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Damascus:
Syrians woke up on Monday to an uncertain future after rebels seized the capital Damascus, forcing President Bashar al-Assad to flee to Russia, ending 13 years of civil war and five decades of iron-fisted Baath rule. The lightning advance of the opposition Islamist alliance, against President Asaad’s forces, marked one of the biggest turning points for the Middle East in generations, wiping out a bastion from which Iran and Russia exercised influence across the Arab world.
The rebels who swept through Syria are spearheaded by Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate, along with an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army. However, the uprising is deeply fractured, with a confusing mosaic of local groups espousing a range of Islamist and nationalist ideologies, including several Kurdish groups and Turkish-backed militias.
A Look At Main Rebel Groups In Syria
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS)
The most powerful group in Syria that spearheaded the rebels’ advance is the Islamist group HTS. The group sprouted as the official al Qaeda affiliate in Syria under the name Nusra Front, staging attacks in Damascus from early in the uprising against Mr Assad.
However, its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who for years used the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, made a public exit first from the nascent Islamic State group, and then in 2016 from the global al Qaeda organisation. The group underwent several name changes, eventually rebranding as HTS, or Organization for the Liberation of the Levant, as it became the strongest group in the main rebel enclave around Idlib province in the northwest.
HTS and its leader have been designated terrorists by the United States, Turkey and others. There have been serious human rights concerns in the area it controls, including executions for those accused of affiliation with rival groups and over allegations of blasphemy and adultery. However, the group continued to fight alongside mainstream rebel groups and backed an administration in Idlib that they called the Salvation Government.
Meanwhile, Ahmed al-Sharaa presented a more moderate image during the lightning campaign that brought down Mr Assad, but some Syrians will probably remain fearful about his ultimate intentions.
Syrian National Army (SNA)
In 2016, Turkey sent troops into Syria to push Kurdish groups and Islamic State away from its borders. A key supporter of the rebels, it eventually formed some of the groups into the Syrian National Army which, backed by direct Turkish military power, held a stretch of territory along the Syrian-Turkish border.
As HTS and allied groups from the northwest advanced on Assad last week, the SNA also joined them, fighting government forces and Kurdish-led forces in the northeast.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
The Kurdish-led Peoples Protection Units (YPG) took control of large areas of northeast Syria in 2012 as government forces pulled out to fight rebels in the west. Turkey sees the YPG as inseparable from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency inside Turkey, and which the US regards as a terrorist group.
As the Islamic State advanced in Syria in 2014, the YPG joined other groups to hold them back, supported by the US. They formed the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, backed by the US and its allies.
The SDF now controls most of the quarter of Syria that lies east of the Euphrates, including the former Islamic State capital of Raqqa and some of the country’s biggest oil fields, as well as some territory to the west of the river.
Free Syrian Army (FSA)
FSA is a large coalition of decentralized Syrian opposition rebel groups founded in 2011 by Colonel Riad al-Asaad and six officers who defected from the Syrian Armed Forces. Initially established to represent a nationwide resistance and protect peaceful protesters against the Mr Assad regime, the FSA has struggled to live up to these goals. However, despite its subsequent decentralization, the FSA remains the cornerstone brand of Syria’s moderate opposition.
Other Rebel Groups
Syria’s uprising is fractured, with ideological coalitions, such as the Free Syrian Army and the Islamic Front, holding influence at different periods of the conflict. Over the years some of these splintered further or merged with other groups.
Their relative power was also shaped by whether they were based in regions captured by Assad or remained out of his hands.
In northwestern Idlib, which until last week’s stunning advance was the main rebel stronghold in Syria, a range of groups fought alongside HTS in a unified military operations command.
Other groups had dominated in the south. A string of Assad victories in 2018 forced them to accept his rule but without turning over all their arms or coming back under full Damascus control. Last week they rose up again, taking southwestern Syria.
What Is Happening In Syria?
After his ouster, Moscow gave asylum to Mr Assad and his family, Russian media reported and Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, said on his Telegram channel on Sunday.
International governments welcomed the end of the Mr Assads’ autocratic government, as they sought to take stock of a new-look Middle East. US President Joe Biden said Syria is in a period of risk and uncertainty, and it is the first time in years that neither Russia, Iran nor the Hezbollah militant organization held an influential role there.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said on Monday that Tokyo was paying close attention to developments in Syria.
Meanwhile, the rebels face the monumental task of rebuilding and running a country after a war that left hundreds of thousands dead, cities pounded to dust and an economy hollowed by global sanctions. Syria will need billions of dollars in aid. “A new history, my brothers, is being written in the entire region after this great victory,” said Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the head of HTS.
Speaking to a huge crowd on Sunday at Damascus’ Umayyad Mosque, a place of enormous religious significance, Golani said with hard work Syria would be “a beacon for the Islamic nation.”
