More than a year after the uprising began in Syria, the opposition remains fractious and deeply divided.

The wide variety of political groups, exiled dissidents, grassroots activists and armed militants have been unable to agree on how to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

Several groups, however, have tried to form coalitions to unite opposition supporters in Syria and gain international help and recognition.

Here is a guide to some of the most prominent groups.

Syrian National Council (SNC)

The Syrian National Council (SNC) is a coalition of seven opposition groups aimed at offering a credible alternative to President Assad's government and serving as a single point of contact for the international community.

Its formation in October recalled that of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), which earned international recognition through its opposition to the rule of Col Muammar Gaddafi and has formed an interim government.

The SNC includes:

· The Damascus Declaration for Democratic Change grouping - a movement born during the so-called "Damascus Spring" of 2000/2001 which called for broad democratic reform, and was soon suppressed

· The Muslim Brotherhood

· Local Co-ordination Committees - grassroots movements that have led and documented demonstrations

· Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) - a coalition of 40 opposition grassroots groups

· Kurdish factions, tribal leaders and independent figures

The SNC has a Secretariat General composed of representatives of the various member groups, which elect a 10-member Executive Committee and a president whose term is renewable every three months.

The current president is Abdelbaset Sayda, a Kurd who has lived in exile in Sweden for a number of years.

He replaced Paris-based academic Burhan Ghalioun as leader of the SNC on 9 June with a mandate to reform and restructure the organisation.

Mr Ghalioun stepped down in May 2012 after criticism that in his nine months as leader, he had failed to reconcile different groups within the opposition and present a united front.

The SNC's website says it is committed to the following principles:

They will have a seat at the table as a representative of the Syrian people” (Hillary Clinton US Secretary of State)

· Working to overthrow the regime using all legal means

· Affirming national unity among all components of Syrian society and rejecting all calls for ethnic strife

· Safeguarding the non-violent character of the Syrian revolution

· Protecting national independence and sovereignty, and rejecting foreign military intervention

However, at a press conference in Paris on 1 March 2012, the SNC announced that it had created a military bureau to co-ordinate the various armed anti-government groups in Syria.

Mr Ghalioun told reporters at the conference that although the uprising had begun as a non-violent movement, "the reality today is different and the SNC must shoulder its responsibilities". He also said that any weapons flowing into the country should go through the council to try to avoid a civil war.

At the time, he said the bureau would function like a defence ministry and would be staffed by soldiers from the Free Syrian Army (see below) as well as civilians.

But the FSA, the main armed opposition group in Syria, responded by saying it would not co-operate with the new bureau. The head of the FSA, Col Riyad al-Assad, said the group does not want any political interference and has its own military strategy.

Military issues aside, the SNC says it has a clear vision to create a civil, modern and democratic Syria, and issued a political programme in November for a post-Assad future.

It has laid out plans for a transitional period, similar to those of Libya's NTC, which would see it:

· Form an interim administration

· Hold an all-inclusive national convention on democratic change

· Organise the election of a constitutional assembly within a year to draft a new constitution and hold free parliamentary elections within six months of the new constitution being approved

· Form a judicial commission to investigate crimes against humanity and form a national reconciliation commission

The new Syria, the SNC states, will be a "democratic, pluralistic, and civil state; a parliamentary republic with sovereignty of the people based on the principles of equal citizenship with separation of powers, smooth transfer of power, the rule of law, and the protection and guarantee of the rights of minorities".

The SNC, which is dominated by Syria's majority Sunni Muslim community, has struggled to win over Christians and members of President Assad's Alawite sect, who each make up about 10% of the population and have so far stayed loyal to the government.

The council's primacy has also been challenged by the National Co-ordination Committee (NCC), an opposition bloc that still functions within Syria and is led by Hussein Abdul Azim and other longstanding dissidents, some of whom are wary of the Islamists within the SNC.

The SNC, which is trying to keep the uprising peaceful, has also found it difficult to work with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), a group of army defectors which is seeking to topple Mr Assad by force. However, the two groups have agreed to co-ordinate their operations more closely.

Western diplomats say the SNC is far from achieving the recognition given to Libya's NTC at an early stage of the revolt against Gaddafi, and many are encouraging the group to merge with the rival NCC.

Nevertheless, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters ahead of the "Friends of Syria" meeting in Tunis on 24 February: "They will have a seat at the table as a representative of the Syrian people.

"We think it's important to have Syrians represented. And the consensus opinion by the Arab League and all the others who are working and planning this conference is that the SNC is a credible representative."

National Co-ordination Committee (NCC)

The National Co-ordination Committee (NCC), formed in September, is made up of 13 left-leaning political parties, three Kurdish political parties, and independent political and youth activists.

It is led by the veteran opposition figure Hussein Abdul Azim.

The slogan 'the overthrow of the regime' is unpractical, unrealistic and useless”(Qadri Jamil National Co-ordination Committee member)

The NCC differs from the Syrian National Council (SNC) on the questions of dialogue with the government and foreign intervention.

The NCC calls for dialogue conditional on the withdrawal of the military from the streets, the end of attacks on peaceful protesters by security forces, and the release of all political prisoners.

The group is strongly opposed to any form of foreign intervention that would involve military measures, such as a no-fly zone, and would prefer economic sanctions and other diplomatic measures to increase pressure on President Assad.

"We reject foreign intervention - we think it is as dangerous as tyranny. We reject both," Mr Azim said last year.

It is the only group still calling for conditional dialogue with the government, arguing that it remains the least costly route to political transition.

Despite this, the NCC has refused to engage in the government's national dialogue initiative, saying that the authorities are merely trying to buy time while they ''liquidate the forces of the uprising''.

The NCC has also been reluctant to affiliate itself with the SNC and challenged its primacy, with some members said to be wary of the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood on the umbrella group.

A leading opposition voice within the NCC, Haytham Manna, has even described the SNC as "a Washington club" and said he considers anyone calling for foreign intervention a "traitor".

SNC chairman Burhan Ghalioun said in October that both groups were agreed on "a complete break with the regime and are clearly demanding its departure". But Qadri Jamil of the NCC retorted: "The slogan 'the overthrow of the regime' is unpractical, unrealistic and useless."

Free Syrian Army (FSA)

The Free Syrian Army was formed in August 2011 by army deserters based in Turkey and led by Riyad al-Asaad, a former air force colonel.

At its founding, the group said it would seek to "work hand in hand with the people to achieve freedom and dignity, topple the regime, protect the revolution and the country's resources and stand up to the irresponsible military machine which is protecting the regime".

Col Asaad claims to have as many as 40,000 men under his command and that soldiers are defecting every day and being assigned tasks by the FSA. However, analysts believe there may be no more than 10,000.

They are also still poorly armed, and many have only basic military training. The FSA has admitted that it is unable to directly confront the Syrian army, which is estimated to have 200,000 soldiers, and hold on to territory.

Nevertheless, a growing number of defections, partly caused by sectarian division, is weakening the military, strengthening the FSA and increasing the violence. The army's rank and file is largely Sunni while its leadership is mainly Alawite.

'Liberated'

The FSA's fighters were limited at the start of the uprising to small-scale attacks on military convoys and patrols in the north-western province of Idlib, which borders Turkey.

However, it was not long before operations spread to the cities of Homs and Hama, and major rebellions were launched, triggering a series of government crackdowns.

In September 2011, FSA fighters and other army defectors took control of parts of the town of Rastan, just north of Homs. In early October, government forces launched an offensive involving hundreds of armoured vehicles, only recapturing Rastan after a week of clashes.

Over the next two months, the FSA carried out increasingly effective attacks on security forces, particularly in Idlib. In late December, the army stormed the mountain stronghold of Jabal al-Zawiya and killed some 200 rebels and male civilians, according to activists.

In January 2012, residents of Zabadani, a mountain town north-west of Damascus, said it had been "liberated" by the FSA and that the army had agreed to a ceasefire. The truce lasted for several days before troops launched an assault to retake the town.

Later that month, a string of the capital's eastern suburbs briefly fell into FSA control, bringing the armed rebellion to the city's outskirts for the first time. However, security forces forced the rebels to retreat within days.

The FSA suffered a major setback in February, when the military launched a major offensive on its strongholds in Homs, notably the district of Baba Amr. Activists said an estimated 700 people were killed as rockets and shells rained down for nearly a month. Troops moved into the city in early March after the FSA staged a "tactical withdrawal".

The insurrection appeared to be on the verge of being crushed, and the rebels spent the next two months regrouping.

In early April, the FSA received a much-needed boost when several Western powers announced that they would provide millions of dollars in "non-lethal" aid, including communications and intelligence support. Gulf states meanwhile agreed to set up a fund to pay the salaries of FSA fighters, and reportedly discussed plans to send money to the rebels to help them buy weapons and ammunition on the black market.

Later that month, the FSA and the government said they would abide by the ceasefire negotiated by the UN and Arab League's envoy, Kofi Annan, as part of his peace plan. However, both sides accused each other of violating the conditions and fighting resumed.

By the beginning of June, dozens of people were dying every day despite appeals for calm. The FSA announced it was no longer committed to the ceasefire and had resumed operations to "defend our people".

'Guerrilla tactics'

In mid-July, the rebels launched audacious and deadly attacks in the heart of Damascus for the first time, targeting military and intelligence bases and briefly taking control of several areas before the government sent in large numbers of troops and tanks to recapture them.

The group also claimed that an affiliate was behind the bombing inside the headquarters of the National Security Bureau (NSB) in Damascus on 18 July, which killed President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law, Gen Assef Shawkat, Defence Minister Gen Daoud Rajiha, former Defence Minister Gen Hassan Turkomani and NSB chief Gen Hisham Ikhtiar.

Less than a week later, the FSA launched a large-scale attack on security forces in Aleppo, reportedly prompting the military to send thousands of reinforcements, as well as deploying warplanes to strafe rebel-held areas for the first time in 16 months.

Col Malik al-Kurdi, a spokesman for the FSA command, said the rebels would not try to hold on to the territory they had seized in Syria's two biggest cities because they could not confront the better-equipped regular army or the elite Republican Guards.

"The Free Syrian Army is carrying out a war of harassing the regime army until it is exhausted, using guerrilla tactics," he told the Washington Post. "We can't keep control of an area, so this is a circular operation, moving from one place to another, one city to another."

Col Kurdi pointed to the capture of a number of border crossings with Turkey and Iraq, some of which changed hands several times over the period of a few days.

"We cannot say the Free Syrian Army is in complete control, and we cannot say the regime army is in complete control, and this will stay the same until the Free Syrian Army gets heavy weapons and there are more defections."

FSA fighters began by using only light weapons, but do already have more sophisticated and heavier weaponry that has either been captured or smuggled in from abroad.

US officials and Arab intelligence officers told the New York Times in June that automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and some anti-tank weapons were being funnelled, mostly across the Turkish border, by way of a "shadowy network of intermediaries", including Syria's Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

A small number of CIA officers were also operating secretly in southern Turkey, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters would receive the weapons, in an effort to prevent them falling into the hands of groups allied to al-Qaeda, they added. They were also reportedly providing satellite imagery and intelligence on troop movements, and advising how to establish command and control systems.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 666