“The Free Syrian Army: Syria’s Future Army of Liberation?”
By Nicholas A. Heras

Syria is in a state of civil war. Whether a de jure or a de facto civil war, an escalation of the civil conflict that has already cost the lives of over 4,000 Syrians is imminent. Thus far, the Syrian armed forces, and their appendage Alawite militia the Shabiha, have maintained a violent superiority over the protesters and rebellious population of Syria. Unfazed by this balance of violence, one opposition movement, the Free Syrian Army, is ready, willing, and able to take up arms to defeat the Al-Assad government.

The Free Syrian Army is composed of mainly Arab Sunni Muslim former soldiers from the Syrian army. Led by Col. Riad Al-Asaad, the Free Syrian Army claims to number between 10,000-20,000 members, and growing. Most of its rank-and-file defected from the Syrian army because of crises of conscience towards using lethal force against Syrian civilians protesting the Al-Assad government. It is organized into 22 “battalions” that operate throughout Syria, although recently the Free Syrian Army has been mobilizing with particular intensity in and around the front-line central-western cities of Homs and Hama, and in the northwestern region of Idlib. In many of the areas of Syria that it operates in, the Free Syrian Army works closely with the Local Coordination Committee groups that stage protests against the Al-Assad government, acting as a defense force in support of their political activities. Since its founding on July 29, 2011, the Free Syrian Army has been mounting ambushes against Syrian military outposts and buses transporting loyalist soldiers, and engaging the Syrian army in several small, bloody skirmishes.

Col. Al-Asaad and his most senior subordinates, all former Syrian army officers, maintain strategic operational control of the Free Syrian Army from Antakya, Turkey. The Free Syrian Army functions in Turkey with the invitation, and under the protection, of the Turkish government. In addition to its Turkish headquarters, the Free Syrian Army has bases of refuge and recruitment in the Akkar Valley in northern Lebanon. This presence in Lebanon is reportedly no where as well organized as it is in Turkey, with many of the Lebanon-based Free Syrian Army members operating on their own volition, re-deploying in Syria as soon it is possible for them to act against the Al-Assad government.

There are several advantages to the movement’s command location in Turkey, both practically and politically. With the support of the Turkish government, the Free Syrian Army’s command staff has unparalleled security from the Al-Assad government while in Turkey. Turkey is also the base of operations for the Syrian National Council, the largest organized anti-Assad government opposition group. The Syrian National Council claims the support of Syrians from all ends of the political and ideological spectrum. On December 6, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the Syrian National Council a “leading and legitimate representative of Syrians seeking a peaceful transition” from the Al-Assad government, indicating the level of international recognition and hope that is being put into the movement. Although at the moment two distinct organizations, developing regional events-and a healthy dose of foreign encouragement-may soon bring the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian National Council into a unified coalition against the Al-Assad government.

Recently, the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian National Council have engaged in lengthy discussions at their highest leadership level. The talks have led to an agreement between the two groups to co-ordinate their efforts. The Free Syrian Army, acting upon the insistent advice of the Syrian National Council, has reduced its operations to defensive actions, in order to lessen the risk of an all-out civil war and put the burden of offensive actions and the bloodshed that would result from them on the Syrian military. This willing defensive tactical stance adopted by the Free Syrian Army indicates that it is ready to march to the same beat as the Syrian National Council, and synthesize its operations to the political goals that the Syrian National Council sees as pressing and, above-all-else, easily sold to the international community seeking an alternative to the Al-Assad government.

The agreement between the two groups is very significant, and will very likely determine the form that the future Syrian Opposition will take. It sends the message to Syrians inside and outside Syria, and to foreign actors, that a unified Syrian Opposition force is being born. As a full-spectrum movement, a Free Syrian Army-Syrian National Council coalition would be able to claim a political role as the major transition authority in a post-Assad Syria, with the added assurance to concerned foreign actors that it has the security organization to combat potential disorder and violence à la Iraq from the first day after the Al-Assad government. Provided that this coalition was able to attract the support and participation of ethnic and religious minorities in Syria such as the Kurds (10% of Syria’s population), Christians (Armenian, Arab, and Syriac), Ismailis, Druze, and even, eventually, the Al-Assad’s own Alawite community, it would have overwhelming domestic political power combined with foreign assistance at its disposal.

The evolution of the Syrian National Council-Free Syrian Army partnership is extremely compelling in the context of current geo-political realities that impact Syria. In spite of opposition to the actions of the Al-Assad government and the Syrian military by the United States, Great Britain, France, Turkey, the Arab League, and now the United Nations, there are several countries, including U.N. Security Council members, Russia and China, that are resisting the international urge for action against the Al-Assad government. Direct military intervention against the Al-Assad government by foreign nations, such as what happened by NATO in Libya, is highly unlikely at present. In its place, civil disobedience and armed combat by the Syrian Opposition will have to suffice to remove the Al-Assad government from power.

Credible news reports out of Turkey and Lebanon indicate that French trainers have been sent to supplement the training of the Free Syrian Army, and that the French, British, and Turkish governments have a tacit agreement in place to arm and provide logistical support for the movement. The existence of this agreement is, however, being denied by the French Ambassador to Lebanon, Denis Pietton.

This international effort, if a reality, and nurtured to fruition, would bring an added, potentially intractable, military dimension to the Syrian Uprising. At the moment, the Free Syrian Army operates as a defensive, guerrilla force with the benefit of formal military training. It conducts hit-and-run attacks on the Syrian military and Shabiha militias, and is helped by its strategic depth in Lebanon and Turkey. An international mission to bolster the Free Syrian Army with advanced paramilitary training and additional weaponry, along with potential resulting military victories against the Al-Assad government, could rapidly increase the number of defections from the Syrian military to the Free Syrian Army, and swing the military balance of power and momentum to the Free Syrian Army.

Further, a well-armed, super-trained Free Syrian Army-Syrian National Council coalition could be used to administer and rule over “liberated” Syrian territories. Seemingly far-fetched at present, this scenario could very well be a reality sooner rather than later. Key to it all is Turkey. The Turkish government under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has on numerous occasions called for the removal of President Bashar Al-Assad from power. The Turkish government has also expressed its desire to avoid a calamitous movement of Syrian refugees into its territory, and has floated the idea, seriously, of using its military to enter Syria and establish a humanitarian buffer zone where Syrian internally displaced persons could flee to.

Should this idea become a reality, the natural administrative and security organization to provide the “Syrian” face to the Turkish/international effort would be the Free Syrian Army-Syrian National Council coalition. It could even, with the support of the Turkish military and international humanitarian organizations, begin to establish an incipient authority in the newly won areas under its control. This “test” authority, with a physical space at its disposal would begin to shape the rules and procedures to be adopted by a Syria post-Assad. In this “liberated zone” would be the “Benghazi” of Syria: a capital territory within Syria from which Opposition military and civil operations could begin to churn the irreversible tide of history against the Al-Assad government.

At present, the Free Syrian Army seems ready to continue its evolution as the preeminent military threat to the Al-Assad regime. On the ground with the protestors in Syria, and in conferences with foreign powers outside of Syria, the Free Syrian Army is positioning itself to be the go-to armed force to defeat the Syrian government. The formation of the Free Syrian Army is without a doubt the most significant development to date in the Syrian Uprising.