Who are the key players fighting in Syria’s civil war?

Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a lightning assault against pro-Assad forces in Aleppo. Here’s who else is fighting in Syria’s civil war.

5 min
Opposition fighters investigate tanks abandoned by the Syrian army on Saturday, after they took control of the Syrian city of Maarat al-Numan, where the M5 international road passes through. (Bilal Al Hammoud/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
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Syrian rebels launched a lightning assault against government forces in the country’s northwest, reshaping the front lines of the nation’s bloody civil war for the first time in years.

The rebel groups fighting in Syria’s 13-year-long war are a complex patchwork of fighters, focused on battling against different enemies — including, sometimes, each other — backed at times by foreign powers. In the past week, Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS) has emerged as a formidable challenger to President Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s ruler for nearly a quarter-century — over half of which he has spent fighting for survival in this conflict.