The Syrian National Army: Rebels, thugs or Turkish proxies?

As Syrian rebels closed in on capturing the key city of Hama, a huge convoy of Syrian National Army (SNA) fighters was seen advancing south to join the efforts.

It was clear evidence of the SNA – a Turkey-backed umbrella of several armed opposition factions in northern Syria – working together with other rebels in their devastating assault on President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

After the shock capture of Aleppo last week, Hama was next to fall on Thursday. Homs, another major city, now looks firmly in the sights of anti-government forces.

One of the SNA’s units, Jabhat al-Shamiyah, or the Levant Front, advanced over 200km to consolidate the territorial gains.

The unit’s fighters based in Azaz, along the northern border with Turkey, pushed south to take the town of Rastan, halfway between Hama and Homs.

The rebel offensive may have been led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – the former al-Qaeda affiliate that transformed into a pragmatic, nationalist outfit – but the SNA has played a decisive role.

Middle East Eye takes a look at the makeup of the group, its close ties with Turkey, its treatment of Kurdish communities, and what role it may play in a future administration.

Unwieldy organisation

The SNA was formed north of Aleppo in 2017, to bring together a number of armed groups under the supervision of the Syrian Interim Government, an alternative government formed by a coalition of Syrian opposition organisations. 

“The SNA is not a cohesive, centralised organisation like HTS and it includes many different subgroups which have often clashed with each other,” Broderick McDonald, an expert on political violence in Syria, told MEE. 

“What ties them together is their shared interests in opposing the Assad regime and preventing HTS from taking over all of the liberated territories.”

Several of the factions within the SNA have a close relationship with Turkey. 

Some of them, like the Sultan Suleyman Shah Brigade and the Sultan Murad Division, are even named after Ottoman figures. 

Other units fall under the National Liberation Front (NLF) grouping, a Turkey-backed alliance of armed opposition actors that merged with the SNA in October 2019. 

Most of the NLF factions fight under the label of the Free Syrian Army, the initial umbrella armed grouping following the breakout of the civil war in 2011. 

The NLF’s factions include Feilaq al-Sham, Ahrar al-Sham, the Free Idlib Army and Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zinki.

The merger between the NLF and SNA brought more than 40 armed groups together, creating a combined force that’s estimated to be between 30,000 and 80,000 in strength. 

Omer Ozkizilcik, a nonresident fellow for the Syria Project at the Atlantic Council, said that the SNA was nominally under the defence ministry of the interim government. 

“But it’s not fully in control of all that’s happening within the SNA. The main decision-makers inside the SNA are the leaders of each faction,” he told MEE. 

McDonald added that while Turkey and leaders within the SNA had tried to create a more cohesive structure, the results have been “only partially successful”. 

‘Pursuing Turkish agenda’

Some Syrians believe the relationship between the SNA and Turkey to be too close, and have even accused it of being a Turkish military subcontractor. 

“The SNA is really pursuing a Turkish, not Syrian, agenda,” Leila al-Shami, a Syrian author and human rights campaigner, told MEE.

“Turkey’s focus has been on preventing Kurdish autonomy and also creating so-called safe zones from which to send refugees back from Turkey, because there’s been a rise in xenophobic nationalism there.”

Many of the SNA’s factions have taken part in Turkish military operations along the border with northern Syria, targeting the Islamic State group (IS) as well as the People’s Defence Units (YPG), the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group in Turkey.

The SNA has even been involved in pursuing Turkish military interests outside of Syria, including in Azerbaijan, Libya and Niger. 

Its proximity with Ankara has led to the SNA being unpopular among some Syrians. 

Ozkizilcik said that while Turkey and the SNA’s interests overlapped, the Syrian group had its own aims. 

“The Syrian National Army is the Free Syrian Army that was backed by the United States and the international community for years,” he said. 

He added that with Turkish support, it became better organised, equipped and trained. 

“Their goal is still to fight the Assad regime, as we see now.” 

Abuses against Kurds

Over recent years, SNA fighters have allegedly committed serious human rights abuses against Kurdish communities in Afrin and the Aleppo countryside. 

They’ve been accused of arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions, abductions and torture.

The SNA’s advances in recent days have instilled fear among Kurds. 

After the Turkish-backed group captured Tel Rifaat on Sunday, which had been under the control of Kurdish forces, thousands of Kurds fled the city. 

Footage has also circulated this week showing SNA troops abusing captured Kurdish fighters. 

“The SNA are basically thugs. They’ve been involved in lots of abuses and looting,” said Shami. 

That behaviour has heightened tensions with HTS, which has been attempting to reassure Kurds that they will be safe under Syrian opposition rule. 

“During the most recent offensive, HTS arrested several fighters from SNA groups north of Aleppo in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood, accusing them of looting and harming Kurdish civilians,” said McDonald. 

He added that SNA factions hit back by accusing HTS of sowing divisions among the rebels. 

“While HTS and the SNA factions have largely avoided open clashes so far, it is difficult to know if this will continue indefinitely given the pre-existing tensions and distrust.”

Ozkizilcik said that the SNA had established mechanisms to deal with human rights abuses, arresting and imprisoning many of its members who were found guilty.

He added that the SNA, like HTS, had also affirmed the importance of Kurds as an essential part of Syria. 

“Ergo, you will find many Kurdish commanders and soldiers among the SNA ranks, especially in northern Aleppo, in Afrin, and in the region south of Azaz.”

‘HTS must work with the SNA’

It remains to be seen what kind of role the SNA, and the interim government, would have in a future administration run by the rebels. 

“It’s too early to speak about anything regarding administration,” said Ozkizilcik. “We don’t know how things will evolve. Hama was just taken, and now we will soon speak about Homs, and probably even about Damascus soon.” 

McDonald believes that HTS must work with other groups, including the SNA, if the rebels form a government. 

“If Syria’s armed opposition manages to topple the Assad regime, HTS must work with the SNA groups, local councils, religious and ethnic minorities, and civil society from across the country to form a truly representative governing system,” he said. 

He noted that whilst HTS is the strongest group militarily, it is designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, EU and US. 

“It desperately needs political legitimacy which can only come from working with all parts of Syrian society.”