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Active 26 April 2015 – 21 January 2017 (in the Aleppo Governorate, until 1 December 2016 within southeastern Aleppo) Headquarters Aleppo, Syria (until 1 December 2016)
Aleppo Governorate, Syria (from 1 December 2016) Area of operations Aleppo Governorate, Syria (from 1 December 2016 they are no longer active in the city centre) Strength +8,000 (16 October 2016) Allies Army of Conquest
Jabhat Ansar al-Din Opponents Syrian Armed Forces
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Syrian Democratic Forces | ||
Fatah Halab (Arabic: فتح حلب, 'Conquest of Aleppo'), or Aleppo Conquest, was a joint operations room of Syrian rebel factions operating in Aleppo, Syria. Succeeding the Aleppo Liberation operations room, its establishment was announced on 26 April 2015. It states that its aim is to conquer Aleppo City from Syrian regime forces.
Contents
In an October 2015 publication, the Washington D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War considered Aleppo Conquest as one of the "powerbrokers" in Aleppo Province, being both "anti-regime" and "anti-ISIS."
Since the inter-rebel conflicts, defections and mergers which started on 21 January 2017, Fatah Halab has become largely defunct.
Member groups
The operations room includes both Western-backed groups and Islamist groups. It includes some groups that also participate in the Islamist Ansar al-Sharia operations room, but not others, such as al-Nusra Front. Previously al-Nusra coordinated with other groups through the Aleppo Operations Room.
The number of groups participating increased after its founding, and by 18 June 2015 there were 31 groups. On 28 July 19 FSA-linked groups joined it.
As of October 2016 they are around 8,000 fighters spread out over a myriad of groups of varying sized. The following are the largest groups that participate in the operations room.
War crimes
On 13 May 2016, Amnesty International accused the Fatah Halab coalition of "repeated indiscriminate attacks that may amount to war crimes". It also reported their alleged use of chemical weapons.
A United Nations report in February 2017 came to the conclusion that during the siege of Eastern Aleppo Fatah Halab, after vowing to take revenge on the Kurds in Sheikh Maqsoud, intentionally attacked civilian inhabited neighbourhoods of the Kurdish enclave, killing and maiming dozens of civilians, and that these acts constitute the war crime of directing attacks against a civilian population.