Idlib Martyrs' Brigade
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The Idlib Martyrs' Brigade was a Free Syrian Army unit operating in Idlib governorate. It was formed as the "Syrian Liberation Army" in October 2011 by Muhammad Rahal; it reformed as the Idlib Martyrs' Brigade in April 2012, by which time it was led by Bassel Issa. Issa, Rahal, and most of the group's fighters were former civilians, in contrast to the many Syrian military defector-led groups at the time; it did however contain a few defected officers, including Major Mazen Fawaz, the first Shia military officer to defect from the regime. Initially based in Idlib city, the group was forced out of the city and into the countryside during an Assad government offensive in April and May. Issa established a good reputation, although his fighters were chronically under-equipped. Issa was killed in an airstike in November, after which ex-SAA Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Nasif took charge. The group became part of the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades in early-mid 2013, but as Ahfad al-Rasul waned and splintered, the Idlib Martyrs' Brigade helped to form the Syria Revolutionaries Front in December. The SRF came under attack from the al-Nusra Front in October 2014, and by December the Idlib Martyrs' Brigade had been defeated. Nasif and his remaining men dispersed, but in January 2016 he regrouped with some of them to reform his brigade as part of the anti-Nusra Idlib Liberation Front.