The largest rebel armed group fighting the Syrian government against President Bashar al-Assad is the Free Syrian Army. Its creation dates back to July 2011, when Colonel Riyad al-Asaad and several officers defected from the real Syrian army, he called on the soldiers to follow suit in a video message.
Structure
There is no real centralized command in this army, field commanders decide everything depending on the situation. Since the Free Syrian Army is made up of small local units, Commander-in-Chief Salim Idris is more of a spokesperson for the press and negotiations. He does not draw up specific military plans, he does not plan operations and, in fact, decides nothing. Also, no one can say with accuracy what the size of the Free Syrian Army is. Apparently, local militants are able to quickly disperse to their homes, and when an operation is brewing, mobilemove into position.
The umbrella structure favored by the Free Syrian Army operates throughout Syria. Although whether it actually exists as an army - this question remains open even to military experts. The name "Free Syrian 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 few in number. In 2013, their power was estimated at about thirty to fifty thousand people in total. There is evidence that the Syrian Free Army has up to eighty thousand fighters, but this figure is very controversial.
Composition
Most of the militants are Sunni Arabs, but there are also units that are entirely composed of Kurds, as well as Palestinians, Syrian Turkmen, Libyans. In addition to those mentioned, Lebanese, Tunisian and some other Muslim countries of the region are fighting there. Despite confident Muslim dominance, the Free Syrian Army positions itself as a "secular", "moderate" opposition, which should distinguish it from radical Muslim armed gangs like the Nusra Front.
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 conduct 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 countries of the West and the Persian Gulf. If you take a closer look at the activities carried out by the Free Syrian Army and ISIS, then an extraordinary similarity in the methods of warfare will be on the surface. This is not a war, these are armed sorties and terrorist attacks.
Activities
Following a video message in July 2011 calling for the Syrian military to defect to the opposition, some activity was seen near Homs. In parallel with the colonel's group of deserters, there was another gang - the "Movement of Free Officers", the leader of which was neutralized by the Syrian special services, after which the "beheaded" officers joined the colonel's group. Until November, the opposition hid, then fired mortars at the building of the Syrian Air Force and again scattered until February - most often they hide in the territories of neighboring states.
All this time, the special forces were gradually catching these oppositionists: while crossing the border from Turkey, the leader, a colonel of the Free Syrian Army, was arrested, then another deserter colonel was shot dead. In retaliation, on February 10, a terrorist attack was carried out in Aleppo, where almost thirty people were killed, who had nothing to do with this "war". After the arrest of the leader, another colonel appeared at the head - Aref Hamud, who never arrived from Turkey to the "battlefields". Not only Turkey provides patronage to terrorists: in April 2012, Qatar and Saudi Arabia began to pay 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 regular Syrian troops. This operation was, apparently, even planned, since the name was magnificent in an oriental way: "Damascus volcano and the Syrian earthquake." The result of the hostilities was, again, a terrorist attack in which prominent Syrian regular soldiers were killed, and the capture of the town of Azzaz near the Turkish border (it is convenient to escape, and the supply of military and food supplies was established through the Turkish border).
Then, near Homs in a Christian village, five people were demonstratively killed, and seventeen were taken hostage. Loud abductions of people happened many times: a Ukrainian journalist, two Russians, an Italian… And each time a ransom was demanded for the release of the abducted. All these actions are very different from the military. And the Free Syrian Army is most likely not an army at all. The rebels avoid direct clashes with both National Guard divisions and special forces regiments, act like a guerrilla, blowing up everything in a row and shooting the 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 FSA, more like a network of gangs. So it turns out that the United States openly supports terrorism? In October 2013, three FSA 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 report on the complete demoralization of thisarmy.
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, there were always many jihadists inside the FSA, both local and from neighboring countries, which these countries officially recognized: Tunisia, Iraq, Lebanon, for example.
Supplies
The supply of weapons and ammunition for the FSA is largely provided by the army of Saudi Arabia, ferrying cargo through the Turkish airport of Adana. Communications and all equipment associated with it are supplied by France. Distributes CIA supplies. Turkey issued twenty sets of MANPADS to the FSA in the summer of 2015 (immediately after that, the Syrian regular army lost six aircraft and four helicopters).
The US helps its pets a lot, loudly noting that the Free Syrian Army is fighting against ISIS. Here is just one of the publicized requests to the United States from the Syrian opposition: five hundred Strela MANPADS, a thousand RPG-29s, seven hundred and fifty heavy machine guns, communications equipment and body armor. And they really want anti-tank missile systems, really! The United States has usually always met the opposition halfway in such matters.
Crimes
After the latest Syrian events, the attitude towards the rebels began to change little by little. The FSA is charged with a lot of things: the execution of civilians who left the mosque after Friday prayers, for example, and the UN is starting to say that the FSA is recruiting minors for terrorist attacks and armed attacks. adultthere is not enough population for that. Syrian and Russian political scientists are sure that the emergence of ISIS is due to the activities of the FSA, moreover, ISIS is the brainchild of the FSA, and these two organizations are not so much fighting each other as constantly cooperating. The black-white-green flag of the Free Syrian Army with three stars is not similar to the black-and-white flag of ISIS, but they have the same goals.
The Kurds, although with significant losses, drove the bandits out of Kobani, closing a convenient passage through the border to Turkey for Syrian gangs. In addition, the Kurdish militia concluded a mutual assistance agreement with the regular army of Bashar al-Assad. Then Endogran very displeasedly stated that he would not allow the creation of a Kurdish state near the Turkish borders. And, given that the flag of the Syrian Free Army was raised on the territory of Turkey, where all of its colonel's elite lives without getting out, it becomes clear that the crimes of gangs should also affect the reputation of the state of Turkey. Capturing Koban, albeit for a short time, the free army rampaged wildly there, carrying out mass executions and killing the local population. When the city was liberated, there were no Kurdish inhabitants left alive there…
Russia and the Syrian opposition
President of Russia V. V. Putin noted that the goal of the operation in Syria at the Russian Aerospace Forces is not at all 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 unified coordination. HoweverRussia launched several missile strikes at the specified coordinates, and these coordinates were given by people who identify themselves as the Syrian opposition, but are not part of the FSA.
The Syrian Free Army says it does not share the views of radical Islamists. Nevertheless, they do one thing: they fight 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 already ready to cease fire and start negotiations. Moreover, efforts are being coordinated to jointly fight against ISIS. However, both sides understand that the "Islamic state" is the flesh of the flesh of the Syrian Free Army, and it was born by the same policy of Western Europe and the United States aimed at destabilizing the entire Middle East region.
Russian Foreign Ministry in search of SSA
By October 2015, it became known that: the Free Syrian Army is supported by foreign intelligence agencies; France and Germany are preparing militants to overthrow Bashar al-Assad; in September, six hundred volunteers arrived from Libya to receive a salary from the Saudis. Russia considered it its duty to find the Syrian groups opposing ISIS gangs. And this is what the search yielded.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced to the whole world his readiness to contact the so-called Free Syrian Army, but doubted that such an organization even exists. He called it a phantom formation, about which nothing is exactly known to anyone. And for the question aboutthere is every reason to know where this army is, despite the indignant cries of Russian liberals and foreign investors in Syrian gangs.
The role of the SSA from an investor's point of view
From the very beginning, from the moment it declared and declared war on Bashar al-Assad, the Free Syrian Army had all the hallmarks of a propaganda project. That is, this army never had a real, noteworthy physical content. The colonels performed some representative functions well, loudly declared on behalf of the entire Syrian people. Why is it all the countries of Western Europe and the United States? The answer is simple. Cheap oil. Still, mentioning the "Free Syrian Army" as a partner is much more innocent than, for example, the "Islamic Front", the layman watching TV will not lose confidence in the leaders of the country and will support the policy of such a plan.
Although it is still unknown from whom Turkey buys oil products, and what kind of armed groups are escorting cargo to Turkey? For some reason, political experts in many countries see practically no difference between the armed people of the Syrian Free Army and the Islamic Movement, which is banned in the Russian Federation and other countries. But there are more than a thousand armed groups in Syria, only large ones. Everyone is robbing. How can you tell them apart?
Guide
A 2013 BBC guide to the Syrian rebels describes the FSA as thirty men representing five unknown fronts in Syria, basedThe FSA in Turkey does not plan or conduct military operations, since it only has a network of brigades operating independently. That is, the FSA does not represent a single military centralized force. Hence, a force that would have the right to make statements on behalf of an entire nation.
The number of the FSA in the directory is also not specifically given, but the number of ISIS fighters is indicated - there are forty-five thousand of them, including the forces of the no less radical group Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islami (Islamic Movement of Free People of the Levant), which also does not cannot be attributed to the FSA, 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 FSA forces, which no one has seen with their own eyes. But the exact amount of injections is known - up to one hundred and fifty million dollars were given for the maintenance of the SSA, as reports are presented. And how many of them have not been presented yet…
Colonels
There were several hypothetical commanders in the FSA - from Riyad al-Asaad, who announced the existence of an army of deserters, after which he played only a symbolic role, as resources even loyal to the FSA admit. Moreover, in parallel, another colonel - Qasim Saaduddin - announced that there could be no al-Asaad, and he personally commands the FSA, Qasim 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 FSA -Abdul-Illah al-Bashir.
Who are these people
Information is very scarce, mostly they try to squeeze a tear out of Western readers with stories about how bad Bashar al-Assad is - these people seem to have lost all their relatives, executed and tortured by Bashar al-Assad's executioners, and they themselves are sensitive, kind and to the extreme degrees of intelligence. Al-Assad barely had time to joyfully declare his love for his homeland and his readiness to die for her, when he turned out - in various media - to be killed, wounded and fled to Turkey. No one else has heard of him and knows nothing about him - neither the past nor the future, only that he is a deserter and a man of duty. At the same time, yes.
Salim Idris turned to the US and Qatar for help, received it and left "in English". They wrote about him that he was a professor of electronics and a prominent scientist at one of the universities in West Germany. They did not find either his works on physics, or even the university. And the last of the "commanders" is an outspoken Islamist who is in contact with the Iranian opposition in exile and plans to establish a caliphate with the strictest Sharia in Iran. All of the above in terms of the quality of information is only worthy of a page in Odnoklassniki or a "fake" account on Facebook. But there is no other information. Nowhere. Perhaps Sergei Lavrov quite reasonably asks: "Where is this army?!" And what is the Free Syrian Army doing now in the light of recent events in the Middle East? Surrender, die, or leave - that was her only choice.
