Free Syrian Army

Free Syrian Army
الجيش السوري الحر
Founding leader	Riad Mousa al-As'ad[1]
Leadership	Unified under Supreme Military Council (2012–14) Syrian Revolutionary Command Council (2014–2015) Decentralised (2015–present): Southern Front (2015–18) New Syrian Army (2015–present) Syrian National Army (2017–present) Syrian Democratic Forces (2015–present)[2][3]
Dates of operation	29 July 2011 – 2015 (central organization) 2015 – present (decentralisation of organization, ad hoc use of the FSA identity)
Allegiance	Syrian Interim Government AANES Revolutionary Commando Army
Group(s)	See section
Ideology	Big Tent Anti-Assadism Syrian opposition Factions: Democracy[4][5] Syrian nationalism[6][7] Secular nationalism[8][9] Religious nationalism[10] Democratic confederalism[11]
Size	25,000 (late 2011)[12][13] 75,000 (mid-2012)[14] 40,000–50,000 (2013)[15] 35,000 (2015)[16]
Allies	United States  Turkey[17]  United Kingdom[18][19][20]  Germany[21][22]  France[23][24][25]  Qatar[26]  Saudi Arabia[27]  Jordan[28][29][30]  Ukraine[31][32]  Libya
Opponents	Syrian Arab Republic  Iran  Russia  ISIL Hezbollah
Battles and wars	Syrian Civil War
Flag

The Free Syrian Army (FSA; Arabic: الجيش السوري الحر, romanized: al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a big-tent coalition of decentralized Syrian opposition armed militias in the Syrian Civil War^[33][34] founded on 29 July 2011 by Colonel Riad al-Asaad and six officers who defected from the Syrian Armed Forces.^[35][36] 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.^[37][36][38] In late 2011, the FSA was the main Syrian military defectors group.^[39][40] 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.^{[41][42][43][44]}

The Free Syrian Army aims to be "the military wing of the Syrian people's opposition to the regime",^[12] through armed operations and the encouragement of army defections.^[45] In 2012, military commanders and civilian leadership of the FSA issued a joint communique pledging to transition Syria towards a pluralistic, democratic republic, after forcing Assad out of power.^[46] As the Syrian Army is highly organized and well-armed, the Free Syrian Army adopted a military strategy of guerrilla tactics in the countryside and cities, with a tactical focus on armed action in the capital of Damascus. The campaign was not meant to hold territory, but rather to spread government forces and their logistical chains thin in battles for urban centers, cause attrition in the security forces, degrade morale, and destabilize the government.^[47]

The FSA considered itself to be the armed wing of the Syrian revolution and was able to mobilise the popular anger toward Bashar al-Assad into a successful insurgency. By waging guerilla warfare across the country, it enjoyed a string of successes against far better-equipped government forces.^[48][49] Assad's policy of ignoring protesters' demands alongside the regime's intensifying violence on civilians and protestors led to a full-blown civil war by 2012. The FSA initially pursued a strategy of quickly eliminating the regime's top leadership; successfully assassinating intelligence chief Assef Shawkat and Defence Minister Dawoud Rajiha in July 2012.^[50] In early 2012, Iran's IRGC launched a co-ordinated military campaign by sending tens of thousands of Khomeinist militants to prevent the collapse of the Syrian Arab Army; polarising the conflict along sectarian lines.^[51][52] After 2013, the FSA became affected by decreasing discipline, absence of a centralised political leadership, lack of substantial Western support, deteriorating supply of weapons, and diminishing funds; while rival Islamist militias emerged dominant in the armed opposition.^[53][54][55] Russian military intervention in 2015 ensured Assad's survival and halted the expansion of the FSA. A series of Russian and Iranian-backed counter-offensives launched by the regime in 2016 eroded the significant territorial gains made by the FSA and severely weakened its command structure.^[56][57]

After the Turkish military intervention in Syria in 2016, and as other countries began to scale back their involvement, many FSA militias became more dependent on Turkey, which became a sanctuary and source of supplies.^[58] From late August 2016, the Turkish government assembled a new coalition of Syrian rebel groups, including many that were in the FSA; the core of this new coalition was the Hawar Kilis Operations Room. Initially referred to as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA), this force would adopt the name Syrian National Army (SNA) in 2017.^[59][60] A majority of the FSA militias are currently under the command of the Syrian Interim Government; while the rest have either allied with the Syrian Salvation Government, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, or are in the Al-Tanf Deconfliction Zone.