Early insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war in the context of "Syrian opposition"

On 22 September 2014, the United States officially intervened in the Syrian civil war with the stated aim of fighting the Islamic State (ISIL/ISIS) militant organization in support of the international war against it, code named Operation Inherent Resolve. The US currently continues to support the Syrian Armed Forces under the transitional government and the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Shortly after the start of the civil war in 2011, the Obama administration placed sanctions against Syria and supported the Free Syrian Army rebel faction by covertly authorizing Timber Sycamore under which the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) armed and trained rebels. Following the Islamic State's occupation of Eastern Syria in August 2014, the United States conducted surveillance flights in Syria to gather intelligence regarding the Islamic State. In September 2014, the United States-led coalition—which involves the United Kingdom, France, Jordan, Turkey, Canada, Australia, and others—launched an air campaign against the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front inside Syria.

The Syrian opposition was an umbrella term for the Syrian revolutionary organizations that opposed Bashar al-Assad's Ba'athist regime during the Syrian Revolution and Syrian civil war. The opposition factions in Syria became active as grassroots movements during the mass demonstrations against the Ba'athist regime. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) was the most prominent armed revolutionary group in the initial stages of the war; but it declined and became decentralized by 2015. By 2021, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) had become the strongest armed faction within the Syrian opposition.

In July 2011, as the situation turned into a civil war, defectors from the Syrian Armed Forces formed the Free Syrian Army. In August 2011, dissident groups operating from abroad formed a coalition called the Syrian National Council. A broader organization, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), was formed in November 2012. Although the groups based abroad established contact with those in Syria, the Syrian opposition suffered during the whole conflict from infighting and a lack of unified leadership, as well as lack of foreign aid as the war became deadlocked.

Riad Mousa al-As'aad (Arabic: رياض موسى الأسعد, pronounced [riˈjɑːdˤ ˈmuːsa lˈʔæsʕæd]; born 2 February 1961) is a Syrian military officer and politician who is the founding leader of the Free Syrian Army. One of the prominent faces of the Syrian civil war, he led the armed resistance to the Assad regime as commander-in-chief of FSA, during the early phase of the Syrian Civil War. Under Riad al-Asaad's command, FSA expanded into a paramilitary force of 75,000 guerilla fighters and insurgents in March 2012; capable of ousting regime forces from Damascus. He currently serves as the deputy prime minister for Military Affairs of the Syrian Salvation Government, a position he has held since 2 November 2017. He was a former colonel in the Syrian Air Force who defected to the opposition in July 2011 and became the first Acting Commander-in-chief of the Free Syrian Army.

Some of his family members were executed by the regime of Bashar al-Assad.