2013 Latakia offensive

2013 Latakia offensive
Part of the Syrian Civil War
The situation in the Latakia Governorate in August 2013   Syrian Army control   Opposition control
Date 4–19 August 2013 (2 weeks and 1 day) Location Latakia Governorate, Syria Result Syrian government victory Rebel forces initially captured 13 villages[4] Syrian government forces counter-attack recaptures all of the villages[5] Militants killed at least 190 civilians and took more than 200 as hostages[6]
Belligerents
Al-Qaeda  Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Al-Nusra Front[1] Free Syrian Army[1] Syrian Turkmen Brigades[citation needed] Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades[citation needed] Syrian Islamic Front Ahrar ash-Sham Ansar al-Sham Junud al-Sham[2] Harakat Sham al-Islam[3]	Syrian Arab Republic
Commanders and leaders
Walid Aouss † (Rejal Ahoudou Allah leader)[7] Kahtane Haaj Mohammed † (al-Tawhid Brigade commander)[8] Ans Chyghani † (Al Izzatullah wal nasr minAllah Brigade commander)[9] Abu Moaz[1] (Ahrar al-Sham commander) Abu Mustafa[1] (Ansar al-Din commander) Muslim Shishani[2] (Junud al-Sham commander) Abu al-Hassan Ammar † (FSA spokesman)[10]	Hilal al-Assad (Latakia NDF commander)[11] Nizar al-Khatib † (Tartus NDF commander)[12] Mihraç Ural (Syrian Resistance commander)
Units involved
Suqour al-Ezz[1][13][14] Liwa al-Mujahideen[14] Kataib Ansar al-Sham[13] Harakat Sham al-Islam[14] Katibat al Muhajireen[1] Ahrar ash-Sham[1] Ansar al-Din Front[1] Junud al-Sham[2]	Syrian Armed Forces Syrian Army 1st Armoured Division 58th Mechanized Brigade 3rd Armoured Division 47th Armoured Brigade National Defense Force Syrian Air Force Military Intelligence Directorate Syrian Resistance
Strength
1,500–2,000 fighters[15] 1,500 ISIL fighters[16] 40 fighters from Junud al-Sham[2] (Muslim Shishani's claim	5,000 soldiers
Casualties and losses
107 fighters killed[17] (up until Army counter-attack) 6 killed and 9 wounded from Junud al-Sham[18]	114–127 soldiers[19] and 44 militiamen killed[6]
190–205 civilians killed[6]

The 2013 Latakia offensive (called The Descendants of Aisha, Mother of the Believers by Salafist jihadists,^[20] and the Operation Liberation of the Coast^[14] by the Free Syrian Army and its supporters) was a campaign during the Syrian Civil War launched by rebel groups led by Salafi jihadists^[14] in the Latakia Governorate. The stated aim of the offensive was to conquer al-Haffah city, but government supporters assumed conquering Mount Nabi Younes was more likely the real aim.^[4] A calculated side effect may have been to spark more sectarian violence in Syria^[15] by carrying out a sectarian attack on an Alawite-majority area.^[20] The offensive began in early August 2013. During the campaign, rebel forces captured a dozen villages.^[4] However, in mid-August, the military counter-attacked and recaptured all of the territory previously lost to the rebels.^[5][21]