10, 2015, 07:19 PM
Dec 2015

push - Aljazeera.

This from Syrian Observer, http://www.syrianobserver.com/EN/News/30261/Riyadh_Conference_the_Gateway_Important_Deliberations_Among_Syrian_Opposition

The Syrian opposition conference in Riyadh is based on the decisions of the Vienna III conference, which took place last November with the participation of 17 countries, including the United States, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The final list of the 103 participants included the political and military wings of the Syrian opposition. The Syrian National Coalition is represented by 21 figureS, armed opposition forces are represented by 19 figureS, while there are 63 figures from different opposition currents and entities, most notably the National Coordination Commission, the Cairo Conference, Building the Syrian State Current, as well as independent dissidents, public figures and activists.


AP reports picked up here: http://www.bdtonline.com/news/syrian-opposition-groups-meet-in-saudi-arabia-to-close-ranks/article_6f278e85-83e0-5bb3-952a-c5ef9a7f4dec.html

The largest bloc at the meeting, with around 20 delegates, is the Western-backed opposition group known as the Syrian National Coalition. Also in attendance are representatives of the Syria-based National Coordination Body. In total, fewer than 10 women are taking part.

Rebel factions at the talks include the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, the Saudi-backed Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham — groups that had long rejected any negotiations with Assad's government so long as he remained in power.

Notably absent were Kurdish opposition factions, such as the People's Protection Units, which is known by its Kurdish acronym the YPG. It's the main Kurdish fighting force battling the Islamic State group in Syria. However, there are ethnic Kurds at the talks from among the broader opposition groups invited.

The YPG is participating in a concurrent conference in Syria's northern province of Hassakeh that is unrelated to the Riyadh gathering and that is led by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, of which the YPG is a member.

Over the past year, ties between Saudi Arabia and Turkey have strengthened around their mutual support for Sunni groups fighting Assad's Iranian-backed government. The decision to exclude Kurdish groups is widely seen as a gesture to appease Turkey, which is wary of Kurdish ambitions for an independent state in the region.

___

Sounds like a fun crowd.

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
2. AYYYYYYYYYY!
Thu Dec 10, 2015, 10:54 PM
Dec 2015

What else can one say about this?

Look...maybe it's a disjointed start... Surely the Factions in ME are facing being Wiped Out intp Oblivion...or they need to get serious and at least start SOME KIND of Dialogue. As Hopeless as it Seems.....

My Hopeful/Pesimistic sides continue to fight against each other.

 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
3. Thanks. Wikipedia has this on the group that doesn't agree with the rest...
Fri Dec 11, 2015, 03:24 AM
Dec 2015
Harakat Ahrar ash-Sham al-Islamiyya (Arabic: حركة أحرار الشام الإسلامية?, translit. Ahrār ash-Shām, lit. "Islamic Movement of the Free Men of the Levant&quot is a coalition of multiple Islamist and Salafist units that coalesced into a single brigade in order to fight against the Ba'athist government led by Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian Civil War.[22] Ahrar ash-Sham was led by Hassan Aboud.[4] In July 2013, Ahrar ash-Sham had 10,000 to 20,000 fighters,[4] making it the second single most powerful unit fighting against al-Assad, after the Free Syrian Army.[34] It was the principal organization operating under the umbrella of the Syrian Islamic Front[4] and is a major component of the Islamic Front.[10]

The first Ahrar ash-Sham brigades were formed just after the Egyptian revolution, and before the Syrian Revolution started in 2011.[35] Most of the group founders were Islamist political prisoners who had been detained for years at the Sednaya prison until they were released as part of an amnesty by the Syrian Government in March–May 2011.[35][36][37] At the time of its establishment in late 2011, Ahrar ash-Sham consisted of about 25 rebel units spread across Syria. It has expanded since then; by July 2012, the group's website listed 50 units, and by mid-January 2013, the number had increased to 83 units.[38] Most of these units are headquartered in villages in Idlib Governorate, but many others are located in Hama and Aleppo. Some Ahrar ash-Sham units that have been involved in heavy fighting include the Qawafel al-Shuhada and Ansar al-Haqq Brigades (both in Khan Sheikhoun, Idleb Province), the al-Tawhid wal-Iman Brigade (Maarrat al-Nouman, Idleb Province), the Shahba Brigade (Aleppo City), the Hassane bin Thabet Brigade (Darat Ezza, Aleppo Province), and the Salahaddin and Abul-Fida Brigades (both in Hama City).[5]

Members of the group are Islamists.[39] Ahrar ash-Sham cooperates with the Free Syrian Army and other secular rebel groups; however, it does not maintain ties with the Syrian National Council.[40] Although they coordinate with other groups, they maintain their own strict and secretive leadership, receiving the majority of their funding and support from donors in Kuwait.[22][41][42]

Through donations from supporters abroad and the capture of materiel from the Syrian Armed Forces, Ahrar ash-Sham became one of the best-armed most powerful rebel factions active in the Syrian Civil War, having progressed from the use of improvised explosive devices and small-arms ambushes in early 2012 to assuming a lead role in large-scale sustained assaults on multiple fronts by 2013. It regularly deployed tanks and mobile artillery, anti-tank guided missiles, and occasionally 1990s-era Croatian rocket and grenade launchers and was involved in every major rebel victory over Syrian Government forces between September 2012 and mid-2013.[6] It grew significantly by absorbing into its ranks other rebel factions from the Islamic Front and Syrian Islamic Front coalitions.[43]

On 26 April 2015, Ahrar ash-Sham, along with other major Aleppo based groups, established the Fatah Halab joint operations room.[12][44]

The Islamic Front and Ahrar ash-Sham in particular have received weapons from Turkey according to German intelligence.[45][46]

The Islamic Movement of Free Men of the Levant is an Islamist, reformist, innovative and comprehensive movement. It is integrated with the Islamic Front and is a comprehensive and Islamic military, political and social formation. It aims to completely overthrow the Assad regime in Syria and build an Islamic state whose only sovereign, reference, ruler, direction, and individual, societal and nationwide unifier is Allah Almighty’s Sharia (law). Translated into English by Malak Chabkoun at the Al Jazeera Center for Studies.[47]


The group has a Syrian leadership and "emphasizes that its campaign is for Syria, not for a global jihad".[4] However, according to US intelligence officials, a few al-Qaeda members released from prisons by the Syrian government have been able to influence actions of the group, and install operatives within the senior ranks of Ahrar ash-Sham.[48][49][50] Such ties were not disclosed publicly until January 2014, when a former senior leader of Ahrar ash-Sham, the now deceased Abu Khalid al-Suri, acknowledged his long-time membership in al-Qaeda and role as Ayman al-Zawahiri's representative in the Levant...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahrar_ash-Sham

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
4. Interesting...
Fri Dec 11, 2015, 12:20 PM
Dec 2015

and, how difficult it will be to create cooperation among so many groups with their own conflicting religious interests and loyalties to even begin to work together to achieve a Cease Fire, Peace Agreement, hold Elections and even Govern if Assad is Removed.

If Assad stays then the fighting continues until enough of the groups are decimated and the death, destruction and inability to get funds to arm themselves wears the down the remaining factions enough that some kind of compromise can be reached. What will be left of the Syrian State (as the maps show it today) after that, though? How will this influence the situation in Iraq, Lebanon, Libya... and what about Turkey and Egypt?

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