The People's Defense Units (YPG), also called People's Protection Units, is a mainly Kurdish militant group in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The Levant Front is a Syrian rebel group based around Aleppo involved in the Syrian Civil War. It was formed in December 2014.
The Army of Revolutionaries, or Jaysh al-Thuwar, is a multi-ethnic armed Syrian rebel coalition that is allied with the primarily Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and participating in the Syrian Civil War as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Relations between the People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are unclear and varied among the different FSA factions. Both are opposed to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. However, several clashes between the two have taken place. Under pressure from the United States, some FSA groups coordinate with the YPG to battle ISIL under the name of the Syrian Democratic Forces, although some other FSA groups remained in conflict with the YPG and the SDF, including FSA groups in the SDF.
AANES–Syria relations concern the military and political relations between the Ba'athist Syrian Arab Republic and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES), a de facto autonomous multi-ethnic region in northern and eastern Syria. The Syrian government does not officially recognise the autonomy of the AANES, and advocates a centralist approach to the governance of Syria. The NES seeks the federalisation of Syria. For most of the Syrian civil war, there has been a non-aggression pact between the military of Syria and the Syrian Democratic Forces, with occasional confrontations and some cooperation against Islamist groups, in particular against the Turkish Armed Forces and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army. While the two sides co-operated militarily under Russian supervision since 2019, with Syrian and Russian troops stationed along the Turkish border to prevent further advances, political negotiations have ended in failure. The Syrian government has no authority or institutions in North and East Syria outside of its two security boxes in Qamishli/Qamislo and Al-Hasakah/Heseke. The Autonomous Administration does not allow the Syrian Government to hold elections in areas under its control.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is a coalition formed by ethnic militias and rebel groups, and serves as the official military wing of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). The SDF is allied to and supplied by the United States–led CJTF–OIR international alliance. Founded in 10 October 2015, the SDF claims that its mission is fighting to create a secular, democratic and federalised Syria. The SDF is opposed by Turkey, who claims the group has direct links to the PKK, which it recognizes as a terrorist group.
The Descendants of Saladin Brigade was a Free Syrian Army group active in the northern Aleppo Governorate. The group was supported by Turkey and was initially funded and armed by the United States, mainly fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant but also opposing the Syrian government and the Democratic Union Party's (PYD) affiliates such as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The brigade was largely disbanded by the Turkish Army in 2017, following disagreements over the participation in a planned Turkish-led offensive against Afrin Canton, although a small faction within the group remained active and participated in the offensive since January 2018.
The al-Bab Military Council (BMC) is an ethnically mixed force of the Syrian Democratic Forces, consisting of Kurdish, Arab, and Turkmen militias from northern Aleppo Governorate. The BMC currently maintains a presence in several villages west of Manbij, though its stated goal is to capture al-Bab, currently under the Syrian Interim Government.
Operation Euphrates Shield was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces in the Syrian Civil War which led to the Turkish occupation of northern Syria. Operations were carried out in the region between the Euphrates river to the east and the rebel-held area around Azaz to the west. The Turkish military and Turkey-aligned Syrian rebel groups, some of which used the Free Syrian Army label, fought against the forces of the Islamic State (IS) as well as against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from 24 August 2016. On 29 March 2017, the Turkish military officially announced that Operation Euphrates Shield was "successfully completed".
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has many military councils for local security and defense, each being accountable to the civil council of the area they operate in.
The Syrian National Army, previously the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and also known as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA), is a coalition of armed Syrian opposition groups in the Syrian Civil War. Comprising various rebel factions that emerged at the onset of the war in July 2011, it was officially established in 2017 under the auspices of Turkey, which provides funding, training, and military support.
The Northern Democratic Brigade is a Free Syrian Army unit that is closely allied to the Syrian Kurdish YPG and YPJ in Afrin Region since 2014. Led by Absi Taha, Alexander Khalil, and Alexander Alaa, it also joined the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in November 2015. The initial members of the group originated from Jabal Zawiya in Idlib, and it has recruited Arabs from Idlib, Aleppo, and other cities in northern Syria since allying with the YPG. Since joining the SDF, the unit has begun to operate across much of northern and eastern Syria, participating in operations against anti-SDF Syrian opposition factions, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Turkish Armed Forces, and the Syrian National Army.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to April 2018. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
Operation Olive Branch was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) in the majority-Kurdish Afrin District of northwest Syria, against the People's Protection Units (YPG) of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The air war and use of major artillery ended as the Arab and Turkmen militias of the SNA entered the city of Afrin on 18 March 2018, and the SDF insurgency in Northern Aleppo began.
The Afrin offensive was a military operation launched by the Turkish Armed Forces and the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army against the Syrian Democratic Forces in Afrin District in northwestern Syria as the initial phase of Operation Olive Branch. At the end of military operations, the UN had registered 150,000 Kurdish refugees in camps in the area of Tel Rifaat; the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated that 300,000 people had been expelled in total. By May, SOHR estimated that 40,000 settlers had been moved into Afrin, some of them Arabs displaced from eastern Ghouta, but mostly families of the mixed Arab and Syrian Turkmen militias.
This is the order of battle for the Operation Olive Branch, a joint Turkish Armed Forces/Syrian National Army attack on the People's Protection Units-held Afrin Canton.
The Revolutionary Communard Party is a left-wing political organisation founded on 4 February 2016, following the merger of the Liberation Movement and the Turkish Revolutionary Party.
The 2019 Tell Rifaat Clashes were a military confrontation between Turkey and allied Free Syrian Army groups against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in early May 2019.
The Glory Corps is a Turkish-backed rebel group that operates under the Syrian National Army's 3rd Legion during the Syrian Civil War. Formed in 2017, the group works closely with the Levant Front, the main faction in the 3rd Legion, and included fighters that defected from the Sham Legion. The Glory Corps fought against Syrian government forces, and participated in the Turkish-led Operation Olive Branch against the People's Protection Units (YPG)-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the Afrin Region in 2018. It was targeted by a YPG insurgency in the aftermath of the offensive, when it became based in Afrin.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war for 2022. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found in Casualties of the Syrian civil war.
Syria (per Turkey) [3] 
Kurdistan Workers' Party (per Turkey)
Turkey 
Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA)
771 killed or captured
