Turkey Backed Free Syrian Army

The "Turkish Free Syrian Army" (TFSA) aka the "Turkey Backed Free Syrian Army" are units of Arab and Turkmen rebels operating in the North of Syria, as part of Operation Euphrates Shield "
" They are composed of at least 10 different factions."
General Aims
General aims of the group are to assisting Turkey to extend a "safe zone" into Syria. They are opponents of the SDF, ISIS and the Assad Government's Syrian Arab Army, though as yet, they have had few engagements with the Syrian Arab Army.
Connection with Turkey
The TFSA are the main non Turkish Military component of the operation, Operation Euphrates Shield. In some ways, the name is a misnomer as they are distinct from the main Free Syrian Army; their wages are paid for by the Turkish Government, they operate with the Turkish Armed Forces, and they are generally not local to the area they operate in. Their chain of command does not connect to the main Free Syrian Army."
As they are involved with Turkey, they are also unusual in that they have attacked YPG and SDF units, which the Free Syrian Army generally does not do, while the have refrained from attacking the Syrian Arab Army, which the Free Syrian Army does attack.
Operational History
Their initial appearance was when they, together with Turkish forces, took control of Jarablus from ISIS ". After this they expanded north East meeting with Kurdish units North of Manbij. After some clashes, st this point, the Euphrates river was used as a demarcation line, with forces on either side.
In the west, after pushing away ISIS, the TFSA eventually met up with YPG forces from the Afrin Canton near Mare. Contact between the two saw TFSA unsuccessfully attack some YPG held towns with Turkish artillery support. The TFSA was beaten back, with losses.
Following this, the TFSA moved with Turkish armed forces to surround Al-Bab.
On at least one occasion, TFSA units have forced US troops to leave the operations with Turkey. "The Turkish “Free Syrian Army” proxies threatened to kill the U.S. forces. They called them 'unbelievers' and 'crusader pigs'". The US forces were forced to retreat with protection from the Turkish military.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu