Farouq Brigades

History

The Farouq Brigades emerged from the central city of Homs just months into the Syrian Civil War. Its beginnings are as a subunit of the Khalid ibn al-Walid Brigade, a group of defectors from the Syrian Army that announced its formation in June 2011 and engaged in clashes with members of the Syrian security forces in Homs and Al-Rastan. The group started out with 3,000+ fighters. During the second half of 2011, Farouq was active in Homs, particularly the Baba Amr neighborhood. It was led by a defector, Lieutenant Abdul Razaq Tlass, who was a nephew of the former Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass. The apparent success of Farouq in holding territory in Baba Amr led to the Syrian government escalating their use of force in an offensive in early 2012, causing heavy casualties amongst the rebels and forcing their retreat into the Homs countryside and the towns of Al-Qusayr and Al-Rastan.

In the following months, Farouq absorbed preexisting rebel units and formed new ones across Syria, from Daraa in the south near the Jordanian border to the Farouq al-Shemal (Northern Farouq) which controlled some of the border posts in the north with Turkey.

In September 2012, a large number of Islamist rebel brigades, including the Farouq Brigades and the Suquor al-Sham formed the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front, under the leadership of Suquor al-Sham commander Ahmed Abu Issa. Abu Issa claimed the new Front had more than 40,000 fighters, and aimed to establish a state with an Islamic reference. In May 2013, the BBC gave estimate of 20,000 fighters.

Ideology and funding

Most fighters from the group were religious and conservative Sunni Muslims who used religious rhetoric and Sunni Islamist discourse. Jeffrey White, a former U.S. defense intelligence officer with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Joseph Holliday, a research analyst with the Institute for the Study of War "consider the Farouq Brigade "moderately Islamist" – that is, neither secular nor Salafi". White also indicated that the perception of their religiosity could be a way to gain money and weapons from Gulf donors, ultimately noting that “no one knows for sure” whether it is genuine.

Farouq has their own public relations wing which film their battlefield operations and upload them to YouTube and Facebook with their groups logo. These clips are used for fundraising from Syrians, donors in Gulf states, Western sources and Islamist groups.

Controversies

In April 2012, the Farouq Brigades was accused of collecting jizyah, or taxes imposed on non-Muslims living under Muslim rule, in Christian areas of Homs province. However, the group denied this and the Institute for the Study of War said that "the accusation is likely from the Assad regime". There were also reports that the group had expelled 90% of the Christian population of Homs City. However, Jesuits in Homs disputed the cause of the exodus, and said that Christians were not targeted specifically, but fled the city on their own initiative because of the ongoing conflict. According to interviews made by McClatchy Newspapers of refugees in Lebanon, there was no targeting of Christians because of their religion. Rather, a number of government-affiliated Christians were seized by the Farouq Brigades, which led to some Christians fleeing the area.

In August 2012, Lieutenant Abdul Razzaq Tlass, one of the Farouq Brigades top leaders, was implicated in a sex scandal when video was posted to YouTube appearing to show him having cybersex with a woman through Skype. Tlass and others claimed the video was a fabrication by the Syrian Government. Nevertheless, by October 2012, Tlass was replaced as commander by Abu Sayeh Juneidi.

In September 2012, the northern branch of the Farouq Brigades was accused of kidnapping and killing Abu Mohamad al-Absi, a Syrian Jihadist who led a group of foreign fighters. The local Farouq Brigades leader said the foreign fighters had ignored their demands to leave the Bab al-Hawa border post. He said that al-Absi had "raised the al-Qaeda flag, and al-Qaeda is not welcomed by us".

In May 2013, a video was posted on the internet showing rebel commander Abu Sakkar cutting organs from the dead body of a Syrian soldier and putting one of them in his mouth, "as if he is taking a bite out of it". He called rebels to follow his example and terrorize the Alawite sect, which mostly backs Assad. Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch confirmed the authenticity of the footage, and stated that "The mutilation of the bodies of enemies is a war crime. But the even more serious issue is the very rapid descent into sectarian rhetoric and violence". According to the BBC, Abu Sakkar appears to be a commander of the "Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade". The BBC called the group an offshoot or sub-unit of the Farouq Brigades, saying that "the Farouq Brigade appears to be actually a complex of sub-units with a tangled pedigree". along with other videos showing Assad loyalists raping, torturing, dismembering and killing people, including children. He further stated that if the war was to continue, "all Syrian people" would be like him. He was killed in northwest Latakia province on 6 April 2016 by the Syrian Army, while being affiliated to the al-Qaeda linked Al-Nusra Front.

In November 2016 in Tyrol, Austria, a former fighter of the Farouq Brigades was prosecuted for the summary execution of 20 wounded Syrian Army soldiers while in Homs between 2013 and 2014. In May 2017, he was found guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment in Austria.

Decline

By November 2013, the Farouq Brigades was reported as having suffered a serious decline in strength and area of influence, with it having splintered into numerous smaller factions, such as the Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade and the Islamic al-Farouq Brigades. The group's presence outside Homs was said to have declined after losing feuds with more hardline Islamist rebel groups, like Ahrar ash-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra, resulting in Farouq being expelled from the Raqqa Governorate and losing control of the strategic border crossing at Tal Abyad. By 2014, the rebel Hazzm Movement contained several groups that were formerly part of the Farouq Brigades.

After 2015, the remnants of the Farouq Brigades only officially operated around the town of Binnish, in the Idlib District of the Idlib Governorate. On 1 February 2017, they joined Ahrar al-Sham. In northern Hama, other remnants under the banner of the Farouq Brigade joined Tahrir al-Sham on 20 March 2017.

References

References

1. Aron Lund. (17 June 2013). "Freedom fighters? Cannibals? The truth about Syria's rebels". [[The Independent]].
2. Lund, Aron. (15 October 2012). "Holy Warriors". [[Foreign Policy]].
3. (21 February 2013). "FSA Denies Shelling Hizbullah Positions in Lebanon, Syria". [[Naharnet]].
4. Jonathan Marcus. (14 May 2013). "Gruesome Syria video pinpoints West's dilemma". BBC.
5. Cédric Labrousse. (1 May 2014). "A new dialogue and collaboration in northern Syria between kurds and rebels". The Arab Chronicle.
6. Al-Tamimi, Aymenn Jawad. "The Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham Expands Into Rural Northern Syria".
7. Abouzeid, Rania. (5 October 2012). "Syria's Up-and-Coming Rebels: Who Are the Farouq Brigades?".
8. (21 November 2013). "Rebels, Inc.". [[Foreign Policy (magazine).
9. Holliday, Joseph. "Syria's Armed Opposition". [[Institute for the Study of War]].
10. (11 October 2012). "Syria's Islamist rebels join forces against Assad". Reuters.
11. (July 2025}} In November 2013, the SILF was superseded by a new rebel coalition called the [[Islamic Front (Syria)). "Leading Syrian rebel groups form new Islamic Front". BBC.
12. "Syrian Jihadism". Aron Lund.
13. Spencer Ackerman. (16 October 2012). "Syrian Rebels Burn Down a Marijuana Field on Facebook". Wired.
14. (11 September 2012). "Battle for Syria: on the ground with the Farouk brigade". [[Channel 4 News]].
15. Holliday, Joseph. "Syria's Maturing Insurgency". [[Institute for the Study of War]].
16. (21 March 2012). "Abuse of the opposition forces, "ethnic cleansing" of Christians in Homs, where Jesuits remains".
17. (26 June 2012). "The Jesuits: "Christians have fled from Homs, not thrown out by Islamists"".
18. (27 March 2012). "Are Islamists targeting Christians in Homs? Catholic groups dispute cause of exodus". Catholic Culture.
19. Marrouch, Rima. (20 August 2012). "Syrian Rebel Leader Accuses Regime Of Fabricating Scandalous Video". [[NPR]].
20. (13 May 2013). "Syria: Brigade Fighting in Homs Implicated in Atrocities". [[Human Rights Watch]].
21. (14 May 2013). "Video of Syrian rebel commander 'biting into soldier's heart'". [[ITV (TV network).
22. (14 May 2013). "Outrage at Syrian rebel shown 'eating soldier's heart'". BBC.
23. (19 May 2013). "Syrian 'cannibal' rebel explains his actions". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
24. (19 May 2013). "Syrian 'cannibal' rebel explains his actions". The Telegraph.
25. Chris Hughes, Sam Webb. (6 April 2016). "Al-Qaeda 'cannibal' Abu Sakkar who ate Syrian soldier's heart in gruesome video killed in combat". Daily Mirror.
26. (10 November 2016). "For the first time a murder case for acts in Syria". Tirol.
27. (11 May 2017). "Austrian court jails asylum seeker for war crimes in Syria".
28. (19 September 2013). "Kata'ib al-Farouq al-Islamiya: A Key Armed Opposition Group in the Battle to Cut Assad Off from Damascus". [[Jamestown Foundation]].
29. (18 November 2013). "Syria crisis: Guide to armed and political opposition". BBC News.
30. (11 April 2014). "American Anti-Tank Weapons Appear in Syrian Rebel Hands (Updated)". [[Huffington Post]].
31. (1 February 2017). "Farouk Brigades Joins Ahrar Al-Sham Movement". Qasioun News Agency.
32. Paul Antonopoulos. (21 March 2017). "FSA-affiliated group joins Al-Qaeda coalition; making it the largest militant group in Syria". Al-Masdar News.