Don’t have a lot of Time? Skip to my Idiot’s Guide to Syrian Civil War Factions below:
To start, YouTube demonetized this video, so thank you to everybody who gives me $5 a month on Substack. If you have the $5, I would really appreciate you joining here: The Dog’s BreakfastSyria is a mess with up to 70 factions fighting. The typical maps of Syria don’t do the conflict justice and show the sheer scale of independent factions as well as factions within factions. But why did anti-government forces make such quick gains after years of static front lines? Here is a basic rundown of the conflict in a nutshell: Bashar al-Assad is the President and Dictator of Syria.
He became the president of Syria in 2000 after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad
Who ruled as President / Dictator of Syria from 1971 until the year 2000. Initially, Bashar al-Assad had no political ambitions, deciding to become a doctor and later an ophthalmologist in London. Most of the political power was directed at his older brother, Bassel al-Assad.
The older son, Bassel al-Assad died in a car crash in 1994, and Bashar al-Assad returned home to Syria to become the heir and consolidate power. He was introduced to the nation as the next leader by his father. Bashar immediately begins fighting “Corruption” - which is defined as anyone who opposes his rise to power. Bashar also becomes the president of the “Syrian Computer Club” and introduces the internet into Syria.
Hafez al-Assad dies in June of 2000. Bashar al-Assad becomes president in a bit of constitutional trickery that lowers the minimum age to become President of Syria from 40 to 34 - Bashar al-Assad’s age. The “Damascus Spring” begins after Bashar attains power. Artists and intellectuals in Syria demand more reforms. Bashar al-Assad responds by throwing thousands of people in prison. By 2011, the self-immolation death of Tunisian fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi sets the “Arab Spring” loose in the middle east. Syria faces waves of protests calling for government reforms.
Some Army factions defect from the military. Islamist and Kurdish militia groups form, openly battling government forces.
Syrian Forces use air power to attack rebel strongholds and civilian areas who support the rebels. This sees the advent of “Barrel Bombs” - 55 gallon drums that are packed with explosives and pushed out of helicopters.
The strategic city of Aleppo, which is rebel held and the crossroads of the M4 and M5 highways, becomes the main focus of pro-Assad forces.
ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria takes advantage of this power vacuum to rise to power in norther Iraq and eastern Syria.
The Russian Air Force and Army Steps in to fight both ISIS and anti-Assad Forces.
Forces loyal to Bashar Al-Assad capture Aleppo in 2016.
Factions in a nutshellFactions can be broken two into two main camps:
Among the factions that support Bashar al-Assad are:
Among the factions that do not support Bashar al-Assad:
Moderate Anti-Assad rebel groups
So what happened in Aleppo?On November 27th, elements of HTS or Hayat Tahrir al-Sham entered Aleppo eventually pushing as far as the Airport.
Where they captured some Syrian Air Force aircraft, although the disposition of those aircraft an HTS’s ability to operate them is unknown.
HTS has also dropped instruction to pro-government forces on how to safely surrender. This is the first time I have ever seen a rebel army drop leaflets and the first time I have seen a QR code used in war.  HTS leaflets Note that the pro-Syrian Army has suffered comparatively few losses compared with the land gained by the HTS - roughly 200 or so casualties. This means that pro-Assad forces are likely fleeing rather than fighting. Why is this happening now?There are three possibilities, or it is a combination of the three:
So the HTS may be performing a shaping operation - not against Assad, but to better position itself if Kurdish supported groups ave their funding cut off. Note that I am just touching on several of the almost 70 factions fighting in Syria. It is impossible to cover all of them and the intricacies involved in their relations. But it’s best to just keep at at a high level. Here is a list of the factions in an handy infographic
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