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Popular Committees (Syria)
The Popular Committees (also called Lijan militias; ar, اللجان الشعبية ''al-Lijan al-Sha'biyah'', meaning "people's committees") were militias that emerged in Syria during the Syrian Civil War. They originated as neighborhood vigilante groups in the Christian, Druze and Alawi and Shia Muslim quarters of Damascus and elsewhere to prevent the infiltration of Sunni-dominated rebel groups. However, the Popular Committees included a significant number of pro-regime Sunni Muslims as well. The Popular Committees were armed by the Syrian government and manned checkpoints around their districts. They have been accused of carrying out extrajudicial executions and revenge killings. Reuters quoted a Druze resident of Jaramana: "he governmentsay the Lijans help us protect ourselves, but really they just wanted to light the sectarian fuse in Damascus". ''StrategyPage'' claimed that the Syrian Army offered weapons to minority communities in contested cities: "if the minorities ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christianity In Syria
Christians in Syria make up about 10% of the population. The country's largest Christian denomination is the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, closely followed by the Greek Catholic Church, one of the Eastern Catholic Churches, which has a common root with the Eastern Orthodox Church of Antioch, and then by Oriental Orthodox Churches like Syriac Orthodox Church and Armenian Apostolic Church. There are also a minority of Protestants and members of the Assyrian Church of the East and Chaldean Catholic Church. The city of Aleppo is believed to have the largest number of Christians in Syria. In the late Ottoman rule, a large percentage of Syrian Christians emigrated from Syria, especially after the bloody chain of events that targeted Christians in particular in 1840, the 1860 massacre, and the Assyrian genocide. According to historian Philip Hitti, approximately 900,000 Syrians arrived in the United States between 1899 and 1919 (more than 90% of them Christians). The Syrians re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Armed Groups In The Syrian Civil War
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 was dependent on a mix of volunteers and militias, rather than the Syrian Armed Forces. Syrian Armed Forces Before the uprising and war broke out, the Syrian Armed Forces were estimated at 325,000 regular troops and 280,000–300,000 reservists. Of the regular troops, 220,000 were 'army troops' and the rest in the navy, air force and air defense force. Following defections as early as June 2011, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated that by July 2012, tens of thousands of soldiers had defected. National Defense Force The Syrian NDF was formed out of pro-government militias. They receive their salaries and military equipment from the government, and in 2013 numbered around 100,000 troops. The force acts in an infantry role ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CTC Sentinel
The Combating Terrorism Center is an academic institution at the United States Military Academy (USMA) in West Point, New York that provides education, research and policy analysis in the specialty areas of terrorism, counterterrorism, homeland security and internal conflict. Established with private funding in 2003, it operates under the aegis of the Department of Social Sciences of the USMA. History At the time of the attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001, West Point's counterterrorism curriculum consisted of a single elective class. In order to fill this gap and provide greater educational resources in terrorism-related issues, the academy welcomed the creation of the Combating Terrorism Center and included it in its Department of Social Sciences on 20 February 2003. Though thus a part of the United States Military Academy, the CTC was established with private funding and is an independent research group. Primary funding for the founding of the CTC was contribut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Defence Force (Syria)
The National Defence Forces (NDF) ( ar, قوات الدفاع الوطني ''Quwāt ad-Difāʿ al-Watanī'') is a pro-government militia, that was formed on 1 November 2012 and organized by the Syrian government during the Syrian Civil War as a part-time volunteer reserve component of the Syrian Armed Forces. The NDF is made of units across various Syrian provinces, each of them consists of local volunteers willing to fight against rebels for various reasons. Formation By the beginning of 2013, the Syrian government took steps to formalize and professionalize hundreds of Popular Committee militias under a new group dubbed the National Defence Forces.Will Fulton, Joseph Holliday, and Sam Wyer''Iranian Strategy in Syria'', Institute for the Study of War, May 2013 The goal was to form an effective, locally based, highly motivated force out of pro-government militias. The NDF, in contrast with the Shabiha forces, received salaries and military equipment from the government. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AK-47s
The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas operated, gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, it is the originating firearm of the Kalashnikov rifle, Kalashnikov (or "AK") family of rifles. After more than seven decades since its creation, the AK-47 model and its variants remain one of the most popular and widely used firearms in the world. The number "47" refers to the year the rifle was finished. Design work on the AK-47 began in 1945. It was presented for official military trials in 1947, and, in 1948, the fixed-Stock (gun), stock version was introduced into active service for selected units of the Soviet Army. In early 1949, the AK was officially accepted by the Soviet Armed Forces and used by the majority of the member states of the Warsaw Pact. The model and its variants owe their glob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dawoud Rajiha
Dawoud Abdallah Rajiha ( ar, داود راجحة; 1947 – 18 July 2012), forename sometimes transliterated Dawood or Daoud, surname sometimes transliterated Rajha, was the Syrian minister of defense from 2011 to July 2012 when he was assassinated along with other senior military officers by armed opposition forces during the country's Civil War. From 2009 to 2011, Rajiha served as chief of staff of the Syrian Army. Early life Rajiha, a Greek Orthodox Arab Christian, was born in Damascus in 1947. A specialist in artillery, he graduated from Syria's military academy in 1967. Military education Dawoud Abdallah Rajiha attended different courses and a higher military education: * Bachelor in Military Sciences, Field Artillery Officer, Syrian Military Academy * Staff Course * General Command and Staff Course * Higher Staff Course (War Course) Career Rajiha attained the rank of major general in 1998 and was appointed as the Syrian Army's deputy chief of staff six years later ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Jdayde
Al-Jdayde ( ar, جديدة, also transliterated as ''al-Jdeideh'', ''al-Judayda'', ''al-Jdeïdé'' or ''al-Jadida'') is a historic predominantly Christian neighbourhood of Aleppo. It is noted for its winding narrow alleys, richly decorated mansions and churches. It was an area of significant cultural and historical interest. Much of Al-Jdayde suffered catastrophic damage during the Syrian Civil War. History At the end of the Mamluk period, al-Jdayde was a small suburb benefiting from a few shops located outside of city's northern walls and near the cemeteries and storage areas. The development of the city along the roads connecting the Bab al-Nasr gate with neighbouring villages to the North and northeast progressively integrated Jdayde into the city of Aleppo. By the late 14th century, these quarters were equipped with ''khutba'' mosques and fountains made possible by a network of water works. A new water duct, opened in 1490–91, facilitated the further extension of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan to the north, by Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, and by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. It covers an area of , making it the 17th-largest country. Iran has a population of 86 million, making it the 17th-most populous country in the world, and the second-largest in the Middle East. Its largest cities, in descending order, are the capital Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, and Tabriz. The country is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BC. It was first unified by the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, in the seventh century BC, and reached its territorial height in the sixth century BC, when Cyrus the Great fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
StrategyPage
James F. Dunnigan (born 8 August 1943) is an author, military-political analyst, Defense and State Department consultant, and wargame designer currently living in New York City. Career Dunnigan was born in Rockland County, New York. After high school, he volunteered for the military instead of waiting to be drafted. From 1961 to 1964, he worked as a repair technician for the Sergeant ballistic missile; his service included a tour in Korea. Afterwards, he attended Pace University studying accounting, then transferred to Columbia University, graduating with a degree in history in 1970. While still in college, he became involved in wargaming. He designed ''Jutland'', which Avalon Hill published in 1967, following it up with ''1914'' the next year, and ''PanzerBlitz'' in 1970, which eventually sold more than 300,000 copies. Meanwhile, Dunnigan had founded his own company, initially known as Poultron Press, and which soon became Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI). Dunnigan creat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jaramana
Jaramana ( ar, جرمانا) is a city in southern Syria, administratively part of the Rif Dimashq Governorate in the Ghouta plain. Its location, 3 kilometers southeast of the Syrian capital, makes it a bustling town in the greater Damascus metropolitan area, with a mostly Christian and Druze population. It is adjacent to the Jaramana Camp, a Palestinian refugee camp. History Jaramana was visited by Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi in the early 13th-century and noted it was "a district of the Ghautah of Damascus." In late 2012, the neoconservative Institute for the Study of War said there had been reports of Popular Committees (local self-defense militias formed to defend communities from armed extremists) and pro-government Shabiha working closely with government forces there. On October 29 and November 28, 2012 the town was hit by car bombings killing over 100 civilian residents, including, several Iraqi and Palestinian refugees. Demographics Since 2003 and the beginning of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 government. The Syrian opposition evolved since the beginning of the Syrian conflict from groups calling for the overthrow of the Assad government in Syria and who have opposed its Ba'athist government. Prior to the Syrian Civil War, the term "opposition" ( ar, المعارضة ) had been used to refer to traditional political actors, for example the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change; that is, groups and individuals who have had a history of dissidence against the Syrian state. The first opposition structures to form in the Syrian uprising were local protest-organizing committees. These formed in April 2011, as protesters graduated from spontaneous protests to protests organized by meetings beforehand. The Syrian upris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
