The Unified Military Council (), also known as the Joint Tripartite Military Committee, was a

Turkish intelligence loction 39°54'25.0"N 32°39'59.3"E The National Intelligence Organization (), also known by its Turkish language, Turkish initials MIT or MİT, or colloquially as the Organization (), is an intelligence agency of the Turkish government tasked ...

and

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

-sponsored joint operations room between the

National Front for Liberation National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ...

and

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was a Sunni Islamist political organisation and paramilitary group involved in the Syrian civil war. It was formed on 28January 2017 as a merger between several armed groups: Jaysh al-Ahrar (an Ahrar al-Sham facti ...

, the two major armed rebel groups based in the

Idlib Governorate Idlib Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Idlib'') is one of the 14 governorates of Syria. It is situated in northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey's Hatay province to the north, Aleppo Governorate to the east, Hama Governorate to the sou ...

in northwestern

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 ...

. The council was formed as a restructuring of the Great Conquest Operations Room in October 2020, after several months of preparation following the end of the latest offensive by the

Syrian Armed Forces The Syrian Armed Forces () are the military forces of Syria. Up until the fall of Bashar al-Assad's Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region, Ba'ath Party Ba'athist Syria, regime in December 2024, the Syrian Arab Armed Forces were the sta ...

against rebels in Idlib.

Composition

The leadership

triumvirate A triumvirate () or a triarchy is a political institution ruled or dominated by three individuals, known as triumvirs (). The arrangement can be formal or informal. Though the three leaders in a triumvirate are notionally equal, the actual distr ...

of the council includes

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

"Abu al-Mundhir" from

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 ...

(NFL), " Abu Hassan 600" from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and Hajj Muhammad Horan ("Abu Assid") from the

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 ...

(NFL). Abu al-Mundhir is the leader of the military wing of Ahrar al-Sham, which has been involved in a leadership struggle with the group's overall command, led by Jaber Ali Pasha, since 12 October 2020. Abu al-Mundhir demanded that Pasha be replaced with the former Ahrar al-Sham leader

Hassan Soufan Hassan Soufan (; born 1977), also known by his nom de guerre as Abu al-Bara (), is a Syrian rebel leader who participated in the Syrian Civil War. He was appointed as the leader of Ahrar al-Sham and held the position from July 2017 until his ...

("Abu al-Bara"). The idea of the Tripartite Military Committee was reportedly proposed by Soufan himself, who is alleged by Pasha to be supported by HTS. Both Soufan and HTS denied the latter's involvement. The dispute escalated into open

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military or a crew) to oppose, change, or remove superiors or their orders. The term is commonly used for insubordination by members of the military against an officer or superior, ...

on 23 October. Abu al-Assid is the commander of the Sham Legion's Idlib sector and a member of the legion's military council. According to a rebel leader from Idlib who spoke to

Alhurra Alhurra ( ' ,The pronunciation differs depending on the variety of Arabic, for example, . "the Free One") is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. government-owned Arabic-language satellite TV channel that broadcasts news and current ...

under condition of anonymity, the council plans to form 10 "

brigade A brigade is a major tactical military unit, military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute ...

s" from HTS, 10 brigades from the Sham Legion, 5 from Ahrar al-Sham, and one each from the

Suqour al-Sham Brigades The Suqour al-Sham Brigades (, ), also known as the Falcons of the Levant Brigades, was an armed rebel organisation formed by Ahmed Abu Issa early in the Syrian Civil War to fight against the Syrian Government. It was a member of the Islamic ...

and

Jaysh al-Ahrar Jaysh al-Ahrar (), was an armed Salafi Islamist rebel group in northwestern Syria that originated as a clique composed of 16 units in Ahrar al-Sham that opposed involvement in Operation Euphrates Shield, after a fatwa was released by religiou ...

, with each brigade consisting of between 600 and 800 personnel.

References

{{reflist Anti-Assad factions of the Syrian civil war Operations rooms of the Syrian civil war 2020 establishments in Syria

Composition

See also

References