Northern Democratic Brigade
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The Northern Democratic Brigade was a Free Syrian Army unit originally operating in the Mt. Zawiya region of Idlib. It was formed in mid-2013 as Liwa al-Qaqaa, a subunit of Liwa Ahrar al-Zawiya. The former separated from the latter in November, although the two remained closely allied. They both became founding members of the Syria Revolutionaries Front in December but left the SRF in mid-2014. When the SRF came under attack from the al-Nusra Front in October 2014, other FSA groups in Idlib also became targets. Liwa Ahrar al-Zawiya kept a low profile and managed to remain in the region unscathed, but Liwa al-Qaqaa tried to come to the defense of the SRF and the Hazzm Movement and was defeated and expelled by al-Nusra. Retreating across the border to Aleppo, the group found refuge in Afrin canton, held by the YPG. By this point, Liwa al-Qaqaa was thoroughly disillusioned with the mainstream rebellion and its unhealthy relationship with jihadist factions. It came to see the YPG and the Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration as the best alternative to the brutal Assad regime. After a few months of inactivity, the brigade joined the Euphrates Volcano operations room as part of the Euphrates Brigades. In February 2016 it rebranded to the Northern Democratic Brigade and completely dropped its original moderate Islamist ideology in favor of secularism and support for the multi-ethnic federalist system set up by the PYD and its allies. The group became particularly close to the Syrian National Democratic Alliance, a PYD-allied party composed primarily of Arabs that was active in the "Shahba region" between Afrin and Kobanî cantons. It also maintained contact with Liwa Ahrar al-Zawiya, despite the distance between the two brigades. This communication would prove helpful in bringing the mainstream opposition and the Kurdish-led administration together towards the end of the war.