Muntasir Billah Brigade
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The Muntasir Billah Division (), also known by its original name Muntasir Billah Brigade (, "God's Victory Brigade"), is a predominantly ethnic Turkmen
Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA; ) is a Big tent, big-tent coalition of decentralized Syrian opposition (2011–2024), Syrian opposition rebel groups in the Syrian civil war founded on 29 July 2011 by Colonel Riad al-Asaad and six officers who defe ...
militia that has taken part in the Syrian Civil War. One of the most prominent pro-Turkish formations in the FSA, the group fought in the
Battle of Aleppo (2012–2016) {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Battle of Aleppo{{lang, ar, مَعْرَكَةُ حَلَبَ , partof = the Syrian civil war , image = , caption = Clockwise from top-left: A destroyed tank ...
and other campaigns 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 ...
against the
Syrian government The government of Syria takes place in a presidential system and is currently in a transitionary period under and led by a transitional government. The seat of the government is located in Damascus, Syria. On 8 December 2024, after the succ ...
,
ISIL The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signif ...
, and the SDF. The exact origin of the current Muntasir Billah Brigade is unclear, and it is possible that it originated as remnant of a rebel group that had been active in Raqqa Governorate until being subsumed by the
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 ...
and ISIL in 2013.


Etymology

The militias in Raqqa and Aleppo were both originally called "Muntasir Billah Brigade". From 2018, some sources such as the
Anadolu Agency Anadolu Agency (, ; abbreviated AA) is a state-run news agency headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. History The Anadolu Agency was founded in 1920 during the Turkish War of Independence by the order of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. As the Empire's capital ...
, '' Al-Araby'', '' Vatan'', and others have begun calling the Aleppo group "Muntasir Billah Division". However, other sources such as
SOHR The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (also known as SOHR; ), founded in May 2006, is a United Kingdom-based information office whose stated aim is to document human rights abuses in Syria; since 2011 it has focused on the Syrian Civil War. ...
, the ''Syrians for Truth and Justice'' group, and ''Smart News'' continued to call the group "Muntasir Billah Brigade".


History


Raqqa militia

The exact origin of Raqqa's Muntasir Billah Brigade is unclear. One of its fighters stated that he joined the group "when the revolution began", and ''
NOW News ''NOW News'' (sometimes abbreviated NOW, formerly ''NOW Lebanon'') is a Beirut-based Lebanese news website focused on the Middle East founded in late 2012 and published in both English and Arabic by M Publishing SAL. The site offers reports, n ...
'' reported that it originated in or around
Raqqa Raqqa (, also , Kurdish language, Kurdish: ''Reqa'') is a city in Syria on the North bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine city and b ...
city. By early 2013, the Muntasir Billah Brigade was an Islamist-leaning
Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA; ) is a Big tent, big-tent coalition of decentralized Syrian opposition (2011–2024), Syrian opposition rebel groups in the Syrian civil war founded on 29 July 2011 by Colonel Riad al-Asaad and six officers who defe ...
militia that operated as part of the
Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades The Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades ( ''Al-wiat Aḥfād ar-Rasūl'', "Grandsons of the Prophet Brigades") was a Syrian rebel group fighting against the Syrian government in the Syrian Civil War. It was funded by the Qatari government. Structure and ...
and fought against government forces in
Raqqa Governorate Raqqa Governorate (, Kurdish: ''Parêzgeha Reqa'') 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 Iraq and Levant claim ...
, while receiving support by
Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...
. Though relatively small at the time, the Muntasir Billah Brigade played a significant part during the Battle of Raqqa (March 2013). Having joined the "Raqqa Liberation Front's Military and Revolutionary Council", the unit first helped other rebel groups to clear the city's outskirts of
Syrian Army The Syrian Army is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. Up until the fall of the Assad regime, the Syrian Arab Army existed as a land force branch of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, which dominanted the military service of the fo ...
outposts on 3 March. Three days later, Raqqa's remaining garrison handed over the eastern entrance, and then the city's center, to the Muntasir Billah Brigade and the
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 ...
, mostly without offering any resistance. It remains unclear how this came to pass. In any case, capturing the city was a major success for the militia, and it subsequently took part in the siege of the nearby 17th Division base which was still held by the Syrian Army. In July 2013, the Muntasir Billah Brigade and other FSA units in Raqqa united and formed the 11th Division in an attempt to counterbalance the rising power of various Jihadist groups such as the al-Nusra 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 ...
, and the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signi ...
. As time went on, however, ISIL began to eclipse the other groups in power, so that fighters of the Muntasir Billah Brigade started to defect to the Islamic State. In September 2013, the Muntasir Billah Brigade joined the al-Nusra Front in an attempt to halt its decline. At the time, the militia claimed to consist of 15 battalions. In October, the group fought in Tabqa against government holdouts. After ISIL suppressed the al-Nusra Front in its territory, the Muntasir Billah Brigade lost its protector, and consequently chose to join ISIL in December 2013.


Aleppo militia

It is unclear how and to what extent Raqqa's Muntasir Billah Brigade is related to the militia of the same name that appeared in
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 ...
after the former's submission to ISIL. Firas Paşa, leader of Aleppo's Muntasir Billah Brigade, stated in a 2017 interview with ''
TRT World TRT Global, previously named TRT World, is a Turkish public broadcaster which broadcasts in English 24 hours a day and is operated by the TRT and based in the Ulus quarter of Ankara. It provides worldwide news and current affairs focusing on ...
'' that his militia was founded by Turkmen and
Arab Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
natives of Aleppo city in 2013, while ''NOW News'' reported that Firas' group "has its origins in Raqqa". Regardless of its origin, the Muntasir Billah Brigade of Firas Paşa was fighting for the
Syrian opposition Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...
in the Battle for Aleppo by January 2014, and consisted mostly of Turkmens at the time. In October 2015, the militia was among the rebel groups that attacked the
YPG The People's Defense Units (YPG), also called People's Protection Units, is a libertarian socialist US-backed Kurdish militant group in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The YPG mostly consists of K ...
-held Sheikh Maqsood district of Aleppo, accusing the YPG of aiding the government and attacking Turkmen villages. By early 2016, the Muntasir Billah Brigade was still rather small, counting just 350 fighters, but its leader had gained some prominence in Turkey. Paşa "regularly" appeared in Turkish television at the time, talking about the situation of the Turkmens in Syria and attempting to garner support for his group. Meanwhile, the Muntasir Billah Brigade suffered from heavy Russian airstrikes, causing Paşa to argue that "if there were no Russian planes, there would be no Assad today". The militia joined the " Army of Aleppo" rebel coalition in February, and subsequently took part in unsuccessfully resisting a large Russian-backed offensive by government forces as well as the
Syrian Democratic Forces The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is a Kurds in Syria, Kurdish-led coalition of U.S.-backed Left-wing politics, left-wing ethnic militias and rebel groups, and serves as the official military wing of the Democratic Autonomous Administration ...
in the northern Aleppo countryside. The Muntasir Billah Brigade also fought in the
Northern Aleppo offensive (March–June 2016) The Northern Aleppo offensive (March–June 2016) was a series of military operations launched by Syrian opposition forces against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and vice versa in the northern Aleppo Governorate, near the Syria–Turkey ...
against ISIL, this time as part of the
Army of Conquest The Army of Conquest () or Jaish al-Fatah, abbreviated JaF, was a joint command center of Sunni Islamist Syrian rebel factions participating in the Syrian Civil War. The alliance was formed in March 2015 under the supervision and coordinati ...
. On 20 June 2016, the militia took part in a
prisoner exchange A prisoner exchange or prisoner swap is a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners: prisoner of war, prisoners of war, spy, spies, hostages, etc. Sometimes, cadaver, dead bodies are involved in an exchange. Geneva Conven ...
with
Liwa al-Quds Liwa al-Quds (; meaning the Jerusalem Brigade) is a predominantly Syrian Palestinian paramilitary group and Syrian Army brigade that operated as a part of pro-Syrian government forces in the Syrian Civil War. In 2019, it became a part of the Syr ...
, a pro-government militia. Like several other Turkmen FSA units, the Muntasir Billah Brigade moved at least part of its forces from Aleppo city to support the Turkish-led
Operation Euphrates Shield Operation Euphrates Shield () was an offensive by the Turkish Armed Forces and the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, which led to the Turkish occupation of northern Syria. Operations were carried out in the region between the Euphrates river to th ...
in November 2016. This further weakened the last rebel resistance in the city, which was fully retaken by government forces in the following December. A senior official of the Muntasir Billah Brigade justified the retreat by arguing that the rebel defeat in Aleppo had become inevitable anyway. The group arrested three
Syrian Army The Syrian Army is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. Up until the fall of the Assad regime, the Syrian Arab Army existed as a land force branch of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, which dominanted the military service of the fo ...
soldiers near al-Bab in May 2017, reportedly to prevent them from looting a village. In early 2018, the militia took part in
Operation Olive Branch Operation Olive Branch () was an invasion by the Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) in the Kurdish-majority Afrin District of northwest Syria, against the People's Protection Units (YPG) of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Th ...
which resulted in the conquest of
Afrin Canton Afrin Canton (; ; ) was one of the cantons of Rojava. Syria's Afrin District fell under the control of the People's Protection Units (YPG) around 2012 and an "Afrin Canton" (now Afrin Region) was declared in 2014. Afrin Canton in its latest form ...
from the SDF. After the capture of Afrin city, the Muntasir Billah Brigade distributed 300 tons of sugar among the local populace. The group claimed that the sugar had been captured from the "black market storage room of the PYD" and this proved that "the Turkish army and the Free Syrian Army, have come here
frin "Further research is needed" (FRIN), "more research is needed" and other variants of similar phrases are commonly used in research papers. The cliché is so common that it has attracted research, regulation and cultural commentary. Meaning Som ...
to put an end to
he PYD's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter call ...
oppression". On the other side, the pro-PYD
Hawar News Agency '' Hawar News Agency'' (sometimes abbreviated ''ANHA'') (; ) is a news agency. The site started as an Arabic-only news service. Hawar News is linked to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) and its armed forces the Sy ...
accused the unit and allied groups of looting
antiquities Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean such as the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt, and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures such as Ancient Persia (Iran). Artifact ...
in the Mobata district. By 2020, the Muntasir Billah Brigade was one of several
Syrian National Army The Syrian National Army (SNA; ), also known as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA), is a coalition of armed Syrian opposition groups that participate in the Syrian civil war. Comprising various rebel factions that emerged at the sta ...
groups which still controlled Afrin and the surrounding countryside. According to the ''Syrians for Truth and Justice'' group, the Muntasir Billah Brigade was involved in an arbitrary arrest of a civilian in Rajo in March 2020, followed by demands of ransom.


Organization and ideology

The Muntasir Billah Brigade is prominently led by Firas Paşa, and consisted of 350 fighters, 170 of them ethnic Turkmen, by February 2016. The group is among the Syrian rebel groups that support or at least tolerate
Turkish nationalist Turkish nationalism () is nationalism among the people of Turkey and individuals whose national identity is Turkish people, Turkish. Turkish nationalism consists of political and social movements and sentiments prompted by a love for Turkish cu ...
or pan-Turkic ideologies like
Neo-Ottomanism Neo-Ottomanism (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Yeni Osmanlıcılık, Neo-Osmanlıcılık'') is an Irredentism, irredentist and imperialism, imperialist Politics of Turkey, Turkish political ideology that, in its broadest sense, advocates to honor t ...
and
Turanism Turanism, also known as Turanianism, pan-Turanism or pan-Turanianism, is a Pan-nationalism, pan-nationalist political movement built around Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific claims of mongoloid, biological and Altaic, linguistic connections betwee ...
. As result, the Muntasir Billah Brigade has been associated with various
Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...
right-wing or Islamist associations: By 2016, the militia received aid from the
Grey Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though grey ...
and
Great Unity Party The Great Unity Party (, BBP) is a far-right Sunni Islamist and ultranationalist political party in Turkey. It was created on 29 January 1993 by Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu, who broke off from the Nationalist Task Party (predecessor of the modern ...
, though Firas Paşa claimed at the time that no Turkish citizens were fighting with his group. By 2018, several Turkish jihadists and ultranationalists had joined the militia. Despite this, Firas Paşa has argued that his group makes no great distinction between Turkmens and Arabs, and mostly accepts aid by Turkish and Islamist groups out of simple necessity. The militia has also received support by the Turkish state, particularly after joining the Syrian National Army. Parts of the Muntasir Billah Brigade were trained by the
Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; , TSK) are the armed forces, military forces of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey. The TAF consist of the Turkish Army, Land Forces, the Turkish Navy, Naval Forces and the Turkish Air Force, Air Forces. The Chief of ...
in early 2018. By 2019, the unit served as "Brigade 122", part of the Division 12, in the Syrian National Army's First Legion. The militia is also known to distribute and organize
humanitarian aid Humanitarian aid is material and Humanitarian Logistics, logistic assistance, usually in the short-term, to people in need. Among the people in need are the homelessness, homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. Th ...
in the Aleppo countryside, and was supported by organizations like Türkmen-Der and the
Turkish Red Crescent The Turkish Red Crescent () is the Turkish affiliate of the International Red Crescent and the first worldwide adopter of the crescent symbol for humanitarian aid. Being the largest humanitarian foundation in Turkey, its roots goes back to the ...
in this regard. By 2020, the group was still described as a Turkmen militia by SOHR.


Notes


References


Works cited

* * {{Syrian Civil War Anti-Assad factions of the Syrian civil war Anti-ISIL factions in Syria Military units and formations established in 2013 Free Syrian Army Syrian National Army 2013 establishments in Syria Syrian Turkmen Assembly