| The YPG is the military wing of the Democratic Union Party PYD , the main Kurdish political party in Syria | The Syrian army had large number of Bedouins serving in its ranks |
|---|---|
| Tribal militias from the Tay and Sharabyen tribes were set up in al-Hassakeh governorate, where they received training from Iranian troops | These three regions are called the tribal regions and have been the scene of constant political struggle between the Bedouin tribes and the central state |
The second group is Jabhat Thuwar al-Raqqa, which is composed of tribes in the northern Raqqa countryside.
30| Such self-interested manoeuvring in the Syrian conflict has led to fragmentation of the tribes into competing clans that have been instrumentalized in large part by outsiders | The result was the defeat of Jabhat al-Nusra and its allies, who have been displaced from their villages and massacred by ISIS fighters |
|---|---|
| The emergence of ISIS in Syria made the US and its allies look to the tribes for support in their campaign against the terrorist group | ISIS has tried hard to recruit youth from the tribes |
The Free Syrian Army began fragmenting into different militias.
3