Defecting officers announce a Free Syrian Army in July 2011; armed protection of protest areas grows into insurgency, and by mid-2012 Syria is in full civil war, with hundreds of local brigades under a loose and increasingly nominal FSA label.
Why it mattersMilitarisation transformed the conflict's logic and its coalition: fragmentation began at birth, and the armed opposition's inability to unify shaped every later phase — including who finally took Damascus in 2024, and under what banner.