The Farouq brigades, one of the largest rebel groups in the country, have now set their eyes on Raqqa, a hitherto relatively quiet northern province to the east of Aleppo.In this section As beleaguered as ever No side looks set to win soon How the police recruit radicals A comeback for the reformers?
The group recently gained public prominence when a Guard captain told a reporter, whose name and newspaper Colonel Morgan said he could not recall, that the 300th brigade was "the largest collection of military intelligence linguists in the world".
As my colleague David Kirkpatrick reported last week, the Farouq Brigade, one of the largest rebel brigades, is led by Lt. Abdul-Razzaq Tlass, "a relative of Mr. Assad's former defense minister, Mustafa Tlass, whose family members were early defectors".
The commander of the Tawhid Brigade, one of the largest groups of rebel fighters in Aleppo, called us in for a meeting.
This addition gave the brigade a total of five battalions, making it the largest brigade on Fort Bragg, and one of the largest in the United States Army.
Even the huge anti-militia protest here last month became cover for a group of armed men to attack one of the largest brigades, possibly for revenge.
But the country's interim president, Mohamed Magariaf, warned them to back off as leaders of the largest brigades threatened to cut off the vital services they provide, like patrolling the borders and putting out fires.
Some officials condemned the attack on some of the largest brigades in the city, saying they were operating under the ministry of defence, our correspondent says.
During his time in Syria throughout much of 2012, videographer Robert KIng followed Aleppo's Al-Tawhid Brigade as he dodged bullets and rocket fire to learn more about the largest brigade of the Free Syrian Army.
Enveloping the left flank of the 19th Indiana, Pettigrew's North Carolinians, the largest brigade in the army, drove back the Iron Brigade in some of the fiercest fighting of the war.
