Syrian opposition combatants have introduced a lightning offensive, taking pictures maximum of Aleppo and arriving as a long way south as Hama in a question of days as executive forces retreated.
The rebels’ fast good points – essentially the most important since 2016 – have thrust Syria’s numerous opposition factions again into the highlight.
Since President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal reaction to non violent demonstrators in 2011 resulted in family choosing up palms to shield themselves, armed opposition teams have shaped, allied with others and fracture up a number of instances, making it crispy to pinpoint their precise sizes and compositions.
Right here’s the whole thing we all know concerning the opposition teams occupied with Operation Deterrence of Aggression with a observe on the finish about every other operation, Break of day of Sovereignty:
Operation Deterrence of Aggression – the regulate room
This umbrella workforce used to be shaped to coordinate the army operation.
It advanced out of the Fateh al-Mubin operations centre, which oversaw the actions of the armed opposition in northwestern Syria below the regulate of the Syrian Salvation Govt (SSG).
The SSG is the Idlib-based technocratic management of the opposition-held fields within the north and used to be arrange in 2017.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)
HTS is the most important combating workforce in Operation Deterrence of Aggression.
Previously Jabhat al-Nusra, next Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, this is a workforce of allied factions, together with Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, Liwa al-Haqq, Jabhat Ansar al-Din and Jaysh al-Sunna.
Firstly of the Syrian conflict, Jabhat al-Nusra used to be shaped in 2012 by way of ISIL (ISIS), from which it fracture a past then and declared allegiance to al-Qaeda.
It severed ties with al-Qaeda and joined with alternative factions to rebrand as HTS in 2017.
HTS in impact controls Idlib and is estimated to have as much as 30,000 combatants.
It additionally has financial regulate over swaths of length and the assets there, together with petroleum, which is a vital supply of source of revenue for it as is the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkiye.
HTS is in large part self-funded and is known to regulate the SSG, even saying to the family of Aleppo that the numerous SSG ministers founded in Idlib would now be serving Aleppo as neatly.
Nationwide Entrance for Liberation (NFL)
A lot of the smaller combating teams that construct up the NFL participated in Operation Deterrence of Aggression, together with the Jaish al-Nasr, Sham Corps and Detached Idlib Military.
Established in Idlib in 2018, the NFL contains a number of northern Syrian factions, a few of which additionally fall below the umbrella of the Detached Syrian Military.
Like on many fronts, the NFL got here in combination to counter ultimatum by way of the regime to exit on Idlib.
Ahrar al-Sham Motion
Most commonly energetic in Aleppo and Idlib, Ahrar al-Sham used to be established in 2011 as executive forces violently repressed the Syrian revolution.
Its combating power used to be estimated at greater than 15,000 in line with 2015 estimates.
It defines itself as a “comprehensive reformist Islamic movement, included and integrated within the Islamic Front”.
Jaish al-Izza
Centered within the northern reaches of the Hama governorate and a few portions of Lattakia, Jaish al-Izza (the Military of Satisfaction) is a part of the Detached Syrian Military.
As of 2019, it used to be estimated to have any place from 2,000 to five,000 combatants and has gained Western backing, together with high-powered guns.
Its combatants have joined the original push into Syrian executive length, with considered one of its commanders, Mustafa Abdul Jaber, announcing its fast luck used to be partly because of the insufficiency of Iranian manpower countering them.
Nur Eddin Zinki Motion
An impressive workforce that emerged in 2014 in Aleppo, “Zinki” attempted to tied forces with HTS in 2017, a go that didn’t figure out as Zinki fracture off.
The 2 fought in 2018, and Zinki used to be routed from its positions of energy in Aleppo in early 2019.
A past then, Zinki negotiated with HTS, and its combatants returned to the entrance strains, and it has had a presence a number of the opposition combatants since next.
Operation Break of day of Sovereignty
Because the combatants occupied with Deterrence of Aggression moved south in opposition to Hama – and perhaps even Damascus, some analysts be expecting – a few of the ones armed opposition teams headed in opposition to the northeast.
Abdurrahman Mustafa – the pinnacle of the Syrian Intervening time Govt, an opposition executive in northern Syrian fields no longer held by way of HTS and the SSG – introduced {that a} pristine operation, Break of day of Sovereignty, had begun to “liberate” the northeast.
بينما يواصل شعبنا السوري كفاحه العادل لاستعادة حريته وتحرير وطنه من قيود الاستبداد والاحتلال والإرهاب، ومع تحقيق انتصارات ميدانية جديدة على يد أبطال الجيش الوطني والقوى الوطنية والثورية، تعلن الحكومة السورية المؤقتة بفخر انطلاق عملية فجر الحرية لتحرير المناطق التي يسيطر عليها… pic.twitter.com/jabvVrVZbQ
— Abdurrahman Mustafa (@STMAbdurrahman) November 30, 2024
Translation: As our Syrian family proceed their simply effort for self-government … and with pristine victories completed by way of the heroes of the Nationwide Military and the nationwide and innovative forces, the Syrian Intervening time Govt proudly pronounces the forming of Operation Break of day of Sovereignty to free up fields managed by way of the al-Assad regime and the separatist PKK and PYD militias. The liberation of those fields is an notable step in opposition to restoring Syrian length … and paves the way in which for the go back of refugees and displaced individuals to their properties. All recognize and revere to the heroes of the Nationwide Military and everybody who took up palms in defence in their family and their land in contrast oppressive regime. …
Those armed teams – which most commonly fall below the Syrian Nationwide Military, which in flip is below the Syrian Intervening time Govt – had been transferring in opposition to Kurdish-controlled fields, announcing they had been held by way of the PKK and PYD militias.
Turkiye’s PKK, or Kurdish Employees’ Celebration, is regarded as a “terrorist organisation” by way of Turkiye, Canada, the Ecu Union and the USA. The PYD, or Democratic Union Celebration, is a left-wing Kurdish birthday party in Syria.