Last month, Syria's jihadist conglomerate Hay'at Tahrir al Sham (HTS) and Idlib's Salvation Government, itself an HTS project, announced the joint creation of the Popular Resistance Companies (PRC).
The PRC's revolutionary model acts as an auxiliary force for HTS, acting as both national guard units and force multipliers. On a more strategic level, the PRC allows for HTS to bolster its forces, defenses, and presence inside Idlib to prepare for any regime offensive into rebel-held Idlib. Moreover, the units allow HTS an outlet to poach from smaller groups and deny other rival factions the chance to do the same.
The PRC has shown via its media output that it maintains robust dawah and recruitment departments, holding meetings and town halls with various towns and locales. It has also attracted the support of several clans and tribes within northern Syria, further helping its influence. It also maintains a wing dedicated to attracting the participation of women in its projects, as seen from videos and photos released by the group.
Since its creation in late May, the outfit has produced a multitude of videos not only highlighting its various campaigns and efforts, but also its organizational structure. Several subcommittees and fighting units have been announced providing an idea of how the PRC is structured.
This post is meant to provide a primer, building off of the previous post on the PRC, of the overall organizational structure of the PRC. The following chart is meant to provide an idea of the overview; it is by no means definitive. Some of the constituent groups are placed under subcommittees based on an educated guess. Some constituent groups and individuals are not shown on the chart. More groups are also continuously announced and the chart will be updated as such.
UPDATE: 8/6/2019
Since the last update to the structure the PRC, a series of new companies and tribes have been added to the group's overall structure. The vast majority of these were new tribes, indicating that PRC that been able to continuously build tribal support within rural Idlib, northern Hama, and northern and eastern Aleppo.
Several new fighting companies were also announced, which includes a company claiming to be in Eastern Ghouta and another in Quneitra. But, given the circumstances surrounding either locale, it is highly unlikely the groups are actually based in those areas. However, it is possible that the companies' men inside Idlib were originally from those areas thus decided to name their groups accordingly.
An additional column, "Unknown Subcommittee or Tribes/Clans," was added to the chart to accommodate the influx of tribes and other companies without explicit information on their areas of operation.
The PRC's revolutionary model acts as an auxiliary force for HTS, acting as both national guard units and force multipliers. On a more strategic level, the PRC allows for HTS to bolster its forces, defenses, and presence inside Idlib to prepare for any regime offensive into rebel-held Idlib. Moreover, the units allow HTS an outlet to poach from smaller groups and deny other rival factions the chance to do the same.
The PRC has shown via its media output that it maintains robust dawah and recruitment departments, holding meetings and town halls with various towns and locales. It has also attracted the support of several clans and tribes within northern Syria, further helping its influence. It also maintains a wing dedicated to attracting the participation of women in its projects, as seen from videos and photos released by the group.
Since its creation in late May, the outfit has produced a multitude of videos not only highlighting its various campaigns and efforts, but also its organizational structure. Several subcommittees and fighting units have been announced providing an idea of how the PRC is structured.
This post is meant to provide a primer, building off of the previous post on the PRC, of the overall organizational structure of the PRC. The following chart is meant to provide an idea of the overview; it is by no means definitive. Some of the constituent groups are placed under subcommittees based on an educated guess. Some constituent groups and individuals are not shown on the chart. More groups are also continuously announced and the chart will be updated as such.
UPDATE: 8/6/2019
Since the last update to the structure the PRC, a series of new companies and tribes have been added to the group's overall structure. The vast majority of these were new tribes, indicating that PRC that been able to continuously build tribal support within rural Idlib, northern Hama, and northern and eastern Aleppo.
Several new fighting companies were also announced, which includes a company claiming to be in Eastern Ghouta and another in Quneitra. But, given the circumstances surrounding either locale, it is highly unlikely the groups are actually based in those areas. However, it is possible that the companies' men inside Idlib were originally from those areas thus decided to name their groups accordingly.
An additional column, "Unknown Subcommittee or Tribes/Clans," was added to the chart to accommodate the influx of tribes and other companies without explicit information on their areas of operation.