Which group began fighting against Assad in Syria?

Answer 1

There is no single group opposing Assad; there are numerous such groups and this comes from the fractured nature of the Syrian resistance.

Initially, the Arab Spring protests which has uprooted the regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and threatened to uproot those in other countries migrated to Syria. The values that undergirded the original Arab Spring in Syria included campaigning for more democracy, developing economic self-sufficiency and equality, freedom to criticize the government, unified Syrian citizenship (as opposed to ethnic and religious loyalties), and transparent government. After a few weeks, the regime decided to open fire on the protesters, thus leading to open conflict. As a result, the Arab Spring values have fallen by the wayside as the conflict has escalated and continues to escalate. Currently over 200,000 people have died.

Syrian Civil War
As a result of the Assad Regime militarily attacking the protesters, a number of those protesters took to arms and began a rebel campaign to overthrow Assad. In this chaos, al-Qaeda of Iraq crossed the border into Syria and founded Islamic State and the Syrian Kurds declared independence. To further clarify, in the Syrian Civil War currently, there are currently four sides:

1. Government of Syria: Bashar al-Assad and the Government of Syria come from the Alawite minority which was historically discriminated against because their religion is a post-Islamic religion (even though Iran has "certified them" to be part of Twelver Shiite Islam). As a result, they do not want to cede power to the Sunni majority who will likely discriminate against them again as they had in the past. In contrast to most ethnic conflicts in the Middle East, many other Syrian minorities such as the Christians and Druze (another post-Islamic Religion) and the Shiite Muslims in Syria have thrown their weight behind Bashar al-Assad and the Alawites, preferring moderate Alawite discrimination to possible Islamic fundamentalism. They fear worse will come under Sunni-dominated rule, especially since while Assad was Secular, his opposition was Islamist and will likely rule harshly over non-Sunni religious groups.

The Government of Syria is currently supported by Iran and Russia and controls most of Syria.

2. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL): ISIL is an extremist Sunni Islamist organization which used to have links to al-Qaeda before al-Qaeda condemned them for their barbarity. They are fighting to bring the Sunni majority into power, especially in Sunni majority regions of both Syria and Iraq, and impose a more fundamentalist view on politics. They consider themselves to be fighting the injustices and violence of the current Assad regime and the inequalities of the US-supported Government of Iraq. ISIL is primarily supported and armed by Saudi Arabia, but the US and UK have indirectly given ISIL millions of dollars and equipment since US and UK military vehicles and assets left to the Government of Iraq have fallen into ISIL hands (especially with the fall of Mosul). They also see Alawites as being unfit to rule because they are not true Muslims and according to their reading of Qur'anic Verse 3:28 (cited below), no non-Muslim should have power over Muslims. Considering that Sunnis are the majority of the country, they do not understand why the minority Alawites and their Druze, Christian, and Shiite allies should dictate policy.

ISIL controls significant amounts of land in Syria and Iraq and conquered much of its Iraqi territory in June 2014.

3. Kurds and the Peshmerga: The Kurds, a Sunni ethnic minority (as opposed to a religious minority), are primarily concerned with protecting their minority in northern Iraq and Syria. Syrian Kurdistan (YPG) is the name of their de facto independent polity and the Peshmerga is the name of the militias that fight on behalf of that authority. The Syrian Kurds are increasingly under attack by ISIL and Western bombing campaigns and funds have helped balance the equation. While both Iraqi Kurds and Syrian Kurds support the idea of Kurdish unity, there have been difficulties uniting all of the Kurds under one banner.

Iraqi Kurds control areas in Iraq and Syrian Kurds control areas in Syria. Iraqi Kurdistan has helped and supported their Kurdish brothers across the border.

4. Free Syrian Army: The Rebels of Syria split between those who were more Islamist in their outlook and joined with ISIL (above) and those who are more liberal in their outlook and are considered to be interested in democracy. The Free Syrian Army is composed of those more liberal rebels, but they are weaker in the overall struggle than both the Syrian Government and ISIL. They are fighting to bring the Sunni majority into power and consider themselves to be fighting the injustices and violence of the current Assad regime and the atrocities of his father, including the Hama Massacre of 1982 which may have claimed as many as 40,000 civilian lives. Considering that Sunnis are the majority of the country, they do not understand why the minority Alawites and their Druze, Christian, and Shiite allies should dictate policy.

The Sunni Islamist factions (more strongly ideologically aligned with ISIL) are primarily supported and armed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia while the Democratic Pretenders are armed by the United States. The Sunni Islamist factions, especially Jubhat an-Nusra (the Al-Nusra Front), have met with much more military success than the more democratic groups in the Free Syrian Army.