Syrian opposition fighters have launched a lightning offensive, capturing most of Aleppo and arriving as far south as Hama in a matter of days as government forces retreated.
The rebels’ rapid gains – the most significant since 2016 – have thrust Syria’s various opposition factions back into the spotlight.
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Since President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal response to peaceful demonstrators in 2011 led to people picking up arms to defend themselves, armed opposition groups have formed, allied with others and split up several times, making it hard to pinpoint their exact sizes and compositions.
Here’s everything we know about the opposition groups involved in Operation Deterrence of Aggression with a note at the end about another operation, Dawn of Freedom:
Operation Deterrence of Aggression – the control room
This umbrella group was formed to coordinate the military operation.
It developed out of the Fateh al-Mubin operations centre, which oversaw the activities of the armed opposition in northwestern Syria under the control of the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG).
