The Free Officers Movement ( ar, حركة الضباط الأحرار, Harakat ad-Dubbat al-Ahrar), also called the Free Officers Brigade ( ar, لواء الضباط الاحرار, Liwa ad-Dubbat al-Ahrar) was a

Syrian rebel A number of states and armed groups have involved themselves in the ongoing Syrian Civil War as belligerents. Syrian Arab Republic and allies A number of sources have emphasized that as of at least late-2015/early-2016 the Syrian Arab Republic ...

group that operated during the early phase of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. The group consisted of defected officers and soldiers from the

Syrian Armed Forces The Syrian Arab Armed Forces ( ar, الْقُوَّاتُ الْمُسَلَّحَةُ الْعَرَبِيَّةُ السُّورِيَّةُ, al-Quwwāt al-Musallaḥah al-ʿArabīyah as-Sūrīyah) are the military forces of the Syrian Arab R ...

. Unlike the

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 ...

led by

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

Riad al-Asaad, which had links to the

Muslim Brotherhood of Syria The Muslim Brotherhood of Syria ( ar, الإخوان المسلمون في سوريا, translit=al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn fī Sūrīya) is a Syrian branch of the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood organization. Its objective is the transformation ...

, the Free Officers Movement was a

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

-leaning group. The movement joined the FSA on 23 September 2011, but continued to operate under the name of the Free Officers Movement until mid-2012.

History

The Free Officers Movement was formed on 9 June 2011 by Hussein Harmoush, a lieutenant colonel who defected from the

Syrian Army " (''Guardians of the Homeland'') , colors = * Service uniform: Khaki, Olive * Combat uniform: Green, Black, Khaki , anniversaries = August 1st , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = 1948 Arab–Israeli War Six ...

. He, along with 30 other defected soldiers, aided other rebels and civilians during the

June 2011 Jisr ash-Shugur clashes In June 2011, during the civil uprising phase of the Syrian Civil War, rebels seized the city of Jisr ash-Shughur, resulting in violent clashes with the Syrian security forces, including the military. The exact reasons of the fighting, the cour ...

and helped them escape to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. He himself fled to Turkey during the operation and lived in a

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced pe ...

near the border with Syria. According to reports he covertly headed back into Syria several times between June and August. Col. Riad al-Asaad also joined the Free Officers Movement in July, before forming the Free Syrian Army. On 29 August 2011, Harmoush disappeared while in the camp. On 15 September, he appeared on Syrian state television in an interview. He retracted his previous statements regarding Syrian security forces firing into crowds of protesters and accused the Muslim Brotherhood in instigating the conflict. However, activists claim that the statements came after

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...

and threats while Col. Harmoush was under detainment by the government. Col. Riad al-Asaad of the Free Syrian Army demanded the Syrian government to release Harmoush and hand him back to Turkey, and threatened to "respond harshly ... through

military operations A military operation is the coordinated military actions of a state, or a non-state actor, in response to a developing situation. These actions are designed as a military plan to resolve the situation in the state or actor's favor. Operations ...

" otherwise. Asaad also denied claims that Harmoush was captured by Turkish intelligence and handed over to Syrian military intelligence. Harmoush was then detained at the Sednaya Prison. Conflicting reports by

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

organizations stated that he was either

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the State (polity), state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to ...

by the Air Force Intelligence Directorate by

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...

in January 2012 or continued to be imprisoned as of November 2013. According to the

2014 Syrian detainee report The 2014 Syrian detainee report, also known as the Caesar Report, formally titled A Report into the credibility of certain evidence with regard to Torture and Execution of Persons Incarcerated by the current Syrian regime, is a report that claims t ...

, Harmoush was among those who were killed in Sednaya. The Free Officers Movement merged into the Free Syrian Army on 23 September. In late October 2011,

First Lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a ...

Khaldoun Sami Zaineddin, the first

Druze The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings o ...

officer to defect from the Syrian Armed Forces, joined the Free Officers Brigade.

References

{{Syrian Civil War Free Syrian Army 2011 establishments in Syria Guerrilla organizations Military units and formations established in 2011 Anti-government factions of the Syrian civil war