Riad al-Asaad

Riad Mousa al-Asaad (born 2 February 1961) is a former Syrian Air Force colonel who defected in July 2011, founded the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and became its first acting commander-in-chief, leading the armed resistance to Bashar al-Assad's government in the early phase of the Syrian civil war. ¹ He later served as deputy prime minister for military affairs of the Syrian Salvation Government from 2 November 2017 to 2024. ¹

Al-Asaad joined the Syrian Air Force at nineteen and worked in it as an engineer, reaching the rank of colonel in the 22nd Division, 14th Brigade, before his defection, according to the Arabic article. ² By his own account, recorded in the Arabic article, he was placed under surveillance after the Tunisian revolution began in late 2010, and was summoned by the Air Force intelligence branch in Aleppo after a demonstration in his city and forced to confess to the presence of armed gangs among its people; immediately after this incident he announced his defection, on 4 July 2011. ² The English article records that some of his family members were executed by Bashar al-Assad's government. ¹

On 29 July 2011 al-Asaad and other defectors declared the establishment of the Free Syrian Army, intending to fight an insurgent war to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's government; he opposed any exile solution for Assad and vowed to fight until the government fell. ¹ The English article records that under his command the FSA expanded into a paramilitary force of 75,000 fighters by March 2012, a figure the article takes from its sources. ¹

After UN observers entered Syria, al-Asaad announced a ceasefire committed to the Kofi Annan peace plan, then within days reannounced the continuation of rebel attacks, saying the government had not made peace as promised, and on 31 May 2012 urged Annan to scrap the plan, which he claimed had failed. ¹ On 22 September 2012 the FSA announced it had moved its command centre from Turkey to liberated areas inside Syria, and al-Asaad hinted at plans for an offensive on Damascus. ¹

On 25 March 2013 a car bomb explosion near Mayadin in eastern Syria wounded him; he was taken to Turkey for treatment, where his right leg was amputated. ^{1 2}

In late August 2017 al-Asaad attended a conference in Idlib held by Tahrir al-Sham from which the Syrian Salvation Government was established on 2 November 2017, and he was appointed its deputy prime minister for military affairs the same day, holding the post until 2024. ¹ The article quotes him saying that Tahrir al-Sham had previously declared it would dissolve itself, "an external and internal demand". ¹

In December 2024, after the fall of the Assad government, al-Asaad returned to Damascus and said the Free Syrian Army had been working closely with Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which had led the overthrow of the Assad regime. ¹

This section presents positions reported in the sources; it is not the museum's verdict on any of them.

His position within the FSA: Colonel Kasim Saaduddin, an FSA member, stated that al-Asaad did not have control over the Free Syrian Army, which al-Asaad himself denied in interview. ¹ On 8 December 2012, in Antalya, Turkey, he was replaced by Brigadier General Salim Idris as effective military commander of the FSA. ¹ He also received criticism from opposition protesters in Salamiyah, whose protest of 3 August 2012 claimed that while their city protested for the first time, he was still working for Assad's regime. ¹

Assassination attempts: In an August 2012 interview with the Voice of Russia, al-Asaad claimed the Syrian government had attempted to assassinate him several times and that he was guarded by Turkish intelligence. ¹ After the March 2013 bombing that cost him his leg, the analyst Charles Lister's 2015 book "The Syrian Jihad" cites a senior Ahrar al-Sham leader as saying the group had secretly traced the attempt back to Jabhat al-Nusra, according to the article. ¹

The Salvation Government: The Hawar Kilis Operations Room, part of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, condemned al-Asaad and accused him of conspiring with al-Qaeda over his role in the Salvation Government, according to the article. ¹

His statements: The article describes some of his statements as controversial, including his suggestion that suicide bombing is "an integral part of revolutionary action, of Free Syrian Army action", and an undated video uploaded on 26 March 2013 in which he defended al-Nusra Front as "our brothers in Islam" and asserted that the FSA had provided direct support to al-Nusra against the Ba'ath government. ¹ In a 2016 interview with the Turkish daily Yeni Şafak he said the Democratic Union Party (PYD) was more dangerous than ISIL, and asserted that the United States was "equally responsible as Assad, Russia and Iran" for the killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Syria. ¹

• "Riad al-Asaad", English Wikipedia, revision of 16 July 2026. ¹
• «رياض الأسعد», Arabic Wikipedia, revision of 7 October 2026. ²
• Wikidata item Q714040. ³