Ahmed Berri ( ar, أحمد بري) is the

Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...

of 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 ...

. Berri was appointed to the position of Chief of Staff in October 2014, taking over from

Abdul-Ilah al-Bashir Abdul-Ilah al-Bashir al-Noeimi ( ar, عبد الإله البشير النعيمي) is the former Chief of Staff of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) of the Free Syrian Army. He was succeeded by Albay Ahmed Berri in October 2014. Background No ...

. In December 2014, he was replaced by Brigadier General Abdelkarim al-Ahmed. In July 2015, after a dispute with the Supreme Military Council, the

Syrian National Coalition The National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces ( ar, الائتلاف الوطني لقوى الثورة والمعارضة السورية), commonly named the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) ( ar, الائتلاف الو ...

instructed Berri to return as head of the FSA General Staff. However, his position is not recognised by the Supreme Military Council.

Background

Syrian Civil War

Since 2012, Berri was commander of the infamous Hama Military Council.

forces under its command committed the Aqrab massacre in December 2012, resulting in 125-300 civilians killed, most of them from the

Alawite The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isl ...

minority.Up to 200 hurt in attack on Syrian Alawite village – activists
Reuters (6 December 2012).125 victims in Syria Alawite bombing
News.com.au. Australian Associated Press, 12 December 2012 On December 31, 2013, while on his way to Taftanaz, he was arrested with two of his soldiers at

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

's checkpoint and was put near Saraqeb, a city in northern

Idlib ar, إدلبي, Idlibi , coordinates = , elevation_m = 500 , area_code = 23 , geocode = C3871 , blank_name = Climate , blank_info ...

. Following Idlib Military Council's push for his release and a demonstration of people in Maaret al-Numan, he was set free in

Hama , timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , ar ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berri, Ahmed Living people Syrian generals Defectors to the Free Syrian Army Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people)