Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood Launches Rebel Militia

New Faction Unaffiliated With Free Syrian Army

A country already awash in rebel factions, Syria now has one more, as the “Armed Men of the Muslim Brotherhood” has been announced as a faction of rebel fighters affiliated with Syria’s bloc of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a popular Islamist political movement in several countries, and notably won both the presidency and parliament in Egypt after the anti-Mubarak revolution, though the parliament was eventually ousted by the junta.

The Syrian bloc’s new militia insists that they are entirely unaffiliated with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the large rebel faction made up of military defectors. The new group’s leader says they are trying to build a “civil country” with their faction.

This could reflect concerns among Islamist rebels that the Western-backed FSA is going to amount to a military junta if they are installed as the new regime, and efforts to establish an Islamist political movement will be stalled as they were in Egypt.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.