Free Syrian Coalition

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The Free Syrian Coalition was the final alliance formed by the non-jihadist opposition to Bashar al-Assad's government during the Syrian civil war. It was formed in DATE TBD, with the support of the Allied Powers, through a merger of the Syrian National Alliance and its armed wing, the Free Syrian Army, and the Syrian Democratic Council and its armed wing, the Syrian Democratic Forces. Some independent armed factions (mostly Islamists) were also included. These disparate forces, who had sometimes fought each other in the constantly evolving war, found common enemies in al-Qaeda and the Ba'athist government. The erosion of the former's territory and the weakening of the latter's international backers drew attention to the potential benefits of expanding the unofficial (and often reluctant) cooperation between the rebel FSA and the Kurdish-led SDF that had taken place throughout DATE TBD. The two sides saw an opportunity to put an end not only to their own costly fighting, but also to the civil war itself.

The Free Syrian Coalition represented the opposition at its strongest and broadest. After Assad was ousted by his own generals in DATE TBD and the beleaguered Syrian government sued for peace, the FSC negotiated a truce, the formation of a transitional government, and finally a formal end to the DATE TBD-year war on DATE TBD, 2018. Historians also regard this date as the conclusion of the broader World War J, which had been fought for DATE TBD years.

Background

From its formation in 2011, the People's Protection Units (YPG) had an ambivalent relationship with the armed rebellion against Assad. The Democratic Union Party (PYD), mother party to the YPG, was hesitant to confront the government, wary of the persecution that had kept it underground for nearly a decade. By mid-2012, however, the regime was clearly in a weakened position, having lost large chunks of the country to the rebels. Assad moved many troops from largely peaceful Kurdish-majority areas to reinforce the anti-rebel fronts. Emboldened, the YPG began to push the government out of many northern cities, such as Kobanî and Afrin. The regions surrounding these two cities, as well as TBC...

Composition

Two parallel branches made up the FSC: a political branch and a military branch. The political branch was divided into several organizational levels. At its base sat the 125-member Syrian National Congress, which met every other month to evaluate the situation on the ground, negotiate grievances, compose policy statements, and vote on major issues. The Syrian National Alliance and the Syrian Democratic Council each sent 55 delegates, with the remaining 15 consisting of independent civil society and community representatives, who were nominated by the United Nations Council on Syria and agreed to by a majority of the Executive Council. The Executive Council, a 12-member body whose job it was to handle day-to-day affairs and respond quickly to particularly sensitive disputes, was itself appointed by the Congress. The EC itself appointed the President, who represented the FSC to the world, the Vice President, who chaired the EC, and the Chief Secretary, who chaired the Congress.

The military branch was less cleanly structured. The multitude of factions and subfactions that had signed on to the FSC continued to exist more or less as before. No overarching, all-encompassing military structure had been agreed upon. While the Syrian Democratic Forces had been relatively well-organized, the Free Syrian Army had always been more of a label for individual militias to identify with rather than an actual army. Nevertheless, the FSC did succeed in integrating several regional operations rooms across the country, some of which were new and some of which had already existed for some time. Though each group had a large degree of autonomy, on the battlefield they generally recognized the command structure established by the operations rooms. They also formally recognized the FSC as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and agreed to be bound by the military courts that corresponded to each operations room.

There were nine operations rooms:

• Idlib Revolutionary Council, covering Idlib governorate
• Alliance of Revolutionaries in Aleppo, covering western and southern Aleppo governorate
• Euphrates Volcano, covering northern and eastern Aleppo, Raqqa, and al-Hasakah governorates
• United Latakia Liberation Council, covering Latakia governorate
• Hama Revolutionary Coalition, covering Hama governorate
• Redemption of Homs Operations Room, covering Homs governorate
• Freemen of Deir ez-Zor Gathering, covering Deir ez-Zor governorate
• Damascus Liberation Forces, covering Damascus and its countryside
• Southern Front, covering Daraa, Quneitra, and as-Suweyda governorates

Of these, the Southern Front was the oldest, with its own political structure already in place. Many armed factions were part of more than one operations room; there was particularly significant overlap between the Alliance of Revolutionaries in Aleppo and Euphrates Volcano. Most members of the Damascus Liberation Forces were also part of the Southern Front politically but found it convenient to establish their own military structure. Throughout the war, there was never any organized anti-government presence in Tartus governorate.

The individual brigades and battalions that made up the FSC can be categorized in three groups:

• Free Syrian Army, which can be further broken down into those groups that had joined the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, those that fought alongside the SDF but did not join it, and those that had either traditionally fought the SDF or did not share frontlines with it
• People's Protection Units and its non-FSA allies, such as the Syriac Military Council and the Al-Sanadid Forces
• Six independent groups: the Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union, the Authenticity and Development Front, the Marytrs of al-Sham Islamic Movement, Alwiya al-Furqan, the People's Liberation Faction, and the Leon Sedov Brigade.