Fatah Halab

Fatah Halab (Arabic: فتح حلب, romanized: 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 establishment was announced on 26 April 2015.^[1][3] It stated that its aim was to conquer Aleppo City from Syrian government forces.^[8]

Conquest of Aleppo[1]
فتح حلب Fatah Halab
Leaders	Major Yasser Abdul Rahim[2]
Dates of operation	26 April 2015 – 21 January 2017[3] (in the Aleppo Governorate, until 1 December 2016 within southeastern Aleppo)[4]
Headquarters	Aleppo, Syria (until 1 December 2016) Aleppo Governorate, Syria (from 1 December 2016)
Active regions	Aleppo Governorate, Syria (from 1 December 2016 they are no longer active in the city centre)[5]
Size	8,000+ (16 October 2016)[6]
Allies	Army of Conquest Ansar al-Din Front Ansar al-Islam Ansar al-Sharia (mid-2015–early 2016)
Opponents	Syrian Armed Forces  Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Syrian Democratic Forces
Battles and wars	Syrian Civil War Battle of Aleppo[5] Aleppo offensive (July 2015) Aleppo offensive (October–December 2015) Northern Aleppo offensive (February 2016) 2016 Southern Aleppo campaign Aleppo bombings (April–July 2016) 2016 Aleppo summer campaign Aleppo offensive (June–July 2016) Aleppo offensive (July–August 2016) Aleppo offensive (August–September 2016) Aleppo offensive (September–October 2016) Aleppo offensive (October–November 2016) Aleppo offensive (November–December 2016) Rojava–Islamist conflict[7]
Preceded by Aleppo Liberation Operations Room

In an October 2015 publication, the Washington D.C.–based Institute for the Study of War considered Aleppo Conquest as one of the "powerbrokers" in Aleppo Governorate, being both "anti-regime" and "anti-ISIS."^[8]

Since the inter-rebel conflicts, defections and mergers which started in December 2016, Fatah Halab has become largely defunct.

Member groups

The operations room included both US-backed groups^[9] and Sunni Islamist groups. It included some groups which also participated in the Sunni Islamist Ansar al-Sharia operations room, but not others, such as al-Nusra Front.^[10] Previously al-Nusra coordinated with other groups through the Aleppo Operations Room.^[11]

Fatah Halab was originally established by seven major Sunni Islamist groups on 26 April 2015:^[12]

• Levant Front
• Ahrar al-Sham
• Sham Legion
• Levant Revolutionaries Battalions
• Army of Islam
• Fastaqim Union
• Dawn of Caliphate Battalions

The number of groups in Fatah Halab increased after its founding, and by 18 June 2015 there were 31 groups.^[13]

As of October 2016^[update] there were around 8,000 fighters spread out over a myriad of groups of varying sized. The following were the largest groups that participate in the operations room.^[14][15]

• 1st Regiment
• Liberation Army^[16]
  • 46th Division
• Ahrar al-Sham
• Levant Front
• Army of Mujahideen
  • Atarib Martyrs Brigade
• Levant Revolutionaries Battalions^[17]
  • Banners of Islam Movement^[17]
• Authenticity and Development Front
• Fastaqim Union (mostly defunct since November 2016)
• Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement (until October 2016)^[18]
• Sham Legion
• Sultan Murad Division
  • Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror Brigade
• Free Idlib Army
  • Mountain Hawks Brigade
  • Northern Division
  • 13th Division
• 101st Infantry Division
• Army of Glory
• Central Division
  • Sword of God Brigade^[19]
• Army of Islam
• Army of Victory^[20]
• Criterion Brigades (former)
• Conquest Brigade
• Liwa al-Haqq
• Jaysh al-Sunna
• Elite Islamic Battalions^[21]
• Islamic Freedom Brigade
• Dawn of Caliphate Battalions
• Bayan Movement
• 16th Division (largely dissolved in July 2016, succeeded by 23rd Division)

Major Yasser Abdul Rahim, commander of Fatah Halab and field commander of the Sham Legion in Aleppo, coordinate an attack on YPG positions in Aleppo, 2 October 2015.

War crimes

See also: Human rights violations during the Syrian Civil War § Free Syrian Army and other armed opposition fighters

On 13 May 2016, Amnesty International accused the Fatah Halab coalition of "repeated indiscriminate attacks that may amount to war crimes". It also reported their alleged use of chemical weapons.^[22]

A United Nations report in February 2017 came to the conclusion that during the siege of Eastern Aleppo Fatah Halab, after vowing to take revenge on Kurds in Sheikh Maqsoud, intentionally attacked civilian inhabited neighbourhoods of the Kurdish enclave, killing and maiming dozens of civilians, and that these acts constitute the war crime of directing attacks against a civilian population.^[23][24]

See also

• List of armed groups in the Syrian Civil War