Syrian civil war
Secondly, the opposition forces consist of a big number of factions, with the Free Syrian Army as an important coalition of several of these militias. The Free Syrian Army was founded by defecting Syrian Army officers with the goal to protect civilians and bring down the Syrian government. It claimed to be "the military wing of the Syrian opposition". Between 2011 and 2015, the Free Syrian Army lost most of its influence because of a lack of funding, fighting and rival Islamist groups. After an intervention by the Turkish military in 2016, most of the Free Syrian Army became the Syrian National Army, also known as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army. The Syrian National Army became a coalition of opposition forces, coordinated and funded by Turkey. The goals of the Syrian National Army are to counter Syrian government forces, the Syrian Democratic Forces and Islamist extremist forces, including the Islamic State and Hay'at-Tahrir al-Sham.