The largest rebel armed group fighting the Syrian government against President Bashar al-Assad is the Syrian Free Army. Its creation dates back to July 2011, when Colonel Riyad al-Asaad with several officers deserted from the real Syrian army, he urged the soldiers to follow their example in a video message.
Structure
There is no real centralized command in this army, everything is decided by field commanders depending on the situation. Since the Syrian Free Army consists of small local units, Commander-in-Chief Salim Idris is more a representative for the press and negotiations. He does not make specific military plans, does not plan an operation, and in fact does not solve anything. Also, no one can accurately say what the size of the Free Syrian Army is. Apparently, local militants are able to quickly disperse around their homes, and when the operation is brewing, they move to positions in a mobile way.
The umbrella structure preferred by the Syrian Free Army operates throughout Syria. Although it really exists as an army, this question remains open even to military experts. The name "Syrian Free Army" is most often used as a generalization suitable for any armed opposition to the president and government. There are many such groups, and they are not numerous. In 2013, their power was estimated from about thirty to fifty thousand people in total. There is evidence that the Syrian Free Army has up to eighty thousand militants, but this figure is very controversial.
Structure
Most of the militants are Sunni Arabs, but there are also units that are entirely composed of Kurds, as well as Palestinians, Syrian Turkmens, and Libyans. In addition to the above, Lebanese, Tunisian and some other Muslim countries of the region are fighting there. Despite strong Muslim dominance, the Syrian Free Army positions itself as a “secular”, “moderate” opposition, which should distinguish it from radical armed gangs of Muslims such as Front-en-Nusra.
They write that there were even clashes on the basis of contradictions, but the Free Syrian Army against ISIS terrorists (banned in many countries, including Great Britain and Russia) does not lead an open and constant war. Nevertheless, it receives all kinds of support - both financial and political - from the United States, Germany, France, Turkey and many Western countries and the Persian Gulf. If you carefully consider the activities conducted by the Free Syrian Army and ISIS, then the extraordinary similarity of the methods of warfare will be on the surface. This is not war, this is armed sorties and terrorist attacks.
Activities
After a video appeal in July 2011 calling for the Syrian military to desert to the opposition, some activity was seen near Homs. In parallel with the deserter colonel’s group, there was another gang, the “Movement of Free Officers, ” the leader of which the Syrian secret services neutralized, after which the “decapitated” officers joined the colonel’s group. Until November, the opposition lurked, then bombarded the Syrian Air Force building with mortars and crumbled again until February - most often they hide in the territories of neighboring states.
All this time, the special forces were slowly catching these oppositionists: when crossing the border from Turkey, the leader was arrested - Colonel of the Free Syrian Army, then another deserter colonel was shot dead. In retaliation on February 10, a terrorist attack was committed in Aleppo, where almost thirty people who were not involved in this "war" were killed. After the arrest of the leader, another colonel, Aref Hamoud, drew his head, who had never arrived from Turkey on the “battlefield”. Not only Turkey provides protection to terrorists: in April 2012, Qatar and Saudi Arabia began to pay very decent salaries to soldiers and officers of the Free Syrian Army.
Declaration of war
In July 2012, the so-called Free Syrian Army launched a massive offensive against the regular troops of Syria. This operation was apparently even planned, since the name had a lush eastern name: "Damascus volcano and the Syrian earthquake." The result of hostilities was again a terrorist attack in which the prominent military of the Syrian regular army were killed and the capture of the town of Azzaz near the Turkish border (it’s convenient to run away, and the supply of military and food supplies was established across the Turkish border).
Then, near Homs in a Christian village, five people were exponentially killed, and seventeen were taken hostage. Loud kidnappings happened many times: a Ukrainian journalist, two Russians, an Italian … And each time they demanded a ransom for the release of the abducted. All these actions are very unlike the military. And the Free Syrian Army is, most likely, not an army at all. The rebels avoid direct clashes with both divisions of the National Guard and special forces regiments, acting in partisan ways, blowing everything up and shooting defenseless in the back. This is exactly the Syrian Free Army, a photo of its exploits is attached.
Decomposition
In May 2013, US Senator John McCain met with the leadership of the SSA, more like a network of gangs. That is, it turns out that the United States openly supports terrorism? In October 2013, three SSA brigades were forced to surrender to the Kurds, who caught them near the Turkish border. And already in 2015, most of the Arab media constantly reported the complete demoralization of this army.
Moreover, voices are heard that such an army does not exist at all. Deserter fighters either surrender or go under the banner of ISIS. And before, inside the FSA there were constantly many jihadists, both local and from neighboring countries, that these countries officially recognized: Tunisia, Iraq, Lebanon, for example.
Supplies
The supply of weapons and ammunition for the SSA is largely provided by the Saudi army, driving cargo through the Turkish airport of Adana. Communication and all equipment that is connected with it are supplied by France. Distributes CIA supplies. Turkey in the summer of 2015 issued an SSA twenty sets of MANPADS (immediately after that, the Syrian regular army lost six aircraft and four helicopters).
The United States helps its pets a lot, noting loudly that the Free Syrian Army is fighting ISIS. Here is just one of the published requests to the United States from Syrian opposition: five hundred MANPADS "Strela", one thousand RPG-29, seven hundred and fifty heavy machine guns, communications and bulletproof vests. And they really want missile anti-tank systems, very much! The United States has usually always met opposition leaders in such matters.
Crime
After the recent Syrian events, the attitude towards the rebels began to gradually change. The FSA is charged with a lot: the shooting of civilians who left the mosque after Friday prayers, for example, and the UN is starting to say that minors are being recruited to the SSA for terrorist attacks and armed sorties. The adult population is not enough for this. Syrian and Russian political scientists are confident that the emergence of ISIS is due to the activities of the SSA, moreover, ISIS is the brainchild of the SSA, and these two organizations are not so much at war with each other as they are constantly cooperating. The black-and-white-green with three stars flag of the Syrian Free Army does not look like the black-and-white flag of ISIS, but their goals are the same.
The Kurds, although with significant losses, drove the bandits out of Kobani, blocking a convenient passage through the border to Turkey for Syrian gangs. In addition, the Kurdish militia has entered into a mutual assistance agreement with the regular army of Bashar al-Assad. Then Endogran stated very dissatisfied that he would not allow the creation of a Kurdish state along Turkish borders. And, given the fact that the flag of the Syrian Free Army was hoisted in Turkey, where all its colonel’s tops live in a no-dysfunctional manner, it becomes clear that the crimes of the gangs should also affect the reputation of the Turkish state. After capturing Koban, although not for long, the free army ferociously rampaged there, executing mass executions and killing the local population. When the city was liberated, there were no Kurdish inhabitants alive …
Russia and the Syrian opposition
President of Russia V.V. Putin noted that the goal of the operation in Syria with the Russian Air Force is not to support Bashar al-Assad, but to destroy international terrorism. Moreover, they are trying to communicate with the opposition, although it is not entirely clear what kind of organization this is. In any case, there is no unity in it and no single coordination. Nevertheless, Russia launched several missile strikes at the indicated coordinates, and these coordinates were given by people who related themselves to the Syrian opposition, but who were not the formation of the SSA.
The Syrian Free Army declares that it does not share the views of radical Islamists. Nevertheless, they are doing one thing: they are fighting against the legitimate government of official Damascus. Russia is trying to mediate in resolving this political crisis between the current authorities and the so-called moderate opposition. A number of opposition forces are ready to cease fire and start negotiations. Moreover, efforts are being coordinated to combat ISIS. However, both sides understand that the “Islamic state” is flesh from the flesh of the Syrian free army, and it has spawned the same policy aimed at destabilizing the entire Middle East region of Western Europe and the USA.
Russian Foreign Ministry in Search of SSA
By October 2015, it became known that: support for the Free Syrian Army is provided by foreign intelligence services; France and Germany train militants to overthrow Bashar al-Assad; in September, six hundred volunteers arrived from Libya to receive salaries from the Saudis. Russia considered it her duty to find Syrian groups opposing ISIS gangs. And this is what the search gave.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced to the whole world that he was ready to contact the so-called Free Syrian Army, but doubted that such an organization existed at all. He called it a phantom formation, about which no one knows for sure. And for the question of where this army is, there is every reason, despite the indignant exclamations of Russian liberals and foreign investors in Syrian gangs.
The role of SSA from the point of view of investors
From the very beginning, from the moment of declaration and declaration of war to Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian Free Army had all the signs of a propaganda project. That is, this army has never had real physical attention worthy of attention. The colonels performed some representative functions rather well, loudly declared on behalf of the entire Syrian people. Why is this all to the countries of Western Europe and the USA? The answer is simple. Cheap oil. Still, to mention the “Syrian Free Army” as a partner is much more innocent than, for example, the Islamic Front, the average man on TV will not lose confidence in the country's leaders and will support such a policy.
Although it is not known from whom Turkey buys oil products, and what kind of armed groups accompany cargoes to Turkey? For some reason, political experts in many countries see almost no difference between the armed people of the Syrian Free Army and the Islamic movement banned in the Russian Federation and other countries. But the armed groups in Syria - more than a thousand only large ones. Everyone is robbing. How to distinguish them from each other?
Directory
A guide to the Syrian rebels, which was released by the BBC in 2013, describes that the SSA consists of thirty people, who represent five unknown fronts of Syria, is based on the SSA in Turkey, does not plan and does not conduct military operations, since it has only a network brigades acting independently. That is, the SSA does not represent a single centralized military force. This means a force that would have the right to make statements on behalf of a whole people.
The number of SSA in the directory is also not specifically indicated, but the number of ISIS militants is indicated - there are forty-five thousand of them, including forces of no less radical groups. since they have been identified with al-Qaeda since the 90s, and an alliance of these two named groups has long existed. Even as such, the “Syrian opposition” as a whole should not be confused with the SSA forces, which no one has personally seen. But the amount of injections is precisely known - up to one hundred and fifty million dollars were given for the maintenance of the SSA, about which reports are presented. And how many have not yet been submitted …
"Colonels"
There were several hypothetical commanders in the SSA - from Riyadh al-Asaad, who announced the existence of an army of deserters, after which he played only a symbolic role, as recognized resources, even loyal to the SSA. Moreover, in parallel, another colonel, Kasim Saaduddin, announced that there could not be any al-Asaad, but he personally commanded the SSA, Kasim Saaduddin. Then came the time of Brigadier General Salim Idris, who “merged” quickly and incomprehensibly, and now another brigadier general took over the leadership of the SSA - Abdul-Illah al-Bashir.
