Syrian National Army
The Syrian National Army, also known as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, was a coalition of armed Syrian groups that participated in the Syrian civil war. Comprising various rebel factions that emerged at the start of the war in July 2011, it was officially established in 2017 under the auspices of Turkey, who provided funding, training, and military support.
The SNA emerged from the Free Syrian Army, a loose collection of armed opposition groups founded on 29 July 2011 by defected Syrian military officers. After Turkey formally condemned the regime of Bashar al-Assad in November 2011, it provided arms, training, and sanctuary to the FSA. Initially the principal opponent of the Syrian government, the FSA was gradually weakened by infighting, lack of funding, and rival Islamist groups. In August 2016, Turkey began assembling a new coalition of Syrian rebel groups, which included many former FSA fighters, in an effort to create a more cohesive and effective opposition force; following Operation Euphrates Shield, the Turkish government coordinated with the Syrian Interim Government to form a "National Army" to secure Turkish territorial gains.
The official aims of the SNA were to create a "safe zone" in northern Syria, consolidate with other rebel factions, and combat both Syrian government forces and Islamists. Its presence expanded to the neighboring Idlib Governorate during the Syrian government's 2019 northwestern offensive, after which it incorporated the National Front for Liberation on 4 October 2019.
Closely aligned with the Turkish government, the SNA has been described as an auxiliary army of the Turkish Armed Forces, and also as "mercenaries" by their critics. Outside Syria, SNA fighters have been deployed by Turkey as a proxy force, for example in conflicts from Libya to the south Caucasus. The SNA mostly consists of Arabs and Syrian Turkmen.
In late November 2024, the Syrian National Army participated alongside Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham in the 2024 Syrian Opposition offensives that led to the fall of the Assad regime through Operation "Dawn Of Freedom". The SNA captured both regime and SDF controlled areas in Aleppo countryside, including the cities of Manbij, Tel Rifaat and the Shahba region, and supported HTS during the offensives.
It was reported in January 2025 that the Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan announced that SNA factions would integrate under the new Syrian Army. At the Syrian Revolution Victory Conference, which was held on 29 January 2025, most factions of the armed opposition, including the SNA, announced their dissolution and were incorporated into the newly formed Ministry of Defense. Since then, the transitional government has been still integrating armed groups, including factions of the former Syrian National Army. On 3 February, there were circulated reports that the Ministry of Defense promoted two generals of the SNA, Abu Amsha and Saif Abu Bakr, to lead the newly formed 62nd Division and 76th Division of the Syrian Army.
Composition
The SNA, which includes at least 25,000 fighters, with some sources estimating it to be 70,000, mostly consists of Arabs and Turkmens. The number of Syrian Kurds among the SNA was much smaller. In January 2018, senior SNA commander Azad Shabo said that there were "dozens" among the FSA units such as the Azadî Battalion, while Almodon Online reported about 500 Kurdish fighters overall, including in non-FSA formations such as Ahrar al-Sham, the Levant Front and the Army of Grandchildren. By February 2018, a SNA commander said that 350 Kurds were part of the Syrian National Army.By the end of June 2017, most Turkish-backed FSA groups reorganized themselves into three military blocs: Victory, Sultan Murad and the Levant. A number of other groups remained independent. On 30 December 2017, the groups unified to form the National Army. By this time, three "legions" were established as part of the SNA: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. On 15 March 2018, rebel factions in northern Homs Governorate formed the 4th Legion, though it later transferred to northern Aleppo. Factions also moved from Rif Dimashq Governorate and Damascus to northern Aleppo.
On 4 October 2019, the National Front for Liberation joined the National Army's command structure, planning to become its 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th legions. Both NFL and SNA fighters were uninformed of the merger, which took place in a press conference in Urfa, southern Turkey, amid Turkish plans to launch an offensive against the Syrian Democratic Forces.
According to a 2019 research paper published by the pro-government Turkish think tank SETA, "Out of the 28 factions in the Syrian National Army, 21 were previously supported by the United States, three of them via the Pentagon's program to combat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Eighteen of these factions were supplied by the CIA via the MOM Operations Room in Turkey, a joint intelligence operation room of the "Friends of Syria" to support the armed opposition. Fourteen factions of the 28 were also recipients of the U.S.-supplied TOW anti-tank guided missiles."
In April 2021, an additional military formation was made in Idlib, named 'al-Quwat al-Radifa'.
By September 2021, groups under the Syrian National Army have coalesced into two main blocs: the Azm Operations Room and the Syrian Front for Liberation. Speaking of these blocs, a freelance journalist based in the region said that "These formations are only for show and they are not united in reality. Each faction still has its own leaders and members who do not take orders from the leaders of other factions. These formations only aim to protect themselves. Whenever factions feel threatened, they form new military bodies to protect themselves, but once the threat is gone, the formations fall apart."
Background
Connection with Turkey
The Free Syrian Army was the Syrian rebel faction most aligned with the Turkish state since the beginning of the Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War. For the FSA, Turkey was a sanctuary and a source of supplies. In the aftermath of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict restarting in 2015, the Turkish government became more influential throughout 2016, as other countries began to scale back their involvement and the rebel groups became more dependent on Turkish help. The Turkey-backed FSA's wages were paid for by the Turkish government, they operate alongside the Turkish Armed Forces. Injured Turkey-backed FSA troops have been treated in Turkey.The Free Police have more overt connections to Turkey, reportedly wearing Turkish police uniforms decorated with the word "Polis", while Special Forces wear distinctive light blue berets also worn by Turkish Gendarmerie. Some wore a Turkish flag patch on their uniforms at the inauguration ceremony on 24 January 2017.
On 18 April 2018, the Raqqa Military Council, which consists of 6 groups, was announced in the city of Urfa in southeastern Turkey.
Operational history
2016: Operation Euphrates Shield
The organization's first known engagement was a joint operation with the Turkish Armed Forces. In the first day, they took control of Jarabulus from ISIL. After this, they expanded northeast, meeting with units of the Syrian Democratic Forces north of Manbij. They successfully pushed the SDF out of the Jarablus area and captured all its settlements; the Euphrates river was used as a demarcation line, with forces on the opposing sides. On at least one occasion, American troops came to form a joint operation with Turkey; however after the TFSA's Ahrar al-Sharqiya Brigade's verbal attacks against them, the US troops withdrew, being escorted from the area by US-backed units in the TFSA, including the Hamza Division and the al-Mu'tasim Brigade. A U.S. defense official confirmed the event, but said that U.S. soldiers were still deployed in the area. The joint forces pushed ISIL to the south. After this success, Turkey-backed FSA made contact near Mare with the SDF forces from the Afrin Canton. Contact between the two saw the group attack some SDF-held towns with Turkish artillery support. The attacks were repelled, with casualties on both sides.In February 2017, the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army and the Turkish Armed Forces advanced to besiege al-Bab. By 27 February, the group and Turkish Armed Forces seized al-Bab. As of February 2017, 470 fighters of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army died in Operation Euphrates Shield, while the Turkish armed forces lost 68.
As of March 2017, the TFSA and the Turkish army were effectively blocked from moving further east by advances of the SAA. This occurred when the SDF's Manbij Military Council handed over some territory bordering the Turkish positions to the SAA, creating a buffer zone. As a result, the TFSA failed to achieve other stated goals, including capturing the SDF-held city of Manbij and participating in the Coalition offensive on Raqqa.
On 24 September 2017, the Hamza Division announced the opening of a military academy in the city of al-Bab. According to Abdullah Halawa, military commander of the group, 2,200 fighters will undergo two months of training in the academy, with the goal of forming a "Syrian National Army" in northern Syria.