All five units were affiliated with the Free Syrian Army and the Supreme Military Council, used the Syrian independence flag as their symbol, and received BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles from the US-backed Friends of Syria Group through the Military Operations Center in Reyhanlı, Turkey, near the Syrian border.

[3] The 5th Corps was headed by Lieutenant Colonel Fares Bayoush, who was also the leader of the Knights of Justice Brigade.

[2] Despite being supported by the US, the 5th Corps condemned the American-led intervention in Syria against ISIL and the al-Nusra Front.

[1] The group held that the Syrian Interim Government was responsible for the accidental injection of atracurium besilate into 75 children during a measles vaccination campaign in the countryside of Maarat al-Nu'man on 16 September 2014, killing 15 of them, all between 6 and 18 months old.

[4][5] On 20 November 2014, the groups that constituted the 5th Corps, with the exception of the Mountain Hawks Brigade and the 101st Infantry Division, joined a new, more Islamist-oriented, rebel alliance called the "Gathering of Rebels in Southern Idlib" based in Maarat al-Nu'man, rendering the 5th Corps defunct.