During the course of the war in Syria, one of the main contingents of forces fighting on the side of the Assad regime was the so-called 'Forces of the Friends' (Arabic: Quwat al-Asdiqa'): that is, formations of Syrian fighters that were supported and overseen by personnel from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and/or Hezbollah. Collectively, these formations constituted the 'Local Defence Forces' network, a project more broadly coordinated with the Syrian military. With the collapse of the Assad regime, these formations have similarly collapsed and do not constitute 'stay-behind' sabotage networks for the Iranians and Hezbollah to undermine the new government.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

To mark the end of 2024, I present an interview with Basim Abu Fakhr, who belongs to the Rijal al-Karama ("Men of Dignity") movement that is primarily based in the predominantly Druze province of al-Suwayda' in southern Syria. Rijal al-Karama emerged as the most prominent 'third-way' Druze movement in al-Suwayda' during the war, and maintained neutrality until the very end when it joined with other factions in the province in dismantling the remnants of the regime's military and security apparatuses. In this interview, we touched on Rijal al-Karama's role in the events that brought the final collapse of the Assad regime, the group's current responsibilities in the post-Assad environment, and how Basim views the current trajectory in Syria.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

The Yarmouk Basin village of Maariya lies right in Syria's southwestern corner, next to the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights to its west and Jordan to its south. The village has come to local media attention recently as a site of demonstrations against Israel's incursion into Syrian territory beyond the Golan Heights since the fall of the Assad regime, as Israeli forces have entered into the area. In response to the demonstrations, Israeli forces opened fire and wounded one of the protestors.

Although it is possible to interpret Israel's actions as temporary measures against the perceived threat of anarchy, it should also be realised that these actions have aroused some local suspicions of an attempted land grab.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

As Assad's forces lost Aleppo and Hama to the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham-led insurgents in north, they also faced an uprising in southern Syria that contributed to the regime's collapse. This included local factions in the predominantly Druze province of al-Suwayda', which formed a 'joint operations room' that brought about the final dismantlement of the regime's security and military apparatuses in the province and assumed primary responsibility for security. The 'joint operations room' also comes under the name of the 'military operations administration in al-Suwayda',' suggesting a nominal tie to the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham-led 'military operations administration' that has assumed official military responsibility for security in most areas taken by the opposition from the regime.

Continue to the full blog post  |  More blog posts

Following on from my interview with a resident of Aleppo city about the insurgent takeover of the city, I present here an interview with another resident to discuss the same topic, since it is useful to corroborate and compare what sources inside the city can tell us about what is going on. Below is an interview conducted on 2 December with an individual who is originally from the Aleppo town of al-Bab but left for Aleppo city ten years ago when al-Bab fell to insurgent control, hoping to have a better future. He completed his high school and university degrees in Aleppo and recently did a master's degree in Latakia, and is an employee at Aleppo University.

[Click here to continue reading]:

Continue to the full blog post  |  More blog posts