The FSA initially pursued a strategy of quickly eliminating the regime's top leadership; successfully assassinating intelligence chief Assef Shawkat and Defence Minister Dawoud Rajiha in July 2012.

[56] In early 2012, Iran's IRGC launched a co-ordinated military campaign by sending tens of thousands of Khomeinist militants to prevent the collapse of the Syrian Arab Army; polarising the conflict along sectarian lines.

[57][58] After 2013, the FSA became affected by decreasing discipline, absence of a centralised political leadership, lack of substantial Western support, deteriorating supply of weapons, and diminishing funds; while rival Islamist militias emerged dominant in the armed opposition.

He said that those soldiers and officers who didn't defect from the Syrian army "[represents] gangs that protect the regime", and declared that "as of now, the security forces that kill civilians and besiege cities will be treated as legitimate targets.

"[75] Riad al-Assad urged all factions of the Syrian opposition to unite and put an end to internal disputes; until liberation from the dictatorship and formation of a "free, national, democratic" civilian government in Syria.

On 13 October, clashes were reported in the town of Haara in Daraa province in the south of Syria that resulted in the death of two rebel and six loyalist soldiers, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

[91] On 20 October, the opposition reported that clashes occurred between loyalists and defectors in Burhaniya, near the town of Qusayr in the central province of Homs, leading to the death of several soldiers and the destruction of two military vehicles.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights reported that the bus was transporting security agents between the villages of Al-Habit and Kafr Nabudah in Idlib province when it was ambushed "by armed men, probably deserters".

[103] Also on 10 November "at least four soldiers in the regular army were killed at dawn in an attack, headed by armed men – probably deserters – on a military checkpoint in Has region, near Maaret al-Numan town" according to the Syrian Observatory For Human Rights.

[189] On 14 January, the Syrian Observatory For Human Rights said there was fighting between deserters and loyalist troops in Hula, Homs province, after the defectors destroyed a barricade and a number of security forces were killed or wounded.

[194] By the end of January and the beginning of February, videos surfaced showing BMP-2 armoured personnel carriers in Homs carrying the Syrian independence flag firing at government forces, supported by FSA soldiers.

[200] The same day, it was reported by opposition activists that one of the original founders of the FSA, Colonel Hussein Harmush, who was captured in late August by Syrian special forces, was executed several weeks earlier.

[223] Defected General Mustafa al-Sheikh created a similar discord in the army when he established a rival group called the Higher Military Revolutionary Council which was rejected by the FSA leadership and field units.

For example, the town of Saqba, an eastern suburb of Damascus fell under opposition control for a week until the FSA was forced to tactically retreat into the local population after sustaining heavy bombardment by the Syrian Army.

Baba Amr district in Homs fell to government forces on the morning of 1 March, as the Free Syrian Army claimed they had made a "tactical retreat" from the area, after running low on weapons and ammunition.

"[262] Shortly after their retreat from Baba Amr in Homs, the FSA suffered another setback on 3 March, when a defection of 50 soldiers from the Abu Athuhoor Military Airport in Idlib province was foiled after their plans were discovered.

[307][324] In October 2012 the Time magazine reported that the FSA was "never more than an umbrella term that provided political cover for the loose franchise of defectors and armed civilians fighting Assad's regime" and some units were merely made up of a few dozen fighters.

[328] Salafi-Jihadist leader Mohammed Shalabi in Jordan, also known as Abu Sayyaf, stated in July 2013 in Ammon News that irreconcilable differences exist between the aims of FSA and those of Sunni Islamist militias fighting in Syria against Assad.

[333] After the battle, Col. Abdul Jabbar al-Okaidi, the head of the United States-backed opposition's Aleppo military council, appeared in a video alongside Abu Jandal, a leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

[60] In February 2014, Colonel Qassem Saadeddine of the FSA announced that Chief of Staff Idris had been replaced with Brigadier General Abdul-Ilah al-Bashir, due to "the paralysis within the military command these past months.

[339] In March 2014, Fahad Al Masri, then spokesman for the movement, announced in a statement published by news agencies his withdrawal from the joint command of the Free Syrian Army, due to the state of fragmentation, corruption and Islamization.

[350] A few hours after the offensive's beginning, Turkish Special Forces and the Sham Legion captured their first village, Tal Katlijah, after ISIL fighters retreated from it to reinforce Jarabulus, according to Faylaq Al-Sham's official media wing.

[369] On 4 September, Turkey declared that the Turkish-backed rebels had captured the last remaining ISIL held villages along the Turkish border, cutting off key supply lines used by the group to bring in foreign fighters, weapons and ammunition.

[381] On 17 October, Turkish troops and SNA forces started their offensive headed towards al-Bab and captured 7 villages in the first day, namely; Guzhe, Baruze, al-Wash, Aq Burhan, Qar Kalbin, Talatayna and Shudud.

Jawad Abu Hatab, the head of the opposition's Interim government and the Defense Minister, announced its official formation after meeting with moderate rebel commanders in the town of Azaz in Aleppo province.

[404] On 6 May, the Syrian Government, in coordination with the Russian Aerospace Forces, launched a ground offensive against rebel-held territories in Northwestern Syria, in response to what it stated were repeated attacks on government-held areas, carried out by those groups from within the demilitarized zone.

[452] On August 5, after several days of tense calm, rebels targeted a Syrian army vehicle on the road between Nahtah and Basr al-Harir in eastern Daraa countryside, leaving a soldier dead and 6 others wounded.

Peter Harling, from the International Crisis Group, told the AFP that the proportion of foreign fighters is currently very small, but might grow after Saudi Arabia and Qatar announced their support for arming the rebels.

Publicly, the FSA says it wants to oust Assad so that it can create a state that is prosperous and tolerant of its religious minorities, including the Alawites, who have ruled Syria for decades even though they make up less than 15 percent of the population.

[504] In September 2015 a rebel colonel told CBS News that only a small proportion of US-approved fighters under a $500 million US aid program received training, weapons, and ammunition, and much of this material got taken over by the al-Nusra Front.