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Fatah Halab (Arabic: فتح حلب, romanized: Fataḥ Ḥalab, lit. 'Conquest of Aleppo'), or Aleppo Conquest, was a joint operations room of Syrian rebel factions operating in and around Aleppo, Syria. Succeeding the Aleppo Liberation operations room, its establishment was announced on 26 April 2015.[1][3] It stated that its aim was to conquer Aleppo City from Syrian government forces.[8]
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 Governorate, being both "anti-regime" and "anti-ISIS."[8]
Since the inter-rebel conflicts, defections and mergers which started in December 2016, Fatah Halab has become largely defunct.
The operations room included both US-backed groups[9] and Sunni Islamist groups. It included some groups which also participated in the Sunni Islamist Ansar al-Sharia operations room, but not others, such as al-Nusra Front.[10] Previously al-Nusra coordinated with other groups through the Aleppo Operations Room.[11]
Fatah Halab was originally established by 7 major Sunni Islamist groups on 26 April 2015:[12]
The number of groups in Fatah Halab increased after its founding, and by 18 June 2015 there were 31 groups.[13]
As of October 2016[update] there were around 8,000 fighters spread out over a myriad of groups of varying sized. The following were the largest groups that participate in the operations room.[14][15]
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.[22]
AUnited Nations report in February 2017 came to the conclusion that during the siege of Eastern Aleppo Fatah Halab, after vowing to take revenge on KurdsinSheikh 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.[23][24]
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