Main armed groups in Syria after the fall of Bashar al Assad’s regime

MADRID Dec. 9 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The fall of the Bashar al Assad regime due to the lightning offensive launched on November 27 by jihadist and rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) opens the door to a transition after more than 50 years of the Al Assad dynasty and thirteen years of civil war, although the scenario is marked by uncertainty, the new conflict between rebels supported by Turkey and the Kurdish forces and the possible struggles for power in the face of this new scenery.

The end of the Al Assad dynasty, which began in 1971 with the coming to power of Hafez al Assad – in office until his death in 2000 – redraws the situation on the ground, where HTS and its leader, Abu Mohamed al Golani, emerge as the main force after years of conflict unleashed by the brutal repression of the 2011 pro-democracy protests.

Al Golani himself played his leading role on Sunday with a speech from the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, in which he stressed that the fall of the Al Assad regime represents “a victory for the Islamic nation” and conveyed to the minorities that ” Syria is for everyone,” amid fears that a campaign of persecution against these groups will be unleashed.

HAYAT TAHRIR AL SHAM

HTS (Left Liberation Organization) has been the most relevant insurgent group in Syria for years, consolidating its control of the province of Idlib (northwest) and forging various alliances with other rebels and with ties to Turkey before launching on 27 November a large-scale offensive that ended up forcing Al Assad to flee.

Its leader, whose real name is Ahmed Hussein al Shara, fought in Iraq against US troops in the ranks of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) after the invasion of the country and in 2006 he was arrested and imprisoned in several prisons in the country, including Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca.

Upon his release from prison, Al Golani returned to Syria with the mandate to create an Al Qaeda affiliate in the country, the Al Nusra Front, and maintained an alliance with the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI) and its then leader, Abu Bakr al. Baghdadi, who in 2014 announced the creation of a ‘caliphate’ in areas of Syria and Iraq after a lightning offensive in the area.

However, differences with Al Baghdadi over the al Nusra Front’s dependence on the Islamic State led him to distance himself from him and strengthen ties with Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri, while his forces launched attacks against government troops. in the context of the civil war.

Subsequently, in 2017, he announced the creation of HTS after ensuring that he would sever relations with foreign entities, in apparent reference to Al Qaeda. Thus, it launched operations against the affiliates of the Islamic State and Al Qaeda in the country to consolidate its power and soften its public image, in an image wash that has left doubts among the international community.

In fact, HTS has been declared a terrorist organization by the United Nations Security Council and the United States, which placed a reward of ten million dollars (about 9.45 million euros) on its head that still stands, despite despite the success of the ‘Aggression Deterrence’ offensive.

THE SYRIAN NATIONAL ARMY

The Syrian National Army (SNA), formerly known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), is a coalition of rebel groups – among which the National Liberation Front stands out – that rose up against Al Assad after the outbreak of the civil war. and which has undergone various remodeling since 2011 until its final formation in 2017 with the support of Turkey.

The ENS arose from the dismantling of the FSA, affected by the response of the Syrian Army and its allies – mainly Russia and Iran – and the internal disputes between the groups that made it up due to their differences in interests and strategies, as well as the attacks by part of Islamist factions.

Thus, in 2016, Ankara began an effort to create a new coalition to support its offensives against the Kurdish groups that established an autonomous authority in the north and northeast of the country and avoid what it considers a threat due to the ties of some of these formations with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Since then, it has participated in the three large-scale operations launched by Türkiye against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — ‘Euphrates Shield’, in 2016; ‘Olive Branch’, in 2018; and ‘Fountain of Freedom’, in 2019–, before joining the one led by HTS against the Syrian troops with the ‘Dawn of Freedom’ operation, now focused on confronting the Kurdish troops.

THE FDS

The SDF is a coalition of Kurdish, Arab and other minority militias – including Assyrians, Armenians and Turkmens, among others – that emerged in 2015 as a military branch of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), a region ‘de facto’ autonomous since 2012, when these forces managed to consolidate their control in these areas in the face of the government’s withdrawal to combat the rebels.

These forces, led by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and supported by the international coalition against the Islamic State led by the United States, were the spearhead in the offensive against the jihadists and brought about the end of the territorial ‘caliphate’ in 2019. created five years earlier by Al Baghdadi after expelling the group from its last stronghold, Baghuz.

Since then and before, its main rival has been the rebel groups supported by Ankara and the Turkish Army itself, in response to the demands of the Turkish authorities to create a ‘buffer zone’ on the border that keeps the YPG away from the area due to their ties with the PKK, considered a terrorist group by Turkey.

MILITARY PRESENCE OF OTHER COUNTRIES

In addition to Turkey, which maintains soldiers deployed in northern Syria as part of its support for the rebel groups fighting against the SDF, Russia, Iran, the United States and Israel maintain a military presence in the country, within the framework of a war. civil war that quickly became international with the support of various countries for the opposing sides.

Thus, Russia supported Al Assad’s troops by sending soldiers and mercenaries from the Wagner Group – now Africa Corps – and by launching bombings against the insurgent groups, using the naval base in Tartus and the air base in Latakia. as main logistics points for their operations.

Iran, another ally of Al Assad, sent forces and advisors from the Revolutionary Guard to shore up the efforts of the security forces, also supported on the ground by the Lebanese Shiite militia party Hezbollah, one of the main shock forces in the face of the advance. jihadist in 2014.

In fact, Syria was a key element of the so-called ‘axis of resistance’ and its territory was used for the transit of weapons and supplies sent by Iran to Hezbollah, a fact that led to hundreds of Israeli bombings – intensified in September – and that also weakened the position of the Army and the group in the face of the last offensive.

For its part, the United States has about a thousand soldiers deployed in Syria, mainly in areas under Kurdish control and oil areas in the northeast, as well as in the Al Tanf base, located near the border with Jordan, a fact denounced by Damascus and their allies for not having authorization from the Al Assad regime.

Added to this is the role of Israel, which, in addition to its bombings, has been occupying the Golan Heights for decades and which on Sunday announced the sending of troops beyond this area to create a “buffer zone” against the advance of the rebels from the south, groups supported by Jordan and the United States, and with the argument of acting in self-defense against the possible security risks that emanate from the new situation.