Syria: Who are the main factions?

CGTN Europe

After a lightning offensive in #Syria, the controlling group is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).   There are many groups jostling for power.   CGTN’s Iolo ap Dafydd explains.   #hts #damascus

Transcript

00:00At one time, we were talking about rebel groups and opposition to the Assad government in Syria.

00:06Now, after Bashar al-Assad and his family escape to Russia, it's not clear yet who fully controls the country

00:13or how that impacts Sunni and Shia Muslims, the Christian, Armenian and Druze minorities.

00:19The main fighting groups inside Syria, made up of several factions and controlling most of the country, is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

00:26It is the biggest because it's estimated to have 30,000 fighters.

00:31And it's led by Ahmed al-Sharar, who was known as Abu Muhammad al-Jalani.

00:37The second most powerful man in the country is the new prime minister, Muhammad al-Bashir, who is also a member of HTS.

00:44The power base, politically and economically, is in Idlib and the surrounding province.

00:50HTS was known formally as Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, and had several other names too.

00:57It was a part of ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and a branch of al-Qaeda,

01:03all branded as terrorist groups by the United States, the UK and other European countries.

01:09It's yet to be seen how tolerant it is of minorities.

01:13The second biggest group is known as the Syrian National Army.

01:17Now, under the SNA, there are dozens of groups, again, with different beliefs.

01:21It receives funding and some weapons from Turkey to the north, and has been focusing on extending a buffer zone along the border.

01:30It attacks Kurds in Syria, as Turkey accuses them of cooperating with the PKK group in Iraq,

01:37who've been fighting the Turkish state for decades.

01:40Now, not all are Islamist and jihadist.

01:43Some received training from the Americans early on in the civil war, but most were dismissed as being too extreme or criminal.

01:51The Syrian Democratic Forces, the SDF, are mostly a Kurdish ethnic minority, which makes up about 10% of Syria's population.

01:59It's the United States' main local partner in the fight against ISIS, the Islamic State in Syria.

02:04There are pockets of those fighters still believed to be in the country, but the SDF defeated them with US help in 2019.

02:12With local Arabs, Kurds control about a third of Syria.

02:16There are other armed groups too, apart from ISIS, like the Druze in the south.

02:20And then there's major international influences by Turkey, Israel, and the United States, with 900 troops inside the country.

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