The Mountain Hawks Brigade ( ar-at, لواء صقور الجبل, Liwa’ Suqour al-Jabal), known as the Hawks of Mount Zawiya Brigade ( ar, لواء صقور جبل الزاويه, Liwa' Suqour Jabal al-Zawiya) between 2012 and 2015 and the Mountain Hawks Division ( ar, فرقة صقور الجبل, Firqat Suqour al-Jabal) since 2020, is a Syrian rebel group affiliated with 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 ...

operating in northwestern

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, mainly in the

Idlib Governorate Idlib Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة ادلب / 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 ...

. The group is supported by

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 ...

and previously by

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

and

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

Composition

As of May 2020, the Mountain Hawks Division consists of the following groups: *1st Brigade, led by

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

Nasha'at Haj Ahmad, which left the Mountain Hawks to join Jabhat Fatah al-Sham in September 2016 but returned on 25 January 2017 *6th Brigade, led by

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

Maher al-Mawas *Revolutionary Idlib Brigade, led by Muhammad al-Khalil *Revolutionary Mountain Hawks Brigade, led by Haider Hashum *Revolutionary Mountain Commandos Brigade, led by Qasim Biyur Izz al-Din Hammoud serves as the speaker of the group's shura council.

History

In September 2012, Hassan Haj Ali, a defected

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 ...

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

, formed the Hawks of Mount Zawiya Brigade as a subunit of the

Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades The Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades ( ar, ألوية أحفاد الرسول ''Al-wīat 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 ...

. According to a former commander of the group, Turkey was supporting FSA and Islamist groups in order to expel the

People's Protection Units The People's Defense Units (YPG), (YPG) ; ar, وحدات حماية الشعب, Waḥdāt Ḥimāyat aš-Šaʽb) also called People's Protection Units, is a mainly-Kurdish militia in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democra ...

(YPG) from the border during the Battle of Ras al-Ayn (2012–13). In early 2014 the Hawks of Mount Zawiya Brigade joined the Syria Revolutionaries Front but later left the SRF due to internal disputes. It was one of the founding members of the 5th Corps but it also became defunct. Since 2014 the group is supplied with

BGM-71 TOW The BGM-71 TOW ("Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided") is an American anti-tank missile. TOW replaced much smaller missiles like the SS.10 and ENTAC, offering roughly twice the effective range, a more powerful warhead, and a greatly ...

missiles from the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

through

, and

, and is one of the original and most prolific users of the missiles in Syria. At the beginning of the

Russian military intervention in Syria {{Infobox military conflict , partof = the foreign involvement in the Syrian civil war, and the military intervention against ISIL , image = , image_size = , border = , caption = To ...

in October 2015, the headquarters of the Mountain Hawks Brigade was hit by 20

air-to-surface missile An air-to-surface missile (ASM) or air-to-ground missile (AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft at targets on land or sea. There are also unpowered guided glide bombs not considered missiles. The two most common prop ...

s from the

Russian Air Force " Air March" , mascot = , anniversaries = 12 August , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = , decorations = , bat ...

. 2 months later, The Mountain Hawks Brigade clashed with the newly founded

Syrian Democratic Forces , war = the Syrian Civil War , image = Flag of Syrian Democratic Forces.svgborder , caption = Flag , active = 10 October 2015 – present , ideology = DemocracyDecentralizationSecularism ...

in the northern

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( ar, محافظة حلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' / ) is one of the fourteen 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 ...

, capturing a village from the Army of Revolutionaries. Mountain Hawks Brigade fighters then took down and burned the flags of the SDF and the Army of Revolutionaries while chanting "

Allahu Akbar Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", an ...

". The group also participated along with other

Fatah Halab Fatah Halab ( ar, فتح حلب, Fataḥ Ḥalab, lit=Conquest of Aleppo), or Aleppo Conquest, was a joint operations room of Syrian rebel factions operating in and around Aleppo, Syria. Succeeding the Aleppo Liberation operations room, its es ...

factions in the shelling of the

Sheikh Maqsood Sheikh Maqsood ( ar, ٱلشَّيْخ مَقْصُود, aš-Šayḵ Maqṣūd, ku, Şêxmeqsûd, شێخ مەقسوود, ), sometimes spelled al-Sheikh Maqsoud, Maqsud or Maksud, is a Kurdish-majority neighborhood in the city of Aleppo, Syria. It ...

neighborhood in

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

. During the

Northern Aleppo offensive (February 2016) The Northern Aleppo offensive (February 2016) refers to a military operation launched northwest of Aleppo in early February 2016 by the Syrian Arab Army and its allies. The offensive successfully broke the three-year Siege of Nubl and Al-Zahraa, ...

, a unit of the Mountain Hawks Brigade consisting of 50 fighters stationed in the town of

Deir Jamal Deir Jmal ( ar, دير جمال) is a town in northern Aleppo Governorate, northwestern Syria. Located north of Aleppo, it is administratively part of Nahiya Tell Rifaat in A'zaz District. Nearby localities include Tell Rifaat and Mare' to the ea ...

in northern Aleppo defected to the Army of Revolutionaries. The unit's commander was captured by another rebel group soon after his defection. In September 2016, the Mountain Hawks Brigade, along with the Northern Division and the 13th Division, formed the

Free Idlib Army The Free Idlib Army ( ''Jaysh ʾIdlib al-Ḥarr'') is a Syrian rebel coalition consisting of 3 armed groups from northwestern Syria affiliated with the Free Syrian Army: the 13th Division, the Northern Division, and the Mountain Hawks Brigad ...

, In response to the establishment of the Free Idlib Army, a group of Mountain Hawks Brigade fighters defected to join Jabhat Fatah al-Sham in early October. Afif Suleiman, the overall commander of the Free Idlib Army, was accused of holding back the Free Idlib Army during the

northwestern Syria offensive (December 2019–March 2020) The 2019–2020 northwestern Syria offensive, codenamed "Dawn of Idlib 2," was a military operation launched by the Syrian Armed Forces, armed forces of the Syrian Arab Republic, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and other allied militias against Syrian o ...

by not sending reinforcements to the frontlines, instead moving himself and the rest of the Free Idlib Army's leadership north to Jindires in Afrin away from the fighting. In response to these accusations and to Suleiman's replacement of the Free Idlib Army leadership to exclude members of the Mountain Hawks Division, the Mountain Hawks, which were half of the Free Idlib Army, stated on 13 May 2020 that they no longer recognized Suleiman as their commander, and demanded that he be

court martial A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...

ed for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

. On 8 October 2020, a military commander of the Mountain Hawks, Nayrouz al-Hamdo, was killed by Syrian government and Russian aerial and artillery bombardment in the village of Kansafra.

References

External links

Mountain Hawks Brigade YouTube Channel
(channel terminated) {{2011 Syrian uprising Anti-government factions of the Syrian civil war Military units and formations established in 2011 Turkish supported militant groups of the Syrian civil war

Composition

History

See also

References

External links