By Mark Boothroyd
While commentators and politicians profess to not know who the “moderates” are in Syria, there is little excuse for ignorance as to the nature of the Syrian rebels. Over the course of the revolt a large array of writers, bloggers, journalists, amateur analysts and think tanks have produced accounts of the make up of the rebels, their politics, manpower, where they get their support and their ultimate aims. Analysts like Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, Charles Lister and Aron Lund provide regular analysis on rebel organisations.
Amateur analysts regularly produce infographics showing the shifting alliances, formation of new coalitions and fracturing of old ones, and territorial conquests and losses. The most prolific of these are probably Archicivilians, and Thomas Van Linge, whose work was covered by the BBC.
Any armed group of a reasonable size has its own Twitter account used to announce offensives and issue statements, a website for hosting information, and YouTube channel for uploading films of their military victories, propaganda and recruitment videos.
Most of the larger groups have political officers who are responsible for liaising with the political opposition, the media and issuing statements and information about the progress of the struggle. Many of them are on twitter.
The political officer for Ahrar Al-Sham, Labib Al-Nahhas, recently had articles published in both the Telegraph and the Washington Post.
All the rebel groups listed below have opposed US-led Coalition and Russian air strikes on Syria as attacks on the revolution. Rebel groups have condemned sectarian massacres where they have been carried out by jihadist groups aligned with the opposition.
The fact that large sections of the left and progressive and anti-war movement can rubbish these statements about “moderate rebels” is down to their own wilful ignorance, not lack of available information.
Much attention has been paid to the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units, the YPG, but they operate only in the North and East of Syria, and coverage of them does not provide information on what is happening in the rest of the country. The YPG are also not in conflict with the Assad regime, so don’t constitute part of the armed rebellion against Assad.
ISIS is sometimes portrayed as part of the rebellion, but it has more the character of a foreign occupying force, with the majority of its fighters being Iraqi or other foreign fighters. All rebel groups have been at war with ISIS since January 2014, and civil protest groups were trying to force it to leave opposition areas from early on in 2013.
There are hundreds of armed groups in Syria, the legacy of the fragmented formation of the armed struggle. Several armed factions and coalitions dominate the armed struggle. Around them the major alliances and offensives pivot. Below are listed the most significant factions, their ideological make up, approximate size and main backers.
