Is the US funding the Syrian opposition forces that overthrew Assad?

Is the US funding the Syrian opposition forces that overthrew Assad?

After Syrian opposition forces launched an offensive that quickly captured major Syrian cities in a matter of weeks and ultimately led to the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government, US President Joe Biden publicly acknowledged the rebels' victory and expressed pride in it.

"Our approach has changed the balance of power in the Middle East," Biden said earlier this week.

  "Thanks to a combination of support from our partners, sanctions and diplomacy, and the use of targeted military force when necessary, we are now seeing new opportunities opening up for the Syrian people and the entire region."

Biden's remarks, as well as numerous comments claiming that Washington and Israel were secretly behind the attack, have raised questions about the US role in Syria over the past fifteen years.

During the Barack Obama administration, the United States first intervened in the Syrian civil war in 2013 through CIA operations, and later in 2014, US troops were deployed to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) group, which had seized large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.

But during President Donald Trump's first administration, the U.S. role in Syria was limited to 900 troops in the country's northeast, where Kurdish-led groups held control.

The United Arab Emirates was reportedly mediating talks between the Assad government and the United States before opposition forces seized power over the weekend.

The following analyzes the US role in the Syrian conflict over the past decade and the groups it has or has not supported.

Syrian Democratic Forces

  Let's start by looking at the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group made up primarily of fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG), an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by the United States.

The US's goal in working with the SDF was to help the group defeat ISIS and prevent its resurgence in Syria.

Kurdish forces forced the Syrian army out of northeastern Syria by 2012. In 2015, the SDK was formed as an umbrella organization consisting mainly of Turkish groups, with some Arab and other ethnic groups forming smaller factions.

Over the next decade, the SDF came to control a quarter of Syria, where it operated independently of the central Syrian government.

The SDF reached an agreement with the Assad government in 2019 after Trump announced a troop withdrawal. Today, about 900 of the approximately 2,000 U.S. troops remain in Syria. The agreement allowed Syrian army troops to return to some areas under SDF control to help defend against Turkish military operations.

Since the fall of the Assad government, the SDF has lost some territory to Turkish-backed rebels, and the US is now trying to stop attacks against the SDF.

The Biden administration's 2024 Pentagon budget allocated $156 million to the CTEF fund to fight ISIS in Syria. The money was spent on training, equipment, logistics and infrastructure, among other things. The Pentagon's 2025 budget requested $148 million for the fund, while the fund received $160 million in 2023.

Within the budget, the Pentagon notes that one of the main groups receiving this funding is the SDK, and additionally the ХББ.

"CTEF will continue to provide small arms and light weapons to support the SDK," the Pentagon budget document states.

The SDK did not participate in the rebel offensive that overthrew the Assad government in 2024, but they celebrated and welcomed Assad's departure.

Free Syrian Army

  Another group receiving CTEF funding from the Pentagon is the Free Syrian Army (SOA), not to be confused with the Free Syrian Army (OSA), an umbrella group for various factions within the Syrian opposition and now known as the Syrian National Army (SMA).

  The Free Syrian Army operates in southeastern Syria, near the Iraqi and Jordanian borders. They have even been accepted into the US military base at the al-Tanf garrison in the Syrian desert, located on the highway connecting Damascus to Baghdad.

The Pentagon budget document states that "the Free Syrian Army remains a critical partner for coalition forces operating near the At Tanf Garrison (ATG) in southeastern Syria."

The Free Syrian Army was formerly called Maghawir al-Sawra and has been supported and trained by the United States for years.

The US says it has supported the group in the fight against ISIS. But Washington has also used the Free Syrian Army to help provide security around the al-Tanf garrison. US Air Force Colonel Daniel Magruder has previously suggested that the garrison could provide a base for the US to negotiate an "acceptable outcome in Syria".

The Free Syrian Army played a secondary role in the 2024 rebel offensive, mainly in the Homs province, where it succeeded in pushing back Syrian government forces.

Operation Timber Sycamore

  In the past two weeks, a leaked email from 2012 has come back into the spotlight. In it, Obama's deputy national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, wrote to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "AQ is on our side in Syria," referring to al-Qaeda.

This part of the email is being cited as evidence that the US supported al-Qaeda and ISIS in Syria.

However, in the same letter, Sullivan says: "In a video posted online, al-Qaeda leader al-Zawahiri called on Turkey and Muslims in the Middle East to help rebel forces fight against supporters of Syrian President Assad. Al-Zawahiri also urged the Syrian people not to rely on the AL [Arab League], Turkey, or the United States for help."

There is no public information that the US has directly funded ISIS or al-Qaeda's activities in Syria.

But a year later, the Obama administration approved the CIA's Operation Timber Sycamore, under which the US began training and arming some Syrian rebels to fight against the Assad government.

In total, the CIA spent $1 billion on the program. However, the US has been unable to maintain control over the insurgents it has funded. The al-Nusra Front, a former al-Qaeda affiliate and predecessor to Hay'at Tahrir al- Sham ( HTS ) , has struggled as it has made significant gains against al-Qaeda, ISIS, and the Assad government.

Ultimately, the Trump administration suspended Operation Timber Sycamore , and Trump attempted to completely withdraw US troops from Syria, but failed.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham

  HTS, known in English as the Committee for the Liberation of the Levant, is the main Syrian opposition group that led the rapid overthrow of the Assad government.

It was founded in January 2017 and is the latest rebranding of Jabhat al-Nusra. Also known as the Nusra Front, the group was founded by Ahmed al-Sharaa in 2012 to challenge Assad's rule and transform Syria into a Sunni Islamic state.

  In its early months, Nusra collaborated with the Iraqi group that would later become ISIS. However, in 2013, it declared its allegiance to al-Qaeda, which resulted in Nusra and ISIS becoming enemies and rivals.

Over time, the al-Qaeda label began to weigh heavily on Nusra, and its leader, Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, began to distance himself from al-Qaeda's ideology of transnational jihad and expressed a desire to seek international recognition.

Nusra formally severed ties with al-Qaeda in 2016 and renamed itself Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. It gradually eliminated elements committed to carrying out attacks outside Syria. Then, in 2017, it merged with some smaller groups and renamed itself HTS.

The group is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, and Washington has never directly supported HTS.

Former US Ambassador James Jeffrey to PBC in 2021 In an interview with the News , HTS said it had sent a message to Washington asking for US help, but it had ignored it.

"Why would I take the dangerous position of pushing for someone to be delisted?" Jeffrey told PBC .