Beirut, Reuters, 30 January 2016 – A Syrian rebel group said on Friday it had merged with a number of other rebel groups around Aleppo province to become a stronger fighting force in the country’s five-year-old civil war.

The group Failaq al-Sham, or Sham Legion, said on its Twitter feed it had merged with eight other fighting groups to form a new entity called the Northern Brigade.

In early January, Failaq al-Sham pulled out of a coalition of Islamist factions operating in the northwest of the country, in order to redeploy around Aleppo where pro-government forces had been intensifying assaults.
Since Russia’s intervention in the Syria conflict in September with an air campaign to support President Bashar al-Assad, pro-government forces have stepped up offensives in the west and north of the country.

Failaq al-Sham said in its statement that it wanted to unify revolutionary units into one body to be militarily and administratively stronger.