WORLD_ Rebel Group Says It Is Now Based in Syria, a Major Step

In this Friday, Sept. 21, 2012 photo, Free Syrian Army rebels hold a revolutionary flag on it during a demonstration in the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday that nearly 30,000 Syrians have been killed during the 18-month uprising against the Assad regime. Arabic on flag is reversed, but reads, "God welcome, free people." (AP Photo/ Manu Brabo)

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Rebel Group Says It Is Now Based in Syria, a Major Step

By ANNE BARNARD and HANIA MOURTADA
Published: September 22, 2012


BEIRUT, Lebanon — Commanders of the Free Syrian Army, the umbrella group for fighters opposing President Bashar al-Assad, said Saturday that they had moved their headquarters from Turkey into “liberated areas” inside Syria, in what they portrayed as a major step forward for the organization as it tries to coordinate and control disparate groups of rebels.

In a video titled “Free Syrian Army Communique No. 1 from Inside,” Col. Riad al-Assad, the leader of the Free Syrian Army, announced the move, sitting at a desk flanked by men in uniforms.

“To our free Syrian people and to all free revolutionaries in Syrian towns, villages and suburbs and to all armed factions of the revolution,” he declared, “we announce the entry of the leadership of the Free Syrian Army into liberated territories in Syria.”

He emphasized that the move was made “in collaboration with battalions inside Syria.” Fighters and opposition activists inside the country have long complained that the Free Syrian Army and exile opposition groups are too far removed from the battle inside Syria and lack legitimacy among the Syrians directly involved in the fighting; some have viewed exile leaders as opportunists.

In the video, Colonel Assad sought to assuage some of those concerns.

“We have been accused of swerving from our initial noble goals for the revolution and making questionable deals with foreign parties,” he said. “Our goal is not to take the place of the current regime, which is taking its last breaths.”

He called for all elements of Syrian society to agree on a new political system, adding, “We are just a part of it.”

Vowing not to “strike deals” with anyone “until we liberate Damascus,” Colonel Assad declared, “We also promise you that we won’t make any deals at the expense of our population, its identity, its religion, its unity, its freedom, its sovereignty or its independence.”

The move took place a week ago, Brig. Gen. Mustafa al-Sheikh, who leads the F.S.A.’s military council, told The Associated Press. It was the latest in a series of recent efforts by the armed opposition inside and outside Syria to establish a tighter command and supply structure.

But the declaration left many questions unanswered. It was unclear how much freedom of movement the leaders would enjoy in Syria or whether basing themselves there would significantly improve their ability to funnel arms to the fighters or enforce a set of unified goals and standards.

Analysts of the Syria conflict saw the move primarily as an attempt to gain legitimacy and edge out competing exile groups that are seeking to position themselves as governments in waiting. While it could give the leaders easier access to rebel factions that have increasingly been blocked from entering Turkey, it also carries new risks.

“We have to see whether this is a credible headquarters or just a mobile camp that gives them a P.O. box in Syria,” said Joshua Landis, a Syria analyst at the University of Oklahoma. “The problem is that it gives the Syrian Air Force a target.”

Andrew J. Tabler, who follows the conflict at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that the real commanders had long been inside Syria, making daily decisions for their decentralized units, and that the leadership’s ability to centralize inside the country might still be limited. “

‘Liberated territory’ is areas where the regime cannot reassert itself even with air power,” he said. “I’m not sure there is much territory like that at the moment.”

It remains to be seen how it will affect the political position of the F.S.A. leaders. An opposition fighter in Homs welcomed the move, saying it would add to Colonel Assad’s “importance and value” as one of the first high-ranking officers to defect from the government’s army after the rebellion began.

But his praise carried a whiff of disappointment. “I actually fought on the ground more than him,” the fighter said, “and this is the case for most officers who remained inside Syria.”

The colonel’s announcement came as activists in the northern province of Idlib claimed to have attacked a Syrian Army base and shot down a fighter jet.

The rebels’ claim about the jet was not immediately confirmed by Syria’s official news agency, and the rebels did not produce any video of a direct hit on a jet, an explosion or any wreckage, as they have in previous cases.

The claims regarding the fighting and the move of the rebel headquarters were impossible to verify immediately because of Syrian restrictions on journalists.


Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Antakya, Turkey.

A version of this article appeared in print on September 23, 2012, on page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: Rebels Announce Move of Headquarters From Turkey to ‘Liberated’ Syria Territory.




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