[6][3] Named after the Kurdish founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, Saladin, the group is non-sectarian and officially advocates equal rights for all ethnicities in Syria, although it stated that it is not secular.

According to the militia's former leader, Mahmoud Khallo, "Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Christians, Armenians and Alawites" are "all brothers under the roof of a single homeland".

The Descendants of Saladin Brigade generally advocates civil democracy, though opposes the PYD on principle and rejected any talks with the party which it considers a proxy of the Syrian government.

[9] After the Descendants of Saladin Brigade was mostly disbanded due to this stance, the remnant group that remained active and allied to Turkey continued to state that the "FSA includes different ethnicities, and they all want a united and free Syria", though supported the invasion of Afrin on grounds that the PYD's People's Protection Units (YPG) are "terrorist" in nature, "killed Kurds and left them homeless", and "bred tyrannical regimes".

[7] For most of its existence, the entire militia was led by Mahmoud Khallo (nom de guerre "Abu Hamza") who was one of its founders and a long-time opponent of the PYD.

[1][5][11] After his removal from command in 2017,[5] leadership of the remaining Saladin Brigade passed to Mohammed Hawash,[3] a member of a Kurdish tribe from the Idlib countryside.

On 27 February, a number of its fighters defected from the group, accusing it of corruption, "betraying the blood of martyrs", "serving personal interests", "unmatched selfishness", and "forgetting the goals of the real revolution".

[7] The Descendants of Saladin Brigade participated in the offensive to capture the city of al-Bab and the town of Qabasin as part of Operation Euphrates Shield in late 2016 and early 2017.

[5] On 3 July 2017, Mahmoud Khallo declared that his unit would not participate in a planned Turkish-led offensive against the SDF in the Afrin Canton and the Shahba region.

[6] On 14 July, Khallo himself was captured by the Levant Front, which accused him of affiliation with both al-Qaeda and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and was tortured.