Some small units have defected as a group, and several battalion-size defections have been reported but not confirmed.

Although not all of these soldiers have joined the FSA, numerous media reports indicate a steady flow of defectors into the group’s ranks.ĭefectors include individuals of all ranks, from conscript to brigadier general, and from a wide variety of combat units and organizations, including key regime props such as the Republican Guard and the intelligence services. Desertion from the Syrian army increased as individual soldiers and small units refused to obey orders to shoot unarmed demonstrators or simply decided to abandon the regime. The group’s formation was a reaction to regime brutality against peaceful mass protests. The FSA was formally announced on July 29, but it can trace its origins to well before that. So far, the FSA has proven resilient in the face of regime measures to suppress it. The Free Syrian Army (FSA), the armed opposition group that has emerged to confront the Asad regime, appears to be gaining in strength and effectiveness, and Damascus now faces both peaceful and armed resistance. The growing armed opposition movement against the Asad regime is becoming an increasingly important element in the Syrian equation.

Reports also said that French intelligence agents have been sent to northern Lebanon and Turkey to build the first contingents of the Free Syrian Army out of the deserters who have fled Syria.ĪSAD’S ARMED OPPOSITION: THE FREE SYRIAN ARMY The report comes as an earlier report had revealed that the British and French intelligence agencies have reportedly tasked their agents with contacting Syrian dissidents based in the northern Lebanese town of Tripoli in order to help fuel unrest in Syria. The Turkish daily said that the three have informed the US about training and arming the Syrian opposition.Īccording to Milliyet, a group of armed rebels are currently stationed in Turkey’s Hatay Province near the border with Syria. The report added that the French, British, and Turkish authorities “have reached an agreement to send arms into Syria.” Turkey has slapped sanctions on Syria and floated the idea of a cross-border military operation, shortly after the Arab League imposed its own sanctions on the Syrian regime.Īccording to Milliyet, as cited by IRNA, France has sent its military training forces to Turkey and Lebanon to coach the so-called Free Syrian Army - a group of defectors operating out of Turkey and Lebanon - in an effort to wage war against Syria’s military.

اليمن ذلك المجهول by أنيس منصور