These Syrian rebel forces played key role in Bashar al-Assad's ouster
Syria's uprising led to a cluster of militant groups split along ethnic and regional lines and continued to defend their interests throughout the war.
The Syrian Islamist rebels who ousted President Bashar al-Assad and seized the capital, Damascus, include fighters from different factions.
The group leading the charge is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which holds a major portion of Syrian territory, while other groups also hold ground elsewhere.
The main rebel groups are
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
The most powerful among rebel groups in Syria that spearheaded the advance against Assad starting Nov 27.
It started as the official al Qaeda affiliate in Syria under the name al-Nusra Front, staging attacks in favour of pro-democracy protesters in Damascus from the early days of uprising against Assad.
HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, decided to split first from the Islamic State group, and then broke away from the global al-Qaeda organisation in 2016.
It went through several name changes, despite not renouncing its Islamist core, and eventually emerged as HTS. It became the strongest group in the main rebel enclave around Idlib province in the northwest and ran an administration called the “Salvation Government”.
HTS and its leader have been designated terrorists by the United States, Turkey and other countries.
Read more on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham here
Other rebel groups
Syria's uprising led to a cluster of militant groups split along ethnic and regional lines and continued to defend their interests throughout the war.
Other coalitions, such as the Free Syrian Army and the Islamic Front, held influence at different periods of the conflict. Their relative power was also shaped by the ability of Assad's regime, backed by Russia and Iran, to hit back.
In HTS stronghold Idlib, a range of groups fought alongside HTS in a unified military operations command. Abu Mohammed al-Jolani had forged a strategic alliance among these groups to chart his ascent to power.
Also read | Abu Mohammed al-Jolani: From fighting US in Iraq to Syria's new leader
Other groups continued to hold territory in the country's south. A string of Assad victories in 2018 forced them to accept his rule but without surrendering their arms or coming back under full government control. Last week, they rose again to wrest back southwestern Syria.
Syrian National Army
Turkey sent troops into Syria in 2016 to fight what it claimed as Kurdish separatism and also push the Islamic State away from its borders.
A key supporter of the rebel groups, Ankara eventually formed a strategic alliance among some groups to form the Syrian National Army. It was backed by direct Turkish military power and held a stretch of territory along the Syrian-Turkish border, which Ankara uses as a buffer zone.
The SNA also joined the rebel groups advance on Nov 27, fighting government forces and Kurdish-led forces in the northeast.
Syrian Democratic Forces
In 2012, the Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG) assumed control of significant areas in northeast Syria after government forces withdrew to address the rebellion in the west.
Turkey views the YPG as closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). This group has conducted a decades-long insurgency in Turkey and is designated as a terrorist organization by the US.
When the Islamic State advanced in Syria in 2014, the YPG collaborated with other groups to resist, receiving support from the US. This effort led to the formation of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias supported by the US and its allies.
The SDF now controls a significant portion of Syria east of the Euphrates River, including the former Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa and key oil fields, along with some areas west of the river. Currently, SDF forces are engaged in clashes with the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) near the city of Manbij.
(With agency inputs)
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