Raqqa Hawks Brigade
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The Raqqa Hawks Brigade ( ar-at, لواء صقور الرقة, Liwa Suqur al Raqqa), also known as Raqqa Falcons Brigade, is a primarily Arab militia, composed mostly of
Raqqa Raqqa ( ar, ٱلرَّقَّة, ar-Raqqah, also and ) (Kurdish languages, Kurdish: Reqa/ ڕەقە) is a city in Syria on the northeast bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. T ...
natives, that is part of the
Syrian Democratic Forces , war = the Syrian Civil War , image = Flag of Syrian Democratic Forces.svgborder , caption = Flag , active = 10 October 2015 – present , ideology = DemocracyDecentralizationSecularism ...
(SDF) and fights against the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
(ISIL). The unit's stated goal was to recapture its home city from ISIL, which it achieved by taking part in the
Battle of Raqqa (2017) The Battle of Raqqa (2017), also known as the Second Battle of Raqqa, was the fifth and final phase of the Raqqa campaign (2016–2017) launched by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against the Islamic State (ISIL) with an aim to seize the city ...
. The Raqqa Hawks are considered to have sympathies for and connections with
Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...
's government.


History


Origins

The Raqqa Hawks Brigade was originally formed as battalion of the Front of Raqqa Revolutionaries in early 2015, but left the group sometime during 2016. The
Russian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (, ), commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military forces of Russia. In terms of active-duty personnel, they are the world's fifth-largest military force, with at least two m ...
and the
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i Begin–Sadat Center have described the Raqqa Hawks Brigade as
Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the governm ...
-affiliated faction, but there have also been allegations that the militia is actually loyal to the Syrian government. For example, a representative of the Raqqa Hawks reportedly met with
Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Baʿath Party ( ar, حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي ' ) was a political party founded in Syria by Mishel ʿAflaq, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Bītār, and associates of Zaki al-ʾArsūzī. The party espoused B ...
officials in
Qamishli Qamishli ( ar, ٱلْقَامِشْلِي, Al-Qāmišlī, ku, قامشلۆ, Qamişlo, syc, ܒܝܬ ܙܠܝ̈ܢ, Bēṯ Zālīn, lit=House of Reeds or syr, ܩܡܫܠܐ, translit=Qamishlo)
in September 2016. Members of the militia have stated that their primary aim was revenge against ISIL in general and to free their homelands from ISIL's regime. In December 2015, the Russian Armed Forces General Staff claimed that the
Russian Air Force " Air March" , mascot = , anniversaries = 12 August , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = , decorations = , bat ...
bombed ISIL targets north of Raqqa to support the Ghanim group, part of the Raqqa Hawks Brigade.


Raqqa campaign (2016–17)


Raqqa countryside and conflicts with the Front of Raqqa Revolutionaries

When the group joined the
campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...
to capture Raqqa in November 2016, it had around 1,000 fighters and was expected to be a "key component of the fight for the city". The Raqqa Hawks Brigade possesses several
technicals Technicals may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle often used in civil conflict * TECHNICALS, a clothing brand owned by Blacks Leisure Group See also * Technical (disambiguation) * Cambridge Technicals Cambridge Techn ...
and
gun truck A gun truck is an armored vehicle with one or more crew-served weapons, typically based on a commercial vehicle. Gun trucks often have improvised vehicle armor, such as scrap metal, concrete, gravel, or sandbags, which is added to a heavy truc ...
s, the latter of which were mostly captured from ISIL. In mid-November, the Raqqa Hawks Brigade took part in the several days-long battle for Tal Saman, the ISIL headquarters in the northern Raqqa countryside. In December, tensions rose between the Front of Raqqa Revolutionaries and the Raqqa Hawks Brigade, with several military commanders of the former reportedly defecting to the latter. On 27 December, however, the Front of Raqqa Revolutionaries commanders claimed on video that they had been kidnapped by the Raqqa Hawks Brigade and forced to announce their defection, and that they were still loyal to their old group. On 20 February 2017, one sub-commander of the Raqqa Hawks Brigade, Abu Yamen al-Meko, who reportedly had strong links to the Military Intelligence Directorate, declared his loyalty to
Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...
and formed the pro-government unit "Northern Union". His followers consequently raised the Ba'athist flag at their headquarters in the village of al-Fares. These actions, however, provoked the Front of Raqqa Revolutionaries' ire, which launched a surprise attack on al-Fares two days later and destroyed al-Meko's faction, killing or capturing its members. The Front of Raqqa Revolutionaries went on to declare that it "would never allow the regime and its supporting militia to re-enter the city
f Raqqa F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. Hist ...
by any means".


Battle of Tabqa

On 11 April, the
US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
mistakenly bombed a position held by the Raqqa Hawks Brigade near the city of
al-Thawrah Al-Thawrah ( ar, ٱلثَّوْرَة, aṯ-Ṯawrah), also known as Al-Tabqah ( ar, ٱلطَّبْقَة, aṭ-Ṭabqah, also ), is a city in Raqqa Governorate, Syria, approximately west of Raqqa. The name "al-Thawrah" literally means "The Revo ...
and killed around 17 fighters from the group.
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
producer Riam Dalati went on to claim that the airstrike had been called in by the
YPG The People's Defense Units (YPG), (YPG) ; ar, وحدات حماية الشعب, Waḥdāt Ḥimāyat aš-Šaʽb) also called People's Protection Units, is a mainly-Kurds in Syria, Kurdish militia in Syria and the primary component of the ...
, which was denied by YPG spokesman Rêdûr Xelîl. The killed fighters were buried with full military honors on the next day near
Tell Abyad Tell Abyad; ku, گرێ سپی, Girê Spî; hy, Թել Աբյադ; syr, ܬܠ ܐܒܝܕ. is a town in northern Syria. It is the administrative center of the Tell Abyad District within the Raqqa Governorate. Located along the Balikh River, it const ...
, with thousands of locals participating in the funeral. The ''
Carter Center The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. He and his wife Rosalynn Carter partnered with Emory University just after his defeat in the 1980 United States presidenti ...
'' claimed that the Raqqa Hawks blamed the YPG for the bombing, and had declared that they would leave the entire Raaqa campaign. This was contradicted by the fact that the group continued to fight alongside the YPG for Raqqa in the following months. According to a pro-
Syrian opposition The Syrian opposition ( ar, المعارضة السورية ', ) is the political structure represented by the Syrian National Coalition and associated Syrian anti-Assad groups with certain territorial control as an alternative Syrian gover ...
news outlet, a minor skirmish between the YPG and Raqqa Hawks Brigade fighters took place in northern Tell Abyad in late May. The reason for this incident allegedly was that the YPG had attempted to arrest Raqqa Hawks Brigade members who were suspected of supporting the Assad government.


Battle of Raqqa and end of the Ghanim group

Following the conquest of al-Thawrah, the Raqqa Hawks Brigade took part in the advance on Raqqa, and was among the SDF units that took part in the assault on the city in June 2017, taking part in the fight for its Roman neighborhood. On 26 August 2017, the YPG raided the headquarters of the Raqqa Hawks Brigade's Ghanim group in
Tell Abyad Tell Abyad; ku, گرێ سپی, Girê Spî; hy, Թել Աբյադ; syr, ܬܠ ܐܒܝܕ. is a town in northern Syria. It is the administrative center of the Tell Abyad District within the Raqqa Governorate. Located along the Balikh River, it const ...
and captured 15 fighters, including the commander of the group, Fayad Ghanim, in addition to seizing their weapons. Several other fighters from the group fled to Syrian government-controlled territory in the eastern Raqqa countryside. The YPG accused the Ghanim group of coordinating with government forces during their
offensive Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...
near the area. Despite his purported arrest, Fayad Ghanim too eventually managed to flee into government-controlled areas, where he met and was photographed with the head of the
Tiger Forces The 25th Special Mission Forces Division, mostly known by their former name Tiger Forces or Quwwat al-Nimr ( ar, قُوَّات النِّمْر), is an elite formation (special forces unit) of the Syrian Arab Army which functions primarily as ...
,
Suheil al-Hassan Suheil Salman al-Hassan ( ar, سُهَيْلُ سَلْمَانَ الْحَسَنِ, Suhayl Salmān al-Ḥasan) (born 10 June 1970), nicknamed The Tiger, is a Brigadier General in the Syrian Army, currently serving as commander of its elite Ti ...
. Overall, several commanders of the Raqqa Hawks Brigade defected to the government over the course of 2017, and according to WINEP, the loyalty of those who stayed with the SDF remains "dubious". By 2018, a unit known as "Raqqa Hawks Brigade" had become active as part of the pro-government Tiger Forces. It is unclear whether this unit has any relation to the SDF group of the same name. The pro-opposition news site ''Zaman al Wasl'' news site continued to list the Raqqa Hawks Brigade as an SDF member group in early 2019.


Organization

Though the Raqqa Hawks Brigade reportedly includes mostly fighters from Raqqa, at least one of its sub-units, the Ghanim group, is composed of people from northern
Raqqa Governorate Raqqa Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة الرقة, Muḥāfaẓat ar-Raqqah) is one of the fourteen governorates of Syria. It is situated in the north of the country and covers an area of 19,618 km2. The capital is Raqqa. The Islamic State of ...
, primarily Tell Abyad. The militia also recruited a substantial number of fighters from the Naim,
al-Baggara Al-Baggara or Bakara ( ar, البقّارة (البكّارة), ' or ') is an Arab tribe of the Euphrates tribes spread widely between Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. The tribe was named by the name of their grandfather, Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, o ...
, and
Anazzah Anizah or Anazah ( ar, عنزة, ʻanizah, Najdi pronunciation: ) is an Arabian tribe in the Arabian Peninsula, Upper Mesopotamia, and the Levant. Genealogy and origins Anizah's existence as an autonomous tribal group, like many prominent m ...
tribes. The Ghanim group was accused by pro-
opposition Opposition may refer to: Arts and media * ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band * ''The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Comed ...
media to be partly funded and equipped by the
Air Force Intelligence Directorate The Air Force Intelligence Directorate ( ar, إدارة المخابرات الجوية, ''Idarat al-Mukhabarat al-Jawiyya'') is an intelligence service of Syria, possibly the country's most powerful, owing its importance to Hafez al-Assad's role ...
and
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, and several members of the unit actually defected to the Syrian Army in August 2017. Another sub-unit was the group of Abu Yamen al-Meko, who later formed the pro-Assad faction "Northern Union". This group was based in the village of al-Fares west of Tell Abyad, and was eventually destroyed by Jabhat Thuwar al-Raqqa on 22 February 2017.


References


Works cited

* {{Syrian Civil War Anti-ISIL factions in Syria Syrian Democratic Forces Military units and formations established in 2016 2016 establishments in Syria