Orange Zone is controlled by the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) led by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) which is the armed wing of the Syrian-based Democratic Union Party (PYD). (The PYD links with the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party which leads a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey, earning both it and the Syrian groups the deadly ire of Ankara.)
– VOA, Future uncertain for Syria’s Kurds amid potential Turkish offensive
– Atlantic Council, Can northeast Syria delink from the PKK?
Teal Zone: Turkish Armed Forces and Turkey-supported rebel alliance, the Syrian National Army
Olive Green Zone: Hayʼat Tahrir ash-Sham (Organization for the Liberation of the Levant), chief rebel coalition. A prominent component was formerly called Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, which earlier was Jabhat al-Nusra – an official local branch of al-Qaeda.
Dark Green Zone: The Southern Operations Room is a coalition of rebel groups that took up arms beginning in 2011 but joined the Russian-sponsored “reconciliation process” in 2018 (which allowed them to retain light arms while central government agencies returned to southern towns). More recently, they joined with the efforts of HTS to depose Assad.
– Long War Journal, Analysis: Who liberated Damascus? Unpacking the Southern Operations Room’s emergence
Purple Zone: The “Syrian Free Army” (aka the Revolutionary Commando Army and/or the New Syrian Army) is a rebel alliance with a US-sponsored group at its core which is associated with the US-operated al-Tanf military base in Syria’s eastern Homs Governorate
– Daily Mail, America helped prepare Syria’s rebels weeks before they launched coup that toppled Assad
– Syrian Observer, Maghawir al-Thawra (“Revolutionary Commandos”) Changes Name. What is the Story?