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Christian Militias In Iraq And Syria
The Christian militias in Iraq and Syria are predominantly Assyrian militias that have been formed since the start of the Syrian Civil War and the War in Iraq (2013-17). Although they are primarily composed of Assyrian fighters, they also include Arab and Armenian irregulars from Christian communities in Syria and Iraq. Assyrians in Iraq have formed militias in the north to protect Assyrian communities, towns and villages in the Assyrian homeland and Nineveh Plains. Some foreign Christian fighters from the Western world have also joined these militias. Following the spillover of the Syrian Civil War, and the rise of the Islamist militant groups, many Christian civilians fled, in particular in fear of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who have violently persecuted Christians in the areas that have come under their control. Some of those that have stayed formed militias, largely to protect their own populations from ISIL and other hardline Syrian rebel Islamist groups ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Jund Al-Aqsa
Jund al-Aqsa ( ''Jund al-‘Aqṣā'', "Soldiers of al-Aqsa"), known as Liwa al-Aqsa after 7 February 2017, was a Salafist jihadist organization that was active during the Syrian Civil War. Formerly known as Sarayat al-Quds, the group was founded by Muhammad Yusuf Uthman Abd al Salam (Abu Abdulaziz al Qatari), Abu Abdul 'Aziz al-Qatari as a subunit within the al-Nusra Front. The group later became independent, because al-Nusra was growing too rapidly for its resources and had suffered from fighting the Islamic State. On 20 September 2016 the United States Department of State, U.S. Department of State designated Jund al-Aqsa as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, terrorist organization. The group rejoined al-Nusra Front, by then renamed Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS), in October 2016. However, on 23 January 2017, JFS declared that Jund Al-Aqsa was no longer part of Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham. In early February 2017, some of Jund al-Aqsa's units joined the newly formed Tahrir al-Sham, wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Fall Of The Assad Regime
On 8 December 2024, the Assad regime collapsed during a 2024 Syrian opposition offensives, major offensive by Syrian opposition, opposition forces. The offensive was spearheaded by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and supported mainly by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army as part of the ongoing Syrian civil war that began with the Syrian revolution in 2011. The Fall of Damascus (2024), capture of Syria's capital, Damascus, marked the end of the Assad family's rule, which had governed Syria as a hereditary Totalitarianism, totalitarian dictatorship since Hafez al-Assad assumed power in 1971 after a Corrective Movement (Syria), successful coup d'état. As Southern Operations Room, a rebel coalition advanced towards Damascus, reports emerged that Bashar al-Assad had fled the capital aboard a plane to Russia, where he joined his family, already in exile, and was granted Right of asylum, asylum. Following his departure, opposition forces declared victory on state television. Concu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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 Domestic terrorism, 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 September 11, 2001 attacks, 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 fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
National Defence Forces
The National Defense Forces (NDF; ''Quwāt ad-Difāʿ al-Watanī'') was a Syrian paramilitary volunteer militia, that was formed on 1 November 2012 and organized by Ba'athist Syria during the Syrian civil war as a part-time volunteer reserve component of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces. The NDF was made of units across various Syrian provinces, each of them consisting 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 Committees (Syria), Popular Committee militias under a new group dubbed the National Defense 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. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Popular Committees (Syria)
The Popular Committees (also called Lijan militias; ''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 will form self-defense militia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Autonomous Administration Of North And East Syria
The Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), also known as Rojava, is a ''de facto'' Autonomous administrative division, autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing Regions of North and East Syria, sub-regions in the areas of Jazira Region, Jazira, Euphrates Region, Euphrates, Raqqa, Al-Thawrah, Tabqa, and Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Deir ez-Zor. The region gained its ''de facto'' autonomy in 2012 in the context of the ongoing Rojava conflict and the wider Syrian civil war, in which its official military force, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has taken part. While entertaining Foreign relations of Rojava, some foreign relations, the region is neither officially recognized as autonomous by the government of Syria, state, or other governments institutions except for the Parliament of Catalonia, Catalan Parliament. Northeastern Syria is Polyethnicity, polyethnic and home to sizeable ethnic Arab, Kurds, Kurdish, and Assyrian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
People's Protection Units
The People's Defense Units (YPG), also called People's Protection Units, is a libertarian socialist US-backed Kurds in Syria, Kurdish militant group in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The YPG mostly consists of Kurds, but also includes Arabs and YPG International, foreign volunteers; it is closely allied to the Syriac Military Council, an Assyrian people, Assyrian militia. The YPG was formed in 2011. It expanded rapidly in the Syrian Civil War and came to predominate over other armed Syrian Kurdish groups. A sister militia, the Women's Protection Units (YPJ), fights alongside them. The YPG is active in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava), particularly in Syrian Kurdistan, its Kurdish regions. In early 2015, the group won a major victory over the Islamic State (IS) during the siege of Kobanî, where the YPG began to receive air and ground support from the United States and other Combined Joint Task Force � ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Syriac Military Council
The Syriac Military Council (, MFS; ) is an Assyrian people, Assyrian military organisation in Syria, part of the Syrian Democratic Forces. The establishment of the organisation was announced on 8 January 2013. According to the Syriac Military Council, the goal of the organisation is to stand up for the national rights of and to protect Assyrians in Syria. It operates mostly in the densely populated Assyrian areas of Al-Hasakah Governorate, and is affiliated to the Syriac Union Party (Syria), Syriac Union Party. On 16 December 2013, the Syriac Military Council announced the foundation of a new Military Academy named "Martyr Abgar". On December 24, the MFS released photographs showing its members in control of the Assyrian village of Ghardukah, located south of Al-Qahtaniyah, Al-Hasakah Governorate, Qahtaniyah (Tirbespiyê/Qabre Hewore). The village church had been completely destroyed by Jabhat al-Nusra, which occupied the hamlet before being expelled in mid-October during an op ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Syrian Rebels
A number of states and armed groups have involved themselves in the Syrian civil war (2011–present) as belligerents. The main groups were Ba'athist Syria and allies, Syrian opposition, the Syrian opposition and allies, Al-Qaeda and affiliates, Islamic State, and the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces. Syrian government (Ba'athist) and allies A number of sources have emphasized that as of at least late-2015/early-2016 the Assad regime was dependent on a mix of volunteers and militias, rather than the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, Syrian Armed Forces. Between 2016 and 2020, with the help of Russia and Iran, the Syrian Arab Armed Forces were rebuilt and united most of the armed militias. Syrian Armed Forces The Syrian Armed Forces were made up of the Syrian Army, Syrian Arab Army (includes Republican Guard (Syria), Republican Guard), Syrian Arab Navy, Syrian Arab Air Force, the Syrian Air Defense Force and the paramilitary National Defence Forces. Before the uprising and war br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Kurd
Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syria. Consisting of 30–45 million people, the global Kurdish population is largely concentrated in Kurdistan, but significant communities of the Kurdish diaspora exist in parts of West Asia beyond Kurdistan and in parts of Europe, most notably including: Turkey's Central Anatolian Kurds, as well as Kurds in Istanbul, Istanbul Kurds; Iran's Khorasani Kurds; the Caucasian Kurds, primarily in Kurds in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan and Kurds in Armenia, Armenia; and the Kurdish populations in various European countries, namely Kurds in Germany, Germany, Kurds in France, France, Kurds in Sweden, Sweden, and the Kurds in the Netherlands, Netherlands. The Kurdish language, Kurdish languages and the Zaza–Gorani languages, both of which belong to the Wes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
