Fatah Halab (), or Aleppo Conquest, was a joint operations room of Syrian rebel factions operating in and around

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. Succeeding the Aleppo Liberation operations room, its establishment was announced on 26 April 2015. It stated that its aim was to conquer Aleppo City from Syrian government forces. In an October 2015 publication, the Washington D.C.–based

Institute for the Study of War The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is an American nonprofit research group and advocacy think tank founded in 2007 by military historian Kimberly Kagan and headquartered in Washington, D.C. ISW provides research and analysis of modern arm ...

considered Aleppo Conquest as one of the "powerbrokers" in

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' ) is one of the fourteen Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of the t ...

, being both "anti-regime" and "anti-

ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

." Since the inter-rebel conflicts, defections and mergers which started in December 2016, Fatah Halab has become largely defunct.

Member groups

The operations room included both US-backed groups and

Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...

Islamist groups. It included some groups which also participated in the Sunni Islamist Ansar al-Sharia operations room, but not others, such as

al-Nusra Front Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra or Jabhat Nusrat Ahl al-Sham, also known as Front for the Conquest of the Levant, and also later known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham was a Salafi-jihadist organization that fought against Ba'athist Syria, Ba'athist ...

. Previously al-Nusra coordinated with other groups through the ''Aleppo Operations Room''. Fatah Halab was originally established by seven major Sunni Islamist groups on 26 April 2015: * Levant Front *

Ahrar al-Sham Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya (), commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, was a coalition of multiple Sunni Islamist units that coalesced into a single brigade and later a division in order to fight against the Syrian Government led by Bas ...

Sham Legion The Sham Legion (, ''Faylaq al-Shām'' lit. Levant Legion) was an alliance of Sunni Islamist rebel groups formed in March 2014, during the Syrian Civil War. The alliance was formed from 19 different groups, some of which were previously affil ...

* Levant Revolutionaries Battalions * Army of Islam * Fastaqim Union * Dawn of Caliphate Battalions The number of groups in Fatah Halab increased after its founding, and by 18 June 2015 there were 31 groups. there were around 8,000 fighters spread out over a myriad of groups of varying sized. The following were the largest groups that participate in the operations room. *

* Army of Islam * Levant Revolutionaries Battalions * Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement (until October 2016) * Liwa al-Haqq *

Jaysh al-Sunna Jaysh al-Sunna () was a Homs-based Islamist rebel group that was established as a merger between different rebel groups, some of which originally came from the Free Syrian Army's Farouq Brigades, and was active during the Syrian Civil War. It ...

* Elite Islamic Battalions * Dawn of Caliphate Battalions * Bayan Movement * Army of Mujahideen * Fastaqim Union (mostly defunct since November 2016) *

Army of Glory The Army of Glory (), formerly the Union of Glory (), was an Sunni Islamist Syrian rebel group affiliated with the Free Syrian Army active in northwestern Syria, mainly in the al-Ghab Plain in northern Hama and its surroundings. Turkey, Qatar, ...

* 101st Infantry Division * 23rd Division (formerly the 16th Division) *

Sultan Murad Division The Sultan Murad Division (; ''Firqat al-Sultan Murad''; ) is a Syrian Turkmen rebel group fighting in the Syrian Civil War. It is aligned with the Syrian Interim Government and heavily supported by Turkey, who provides funding and military t ...

** Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror Brigade * Conquest Brigade * Criterion Brigades * 1st Regiment * Central Division * Freedom Brigade * Army of Victory * Jaysh al-Nukhba *

Free Idlib Army The Free Idlib Army ( ''Jaysh ʾIdlib al-Ḥarr'') was a Syrian rebel coalition consisting of 3 armed groups from northwestern Syria affiliated with the Free Syrian Army: the 13th Division (Syrian rebel group), 13th Division, the Northern Divisio ...

* Levant Front *

Authenticity and Development Front The Authenticity and Development Front () is an alliance of rebel groups that is active during the Syrian Civil War. The alliance is considered to be moderate by Charles Lister (from Middle East Institute)Charles ListerYes, there are 70,000 mod ...

War crimes

On 13 May 2016,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

accused the Fatah Halab coalition of "repeated indiscriminate attacks that may amount to war crimes". It also reported their alleged use of

chemical weapons A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as ...

. A

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

report in February 2017 came to the conclusion that during the siege of Eastern Aleppo Fatah Halab, after vowing to take revenge on

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

Sheikh Maqsoud Sheikh Maqsood (, , ), sometimes spelled al-Sheikh Maqsoud, Maqsud or Maksud, is a Kurdish-majority neighborhood in the city of Aleppo, Syria. Syrian Civil War During the Syrian Civil War, the Kurdish-majority People's Protection Units (YPG) t ...

, intentionally attacked civilian inhabited neighbourhoods of the Kurdish enclave, killing and maiming dozens of civilians, and that these acts constitute the war crime of directing attacks against a civilian population.

References

Sources

* {{Syrian Civil War Anti-Assad factions of the Syrian civil war Anti-ISIL factions in Syria Operations rooms of the Syrian civil war Aleppo Governorate in the Syrian civil war

Member groups

War crimes

See also

References

Sources