title: Free Syrian Army

text: In May 2013, Salim Idris, the FSA leader, said that "the rebels" were badly fragmented and lacked the military skill needed to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Idris said he was working on a countrywide command structure, but that a lack of material support—ammunition and weapons, fuel for the cars and money for logistics and salaries—was hurting that effort. "The battles are not so simple now," Idriss said. "Now it is very important for them to be unified. But unifying them in a manner to work like a regular army is still difficult." He denied any cooperation with Al-Nusra Front but acknowledged common operations with another Islamist group Ahrar ash-Sham.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The growth of al-Nusra Front and other Islamist groups, during the first half of 2013, disillusioned thousands of FSA men who felt that their own revolution against the government has been stolen from them. In areas of Homs province, fighting between FSA and the Syrian army had virtually ceased.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 11 July 2013, an FSA officer was assassinated by a jihadist group, north of Latakia. In mid-August 2013, a delegation of FSA met with an official of President Assad, to suggest talks between government and FSA about "a Syrian solution" to the war. The government accepted this proposal for "a dialogue within the Syrian homeland". Six weeks later, in seven rebel-held areas of Aleppo, civil employees could return to work, and government institutions and schools could reopen.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: stated in July 2013 in "Ammon News" that irreconcilable differences exist between the aims of FSA and those of other Sunni militias fighting in Syria against Assad.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Initially FSA groups were not averse to the existence of, nor co-operation with, ISIL as a fellow armed group working to remove the Assad regime. Conditions varied in different times and places, but one example of co-operation in the form of joint operations is the 2013 capture of Managh Air Base. After the battle, Col. Abdul Jabbar al-Okaidi, the head of the United States-backed opposition's Aleppo military council, appeared in a video alongside Abu Jandal, a leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. FSA groups had also been in conflict and violent clashes with ISIL in the same period. During the capture of Managh Air Base the Northern Storm Brigade had been in clashes with ISIL as recently as the month before the base was captured and put their differences to the side to co-operate for the final battle.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Locals near the Turkish border complained in November 2013 that, in contrast with al-Nusra Front, the groups aligned with FSA were becoming increasingly corrupt.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Also in 2013, U.S. senior military officials speaking on condition of anonymity indicated that the Pentagon estimates that "extreme Islamist groups" constitute "more than 50 percent" of rebel groups that identify as the Free Syrian Army with the percentage "growing by the day".


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The "International Business Times" considered the emergence of ISIL in 2014 as the beginning of the end for groups like FSA which the US had dubbed "moderate rebels".


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The SMC, the formal FSA command structure, slowly disintegrated within Aleppo Governorate from a lack of resources over the course of 2014. For example, according to data obtained by IBT, the Hazzm movement received a total of about $6 million from the U.S. government in 2014, which works out to just $500,000 a month for a force consisting of 5,000 soldiers.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In February 2014, Colonel Qassem Saadeddine of the FSA announced that Chief of Staff Idris had been replaced with Brigadier General Abdul-Ilah al-Bashir, due to "the paralysis within the military command these past months."


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In March 2014, Fahad Al Masri, then spokesman for the movement, announced in a statement published by news agencies his withdrawal from the joint command of the Free Syrian Army, due to the state of fragmentation, corruption and Islamization.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In March, FSA and Jordanian sources and video evidence suggested that the FSA received a Saudi shipment of anti-tank missiles through Jordan, and sold these to al-Nusra fighters for $15,000 each.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Abu Yusaf, a high-level commander of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), said in August 2014 that many of the FSA members who had been trained by United States' and Turkish and Arab military officers were now actually joining ISIL. "In the East of Syria, there is no Free Syrian Army any longer. All Free Syrian Army people [there] have joined the Islamic State" he said.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 25 September 2014, the Supreme Military Council united with the Syriac Military Council to fight against Assad and the newly declared Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In September/October 2014, according to the Kurdish oriented press agency ARA News and the US "International Business Times", FSA brigades in Northern Syria, especially the Kobanî area (Aleppo Governorate), united with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) under the Euphrates Volcano joint operations room, more specifically the Liwa Thuwar al-Raqqa (Revolutionaries of Raqqa Brigade), to oppose ISIL and the Assad government.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In October, Syria Revolutionaries Front (SRF) – an alliance of FSA brigades defying FSA's leadership SMC—was ousted from Idlib by al-Nusra. According to retired Jordanian general Fayez al-Dweiri in November 2014, apart from southern Syria and pockets around Aleppo, "the FSA has been effectively decimated and no longer effectively exists."


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer, having toured for ten days in ISIL-held territory in late 2014, told CNN that the ISIL leadership had said to him: if the FSA get a good weapon, they sell it to us; FSA are our best arms sellers.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: From October 2015 onwards, several groups that identify as part of the FSA in northern Syria joined the newly founded, and U.S.-supported, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia umbrella organization. In December 2015, according to the American Institute for the Study of War, groups that identify as FSA were still present around Aleppo and Hama and in southern Syria, and the FSA was still "the biggest and most secular of the rebel groups" fighting the Assad government, but had taken the brunt of the Russian air attacks in Syria since 30 September 2015. The same month, the Istanbul-based think tank Omran Dirasat estimated the FSA self-declared groups at around 35,000 fighters spread out over thousands of groups of various sizes; 27 larger factions of around 1,000 fighters each along with a myriad of smaller groups and localised militias.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The Turkish military intervention in the Syrian Civil War against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Syrian Democratic Forces, called Operation Euphrates Shield, starting 24 August 2016, was launched by sending groups identifying as FSA into Syria, backed by Turkish armor. The rebels that are active in the area allied with the Turkish army are often referred to as the Syrian National Army (SNA) by the media. Early in the morning of 24 August, Turkish forces directed intense artillery fire against ISIL positions in Jarabulus while the Turkish Air Force bombed 11 targets from the air. Later that day, Turkish main battle tanks followed by pick-up trucks, believed to be carrying Turkish-backed Syrian rebels, and the Turkish Special Forces crossed the border and were joined by hundreds of FSA fighters as the ground forces attacked the town. U.S.-led coalition planes helped the Turkish forces. The FSA said progress was slow because of mines planted by ISIL fighters.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: A few hours after the offensive's beginning, Turkish Special Forces and the Sham Legion captured their first village, Tal Katlijah, after ISIL fighters retreated from it to reinforce Jarabulus, according to Faylaq Al-Sham's official media wing. Some time later, the FSA captured four more villages including Tel Shair, Alwaniyah and two other villages. Hours later, Turkish- and US-backed rebels were reported to have captured the border town of Jarabulus, with ISIL offering little resistance. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) also reported that the FSA had captured almost all of the city. A FSA spokesman stated that a large number of ISIL fighters had withdrawn to al-Bab in front of the offensive.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Turkish-backed forces then began a major attack against the SDF positions, capturing Amarna and nearby Ain al-Bayda, according to the SOHR.<ref name="Cairo/Damasco/Estambul 2016"></ref>


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 3 September, Turkey additionally deployed tanks to the Syrian town of al-Rai to help the Turkish-backed rebels to push east from the town towards villages captured by the rebels west of Jarabulus. The incursion was launched from Kilis Province which had been frequently targeted with rocket attacks from ISIL. The Sham Legion and the Hamza Division also announced they had captured four villages (Fursan, Lilawa, Kino and Najma) south of Arab Ezza. The United States stated that it had hit ISIL targets near the Turkey-Syria border via the newly deployed HIMARS system. The Turkish armed forces meanwhile reported that the rebels had captured two villages and an airport near al-Rai. An official of the Fastaqim Kama Umirt also stated that the rebels had captured eight villages to the east and south of the town. SOHR confirmed that the Turkish-backed rebels had captured three villages near the Sajur river with advances in two other villages. It also confirmed that the rebels had captured a village near al-Rai. The U.S. Embassy in Ankara said US forces hit ISIL targets overnight near Turkey's border with Syria using HIMARS located in Turkey.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 4 September, Turkey declared that the Turkish-backed rebels had captured the last remaining ISIL held villages along the Turkish border, cutting off key supply lines used by the group to bring in foreign fighters, weapons and ammunition.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 5 September, nine more villages in northern Syria were cleared of ISIL by the Turkish-backed rebels as part of Operation Euphrates Shield, according to Turkish armed forces. On 7 September, around 300 Syrians started to return to Jarabulus in Syria, after Turkish-backed rebels recaptured the region from ISIL, marking the first formal return of civilians since Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: As of 14 September, a total of 1,900 Syrian refugees returned to the area cleansed by Turkish-backed forces, mainly to Jarabulus and Al Rai. On 17 September the Mountain Hawks Brigade announced that it had withdrawn from the Jarabulus and al-Rai fronts and its fighters and equipment will be transferred to the fronts in Aleppo city, Hama, and Latakia. (see also Northern al-Bab offensive (September 2016)) On 5 October, FSA primarily driven by the Sultan Murad Division, took control of four more villages from ISIL and, with the Turkish Special Forces, reportedly entered the small and strategic town of Akhtarin, easing the way for a planned attack on the iconic town of Dabiq. The town was captured by them on 6 October.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: After taking control of the supply route between Al-Bab and Dabiq by taking Akhtarin and its vicinity, on 9 October, Turkey and the affiliated rebels announced that the area between Mare, Akhtarin and Kafrghan, an area which contains two important IS-held locations, Sawran and Dabiq, a military zone. On the same day the offensive started from three different fronts towards Dabiq, from north, south and east of the city and seven villages were taken by FSA forces.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 10 October, Turkish forces and Turkish-backed rebels made significant advances and established control in all settlements on the way to the town of Sawran from its north and northwest, and started pushing into the town of Ihtamillat, the last settlement east of Sawran. One week later, following heavy clashes around the area, on 16 October, the FSA, headed by Sultan Murad Division, first took control of Sawran and continued towards Dabiq. Soon after Sawran, Dabiq was also taken and rebel forces went as south as Asunbul to secure the newly acquired area before proceeding to the next stage of the offensive targeting Qabasin and Bab.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 17 October, Turkish troops and SNA forces started their offensive headed towards al-Bab and captured 7 villages in the first day, namely; Guzhe, Baruze, al-Wash, Aq Burhan, Qar Kalbin, Talatayna and Shudud. On 18 October, the Northern Thunder Brigade issued an ultimatum to the "PKK" and the Army of Revolutionaries, warning them to leave Tell Rifaat within 48 hours after which they will attack the town. On 22 October, Turkish-backed rebels surrounded Shaykh Issa, just east of Tell Rifaat. Turkish artillery shelling and air strikes mainly focused on Tell Rifaat, Shaykh Issa and villages under SDF control in western al-Bab. Turkish tanks entered Syria also from the west, from Hatay region into Idlib region, to the southernmost point of the PYD-held Afrin canton and positioned on hills overlooking Tel Rifat and Afrin. By 25 October, it became evident that the SDF had repelled all assaults by Turkish-backed rebels on villages and positions under its control.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Mainstream Western news sources in September and October 2016 suggested that "the Free Syrian Army" still exist as considerable army or structure of militias by mentioning or suggesting a role of the FSA in two offensives around Aleppo. In the Syrian government's offensive late September 2016 on (eastern) Aleppo, according to "The New York Times", some of the defending rebel groups identified themselves as Free Syrian Army (FSA).


title: Free Syrian Army

text: During the October–November Aleppo offensive of rebel forces against the Syrian Assad government forces, the French "Le Figaro" wrote: "On 22 October 2016, violence again broke out in Aleppo between the regime forces and the rebels. (…) The insurgent groups, dominated by Al-Nusra Front ('Front for the Conquest'), have called for a general mobilization of the fighters of East-Aleppo. The moderates of the Free Syrian Army have advised the inhabitants of West-Aleppo to keep at distance from government buildings." The Dutch "NRC Handelsblad" wrote: "Syrian rebel groups have on 28 October started a large offensive to break the siege of East-Aleppo. The Free Syrian Army declared: "It will be a large battle, with all rebel groups taking part"." "The New York Times" wrote: "Syrian rebels counter-attacked the [Syrian] army on 28 October, aiming to break a siege on eastern Aleppo (…) The assault included Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and groups fighting under the Free Syrian Army banner."


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 14 November 2016, Reuters reported that earlier in November the "Zinki group and the allied jihadist Jabhat Fateh al-Sham tried to crush the Fastaqim faction, which is part of the FSA" in eastern Aleppo.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The year 2017 saw the FSA further divided. Rebel factions operating under the banner of the Syrian Interim Government have reorganized and merged in a unified armed group. Jawad Abu Hatab, the head of the opposition's Interim government and the Defense Minister, announced its official formation after meeting with moderate rebel commanders in the town of Azaz in Aleppo province. The newly formed body has 22,000 fighters, some of them have been trained and equipped by Turkey.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 23 February 2017, the important city of al-Bab was completely captured from ISIL by the SNA, along with the towns of Qabasin and Bizaah. As of 25 February 2017, 50,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey have returned to the areas which were taken from ISIL by the SNA.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Also, in the south of the country at the frontier with Jordan, FSA units (the largest being Southern Front) remained on frontlines with the Syrian government and ISIL in Daraa and Quneitra Governorates.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On the other hand, in September 2017, the founder of the FSA, Col. Riad al-Asaad, was appointed as deputy prime minister for military affairs of the Syrian Salvation Government (an alternative government of the Syrian Opposition seated within Idlib Governorate).


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 21 February, the Ba'athist government began an operation to capture rebel-held Ghouta east of Damascus; the operation started with an intensive air campaign. On 7 April 2018, a chemical attack was reported in the city of Douma, with 70 people killed and 500 injured. On-site medics stated the cause of those deaths was exposure to chlorine and sarin gas. Following the incident, Syrian Ba'athist government forces entered and established control over the city of Douma. On 6 July, as a result of the Southern Syria offensive, which had begun in June, the Syrian Army backed by Russian forces reached the border with Jordan and captured the Nasib Border Crossing.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 20 January, the SNA began a cross-border operation in the Kurdish-majority Afrin Canton and the Tel Rifaat Area of Shahba Canton in Northern Syria, against the Kurdish-led Democratic Union Party in Syria (PYD), its armed wing People's Protection Units (YPG), and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) positions. On 18 March, on the 58th day of the operation in Afrin, Operation Olive Branch, the SNA captured Afrin from the YPG. The battle was seen as an overall strategic victory, because it would open a ground corridor into nearby Idlib province.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 6 May, the Syrian Government, in coordination with the Russian Aerospace Forces, launched a ground offensive against rebel-held territories in Northwestern Syria, in response to what it stated were repeated attacks on government-held areas, carried out by those groups from within the demilitarized zone.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In October, the SNA launched an offensive code-named "Operation Peace Spring" against the Kurds and the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in northeastern Syria. The SNA captured a total area of between and , and, according to the SOHR, 68 settlements including Ras al-Ayn, Tell Abyad, Suluk, Mabrouka and Manajir and cut the M4 highway


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 1 March, the 2020 Daraa clashes began. Clashes began after the start of a government security operation against FSA insurgent cells in Al-Sanamayn and other areas in the Daraa governorate that have been active since 2018. This crackdown led to actions of retaliation by rebels across the province that led to levels of fighting unseen on such a scale since the government offensive in 2018. On 29 February 2020, the Syrian military mobilized units from the 4th armored division and 9th armored division in preparation for a security operation in the western areas of the town of Al-Sanamayn, where rebels were present. The next day, on 1 March, Sanamayn was besieged by the Syrian military which launched a security operation against insurgent cells in the city, leading to heavy fighting that left three civilians dead. In response to the military operation, rebel attacks were conducted in the western and eastern countryside of Daraa. The rebels attacked and seized an Army checkpoint in the Jaleen Housing district, a suburb in western Daraa city, capturing four officers. The FSA fighters also captured two soldiers of the fourth division in Al-Karak al-Sharqi and blocked routes west of Daraa. The Syrian Army attempted to storm the town of Tafas where three rebels were killed by tank fire.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The rebels also seized checkpoints in the towns of Karak and al-Joulan, taking hostage several members of Air Force Intelligence. In the town of Muzayrib, rebels seized all entrances and took control of a government building there. They also set up roadblocks in Nawa, Muzayrib and Karak. A soldier was killed in front of his home in Daraa al-Balad by unknown gunmen and the bodies of three soldiers were found in the western countryside.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: By the following day, seven rebels and seven civilians were killed in the clashes in Al-Sanamayn. The government forces withdrew from Jaleen back to their barracks after three soldiers were killed. Later that day, the Syrian Army and loyalists began shelling the town, killing eight civilians and injuring four others. The Syrian Army also shelled the town of Tasil.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Tensions escalated as violence erupted between government forces and a local Druze armed group named "Sheikh al-Karama" in the province of Suwayda. On 26 March, the group Sheikh al-Karama clashed with government forces at a checkpoint near the city of Salkhad in As-Suwayda governorate. One Syrian soldier and four local fighters were confirmed killed in the clashes. On 27 March, violent clashes took place after gunmen from Bosra al-Sham attempted to infiltrate the province and attacked the town of Al-Quraya. They were repelled by the Syrian Army and pro-government local factions. Four of the attackers and ten members of the local factions were killed in the clashes, and six fighters were captured.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Syrian mercenaries associated with the FSA were reported by various sources fighting alongside Azerbaijan in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war against Armenia prompting concerns from notable adversaries of the FSA, Russia and Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan have denied using Syrian mercenaries, and in turn accused Armenia of using members from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA). The PKK denied the allegations.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 541 Syrian Rebels were killed during the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In 2021, there were heavy clashes between FSA and Syrian government forces throughout the Daraa Governorate, particularly in the Daraa al-Balad neighborhood, which was besieged by government troops. The clashes were the fiercest Daraa had witnessed since the Syrian Army 2018 offensive. The persistent siege of government led to extortionate prices on goods and limited availability of drinking water.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The Syrian Army started to fire artillery shells towards FSA cells in Daraa city on 29 July 2021. Syrian Army sources described the attack as “start of a military operation against hideouts of terrorists who thwarted a reconciliation deal.” In contrast, pro-opposition figures accused the government of failure to adhere to the agreement including promises to stay out of al-Balad district.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The government's operation led to actions of retaliation by rebels across the province. The fighters involved in the attack are former rebel fighters that surrendered to the government in 2018, as well as former rebels that defected to the government, and had been working against the government from within. Anti-government fighters seized several checkpoints and captured many surprised Syrian Army soldiers and Military Intelligence Directorate agents. While the Syrian Army's 4th Division was leading the anti-rebel operations, the overrun checkpoints mostly belonged to the 5th Division, 9th Division, and Air Force Intelligence Directorate. Overall, 18 positions in the countryside east and west of Daraa were captured by armed locals.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Both sides agreed to a ceasefire for 30–31 July after negotiations organized by the Russians and military officer Ahmad al-Awda. On 31 July, the situation remained tense, but most areas adhered to the ceasefire. There were sporadic instances of government forces firing at residential areas in Daraa al-Balad, Jasim, Muzayrib, and near Tafas, while an armed group consisting of ex-insurgents organized a curfew in al-Shajara. On August 5, after several days of tense calm, rebels targeted a Syrian army vehicle on the road between Nahtah and Basr al-Harir in eastern Daraa countryside, leaving a soldier dead and 6 others wounded. There was also reported rocket fire by the Syrian army, targeting the town of Nahtah. On August 14, hours before talks were set to take place between the Central Committee and Russian delegations, the Syrian Army bombarded Daraa al-Balad, killing one civilian. On August 16, a member of the Syrian Army's 4th Division was shot dead by unknown gunmen in Maskin city in the north-western countryside of Daraa. A civilian was also killed by gunmen in al-Sanamayn city, after being accused of “dealing with the military security service and snitching on oppositionists”.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On August 19, an IED targeted a Syrian army convoy of the 112th Brigade on the al-Shabrouq road between the two towns of Nafaa and Ain Zakr in west of Daraa countryside, killing 6 Syrian soldiers and militiamen, including a Brigadier. On August 20, Syrian artillery shelling in Daraa al-Balad killed Mohamed Hilal Zatima, a reconciled commander of the Free Syrian Army. On August 26, one Syrian soldier was killed and 4 others were wounded after an IED exploded targeting a Syrian army vehicle on the road between Nawa and Sheikh Maskeen. This follows Syrian army bombardments on Tafas city, resulting in the death of 2 civilians and the injury of several others. On August 27, 6 members of the reconciled 5th Corps, including a commander, were killed in a Syrian army ambush at al-Ruba’i checkpoint between al-Msifrah and al-Jizah. Fierce fighting between FSA and the Syrian army took place on the frontline of al-Kaziyah in al-Mansheya area in Daraa al-Balad shortly after.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Between August 29 and August 30, 7 Syrian soldiers were killed in clashes with FSA along with 12 others wounded throughout Daraa province. These events come prior to Syrian army shelling on the besieged Daraa al-Balad, that left civilian casualties.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Protests were held in support of the rebels in Daraa in the opposition-held cities of Idlib and al-Bab. On August 3, the main road connecting Arbin, Mesraba and Madira, in the Ghouta region of Rif Dimashq was cut by rebel supporters for a day before the army was deployed to the region.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: During the announcement of the formation of the FSA by Riad al-Asaad on 29 July 2011, he listed 4 small subunits which claimed to the founding members of the FSA:


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The Obama administration of the United States admitted to militarily supporting some, so-called "moderate", groups fighting under the banner of the FSA. FSA is said to have received substantial weapons, financing and other support from the Obama administration of the United States, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states. Hamas was also reported to have trained some elements of the FSA but its rival the Palestinian Authority maintained good relations with the Syrian President throughout the Syrian Civil War.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Israel's stance on the Free Syrian Army changed throughout the Syrian civil war as the FSA had elements who claimed they supported the Palestinians and rejected normalizing relations with Israel. In 2012, Free Syrian Army accused Israel of helping and aiding the Syrian government. But in 2019, a former IDF Chief alleged that Israel funded a Syrian rebel faction called Fursan al- Joulan which claimed to be loosely affiliated with the Free Syrian Army. This is despite the fact that Israel stated in 2015 that it had become neutral in ousting Bashar Al Assad from power


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Norway has also supported the Free Syrian Army with anti-terror co-operation, military training and more. Norwegian forces did also fight off an extensive attack from ISIS, on the Tanf-base, near the Jordanian and Iraqi border. Support for the FSA in the United States ceased under the Trump administration beginning in 2017.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In February 2012 Britain pledged to send advanced communications equipment to the FSA to help them coordinate their forces. On 1 March 2012, Kuwait's parliament declared support for the FSA. By mid-May, it was reported that, according to opposition activists and foreign officials, the FSA had started to receive significant financial support from the Persian Gulf nations for the purchase of arms.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In April 2012, the Lebanese Navy intercepted a Sierra Leone-registered vessel carrying a large number of arms and ammunition believed to be destined for the Free Syrian Army. Some of the arms were labeled as Libyan.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In July 2012 the Syrian Support Group based in Washington DC received clearance from the U.S. Treasury Department to fund the Free Syrian Army. As of August 2012, US President Obama started funding 'Syrian rebels' – presumably FSA—with money, weapons and goods.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In December 2012, security officials from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Gulf Cooperation Council and Jordan were present at an FSA meeting that elected a new leadership council.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: By December 2012 the international diplomatic collective 'Friends of Syria Group' had pledged non-military aid to unspecified militant rebels.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Since December 2012, Saudi Arabia has supplied groups identifying with the FSA, in addition to other rebel groups, with weapons from Croatia.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In April 2013, the US promised to funnel $123 million nonlethal aid to Syrian rebels through the Supreme Military Council, a then coordination body of FSA groups.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In June 2013, rebels reported to have received 250 9M113 Konkurs anti-tank missiles with a range of 4 kilometers and accuracy of 90%.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In April 2014, according to Charles Lister at the U.S. Brookings Institution, 40 different rebel groups first began receiving U.S.-made BGM-71 TOW missiles costing $50,000 each, through the CIA. FSA-identified and other rebel groups posted videos of TOW missile launches online. In December 2014, the Institute for the Study of War reported that the U.S.-led Military Operations Command was leading training and assist missions for FSA groups in Daraa, at the Jordanian border.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: "The Washington Post" stated in late 2014 that the US and European friends had "in recent years" given training, financial and military support to Syrian "rebel groups", more or less suggesting that FSA was among them. Also an ISIL commander then stated that FSA rebels who in 2014 ran over to ISIL had received training from United States', Turkish and Arab military officers at an NATO base in southern Turkey.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The Dutch government stated in December 2014 that the 59 countries strong US-led coalition that had convened in Brussels that month was militarily supporting "the moderate Syrian opposition".


title: Free Syrian Army

text: After being pressed by their Parliament to be more precise, they admitted that 'moderate Syrian opposition' meant: some, but not all, groups that are part of the Free Syrian Army – but squarely refused to name the FSA groups that were being supported.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Since 2014, dozens of rebel groups that identified as part of the FSA in southern, central, and northern Syria have been provided with BGM-71 TOW missiles. In February 2015, The Carter Center listed 23 groups within the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army that have been documented using US-supplied TOWs. Groups provided with TOWs in northern and central Syria include the Hazzm Movement, the 13th Division, Syria Revolutionaries Front, Yarmouk Army, Knights of Justice Brigade, and the 101st Division.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In 2015, the "International Business Times" wrote the U.S. has sent weapons shipments to FSA-identified groups through a U.S. CIA program for years. In October 2015 Reuters reported that the U.S. (CIA) and allied countries had broadened the number of rebel groups clandestinely receiving TOW missiles. The "International Business Times" reported that TOW missile attacks against Syrian government tanks increased by 850% between September and October 2015. Rebel groups associated with the FSA in November 2015 released numerous videos showing them launching TOW missiles against Syrian government forces. According to Russian and Syrian sources, the missiles were delivered through Turkish territory.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In October 2015 Reuters reported that the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Qatar had broadened the number of rebel groups clandestinely receiving TOW missiles. Also the BBC reported in October 2015 that a Saudi official confirmed the delivery of 500 TOW missiles to FSA fighters.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The U.S. supplied a considerable amount of weapons and ammunition, generally of Soviet-type from Eastern Europe, to Syrian rebel groups under operation Timber Sycamore. For example, "Jane's Defence Weekly" reported a December 2015 shipment of 994 tonnes of weapons and ammunition (including packaging and container weight) to Syrian rebel groups. A detailed list of weapon types and shipment weights had been obtained from the U.S. government's Federal Business Opportunities website.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The Libyan National Transitional Council in November 2011 reportedly dispatched 600 fighters or more of the Libyan National Liberation Army to the Free Syrian Army, entering Syria through Turkey.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The number of foreign militants active within the FSA is hard to assess. In late May 2012, based on interviews with FSA fighters, it was reported that 300 Lebanese had joined the FSA. The presence of Algerians, Tunisians, Jordanians and fighters from Saudi Arabia was also confirmed. A leader of the FSA told an AFP correspondent that five Libyan combatants have been killed in clashes with the Syrian Army. The same leader, while denying the presence of many foreign fighters, said that there are few of different nationalities. Peter Harling, from the International Crisis Group, told the AFP that the proportion of foreign fighters is currently very small, but might grow after Saudi Arabia and Qatar announced their support for arming the rebels.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Croatian General Marinko Krešić confirmed that there are between 80 and 100 Croat mercenaries between the ages of 40 and 60 helping the Free Syrian Army. They are veterans from the Croatian War of Independence (1991–95) or Bosnian War (1992–95), but also fought as mercenaries in Iraq War (2003–11), Libyan Civil War, Tunisian revolution and Egyptian revolution. Krešić stated that some are serving as security, instructors while others are killing. He also stated that they are very well trained and that "they are the one who will probably kill rather than be killed". Krešić stated that their payment is up to 2,000 US$ a day due to "rich foreign donators". He also added that the majority of the volunteers coming from the Balkans to help the FSA are Croats and citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sources close to the Belgrade military circles confirmed that the former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army are also aiding the FSA. They are mostly instructors who train the rebels mostly for the urban and the guerrilla warfare. A first reported death of a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army was announced on 13 November. Naman Demoli, a former member of the KLA was killed near Syrian-Turkish border. According to Al Monitor, there exist also Turkmen Brigades within the FSA.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Dozens of Kuwaiti volunteers entering from Turkey fought in the ranks of the FSA. The volunteers were given Syrian IDs as a precautionary measure in case of arrest, before being armed and sent to fight in various locations in Syria.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In 2013, the U.S. broadcast network NBC News stated that the FSA "is an army in name only. It is made up of hundreds of small units, some secular, some religious – whether mainstream or radical. Others are family gangs, or simply criminals."


title: Free Syrian Army

text: Over the years, many journalists from "The Independent" have dismissed the FSA. For example, in November 2014, Robert Fisk drew a picture of the FSA as being rather harmless and non-combating. Also, in October 2015, he stated that the FSA had fallen to pieces and their fighters had defected to al-Nusra Front or ISIL or retired to the countryside maintaining a few scattered checkpoints, and stated that the US government had already admitted the disappearance of the FSA. In the same month, his colleague Patrick Cockburn stated that "The Free Syrian Army was always a mosaic of factions and is now largely ineffectual."


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In March 2015, Rami Jarrah, a prominent Syrian-British activist, claimed: "There is no such thing as the Free Syrian Army, people still use the term in Syria to make it seem like the rebels have some sort of structure. But there really isn't."


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In May 2015, an al-Nusra Front spokesman said that fighters identifying as FSA in southern Syria alone numbered roughly 60,000,


title: Free Syrian Army

text: although another Nusra leader in December 2015 denied the existence of the FSA to the astonishment and intense displeasure of FSA fighters throughout Syria on social media.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In June 2015, the "International Business Times" stated that since the emergence of ISIL on the Syrian battlefield in 2014, the FSA had "all but dissipated", and reported that the remnants of the FSA had joined the coalitions of the Army of Conquest (Islamist) and the Southern Front (ranging from secularist to moderate religious) in their assault on Dera'a, south of Damascus.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In September 2015 a rebel colonel told CBS News that only a small proportion of US-approved fighters under a $500 million US aid program were receiving training, weapons, and ammunition, and much of this material was being taken over by the al-Nusra Front.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: According to Western sources including the BBC and Reuters, on 30 September 2015, as part of its military intervention in Syria, Russia started air strikes on groups identified as part of the FSA such as the Mountain Hawks Brigade and the Army of Glory confirmed being hit by missiles from Russia airstrikes on the same day. Early October 2015, Russian state media reported foreign minister Sergey Lavrov stating: "They tell us about the Free Syrian Army, but where is it? It remains a phantom group, nothing is known about it (...) I've asked [US Secretary of State] John Kerry to provide us with information about the whereabouts of this Free Syrian Army and who commands it".


title: Free Syrian Army

text: On 20 March 2012, Human Rights Watch issued an open letter to the opposition (including the FSA), calling on them to stop carrying out unlawful kidnappings, torture and executions. The United Nations-sponsored "Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic" has documented war crimes in Syria since the start of the civil war. It said that rebels had committed war crimes, but that they "did not reach the gravity, frequency and scale" of those by state forces.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In 2012, the FSA was accused of summarily executing numerous prisoners who it claims are government soldiers or shabiha, and people who it claims are informers. A rebel commander in Damascus said that over the months his unit had executed perhaps 150 people that the "military council" had found to be informers. He explained: "If a man is accused of being an informer, he is judged by the military council. Then he is either executed or released". Nadim Houry, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch argued that "Intentionally killing anyone, even a shabiha, once he is outside of combat is a war crime, regardless of how horrible the person may have been". On 10 August 2012, a report indicated that Human Rights Watch was investigating rebel forces for such killings. The FSA, for its part, stated that they would put those fighters that had conducted the unlawful killings on trial.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In 2012, witnesses also reported rebels conducting 'trial by grave' in which an alleged government soldier was given a mock trial next to a pre-made grave and executed on the spot by members of the FSA Amr bin al-Aas brigade. One rebel said: "We took him right to his grave and, after hearing the witnesses' statements, we shot him dead".


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The Daoud Battalion, operating in the Jabal-al-Zawiya area, reportedly used captured soldiers in proxy bombings in 2012. This involved tying the captured soldier into a car loaded with explosives and forcing him to drive to an army checkpoint, where the explosives would be remotely detonated.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In 2012, the UN noted some credible allegations that rebel forces, including the FSA, were recruiting children as soldiers. One rebel commander said that his 16-year-old son had died fighting government troops.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In a video uploaded to the Internet in early August 2012, an FSA representative announced that, in response to international concerns, FSA units would follow the Geneva Convention's guidelines for the treatment of prisoners and would guarantee its captives food, medical attention and holding areas away from combat zones. He also invited Red Cross workers to inspect their detention facilities. On 8 August, after videoes showed FSA rebels conducting summary executions, FSA commanders distributed an 11-point code of conduct paper that states that all fighters must respect human rights.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: The FSA was mentioned in a 2014 Human Rights Watch report detailing the widespread practise of using child soldiers by non-state armed groups; the report interviewed children as young as 14 who fought with the FSA.


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In 2014, the United Nations verified that the Free Syrian army had recruited more than 142 child soldiers. The UN reported stated "fragmentation of FSA resulted in localized and variable recruitment, training and salary practices. During armed battles, children were used for fighting, attending to the wounded or for recording events for propaganda purposes."


title: Free Syrian Army

text: In 2016, the United Nations verified another 62 cases where Free Syrian Army had recruited and used child soldiers.


title: Switch

text: In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of switch is an electromechanical device consisting of one or more sets of movable electrical contacts connected to external circuits. When a pair of contacts is touching current can pass between them, while when the contacts are separated no current can flow.


title: Switch

text: Switches are made in many different configurations; they may have multiple sets of contacts controlled by the same knob or actuator, and the contacts may operate simultaneously, sequentially, or alternately. A switch may be operated manually, for example, a light switch or a keyboard button, or may function as a sensing element to sense the position of a machine part, liquid level, pressure, or temperature, such as a thermostat. Many specialized forms exist, such as the toggle switch, rotary switch, mercury switch, push-button switch, reversing switch, relay, and circuit breaker. A common use is control of lighting, where multiple switches may be wired into one circuit to allow convenient control of light fixtures. Switches in high-powered circuits must have special construction to prevent destructive arcing when they are opened.


title: Switch

text: The most familiar form of switch is a manually operated electromechanical device with one or more sets of electrical contacts, which are connected to external circuits. Each set of contacts can be in one of two states: either "closed" meaning the contacts are touching and electricity can flow between them, or "open", meaning the contacts are separated and the switch is nonconducting. The mechanism actuating the transition between these two states (open or closed) is usually (there are other types of actions) either an ""alternate action"" (flip the switch for continuous "on" or "off") or ""momentary"" (push for "on" and release for "off") type.


title: Switch

text: A switch may be directly manipulated by a human as a control signal to a system, such as a computer keyboard button, or to control power flow in a circuit, such as a light switch. Automatically operated switches can be used to control the motions of machines, for example, to indicate that a garage door has reached its full open position or that a machine tool is in a position to accept another workpiece. Switches may be operated by process variables such as pressure, temperature, flow, current, voltage, and force, acting as sensors in a process and used to automatically control a system. For example, a thermostat is a temperature-operated switch used to control a heating process. A switch that is operated by another electrical circuit is called a relay. Large switches may be remotely operated by a motor drive mechanism. Some switches are used to isolate electric power from a system, providing a visible point of isolation that can be padlocked if necessary to prevent accidental operation of a machine during maintenance, or to prevent electric shock.


title: Switch

text: An ideal switch would have no voltage drop when closed, and would have no limits on voltage or current rating. It would have zero rise time and fall time during state changes, and would change state without "bouncing" between on and off positions.


title: Switch

text: Practical switches fall short of this ideal; as the result of roughness and oxide films, they exhibit contact resistance, limits on the current and voltage they can handle, finite switching time, etc. The ideal switch is often used in circuit analysis as it greatly simplifies the system of equations to be solved, but this can lead to a less accurate solution. Theoretical treatment of the effects of non-ideal properties is required in the design of large networks of switches, as for example used in telephone exchanges.


title: Switch

text: In the simplest case, a switch has two conductive pieces, often metal, called "contacts", connected to an external circuit, that touch to complete (make) the circuit, and separate to open (break) the circuit. The contact material is chosen for its resistance to corrosion, because most metals form insulating oxides that would prevent the switch from working. Contact materials are also chosen on the basis of electrical conductivity, hardness (resistance to abrasive wear), mechanical strength, low cost and low toxicity. The formation of oxide layers at contact surface, as well as surface roughness and contact pressure, determine the contact resistance, and wetting current of a mechanical switch. Sometimes the contacts are plated with noble metals, for their excellent conductivity and resistance to corrosion. They may be designed to wipe against each other to clean off any contamination. Nonmetallic conductors, such as conductive plastic, are sometimes used. To prevent the formation of insulating oxides, a minimum wetting current may be specified for a given switch design.


title: Switch

text: In electronics, switches are classified according to the arrangement of their contacts. A pair of contacts is said to be ""closed"" when current can flow from one to the other. When the contacts are separated by an insulating air gap, they are said to be ""open"", and no current can flow between them at normal voltages. The terms ""make"" for closure of contacts and ""break"" for opening of contacts are also widely used.


title: Switch

text: The terms pole and throw are also used to describe switch contact variations. The number of ""poles"" is the number of electrically separate switches which are controlled by a single physical actuator. For example, a ""2-pole"" switch has two separate, parallel sets of contacts that open and close in unison via the same mechanism. The number of ""throws"" is the number of separate wiring path choices other than "open" that the switch can adopt for each pole. A single-throw switch has one pair of contacts that can either be closed or open. A double-throw switch has a contact that can be connected to either of two other contacts, a triple-throw has a contact which can be connected to one of three other contacts, etc.


title: Switch

text: In a switch where the contacts remain in one state unless actuated, such as a push-button switch, the contacts can either be normally open (abbreviated "n.o." or "no") until closed by operation of the switch, or normally closed ("n.c." or "nc") and opened by the switch action. A switch with both types of contact is called a "changeover switch" or "double-throw switch". These may be "make-before-break" ("MBB" or shorting) which momentarily connects both circuits, or may be "break-before-make" ("BBM" or non-shorting) which interrupts one circuit before closing the other.


title: Switch

text: These terms have given rise to abbreviations for the types of switch which are used in the electronics industry such as ""single-pole, single-throw"" (SPST) (the simplest type, "on or off") or ""single-pole, double-throw"" (SPDT), connecting either of two terminals to the common terminal. In electrical power wiring (i.e., house and building wiring by electricians), names generally involve the suffix ""-way""; however, these terms differ between British English and American English (i.e., the terms "two way" and "three way" are used with different meanings).


title: Switch

text: Switches with larger numbers of poles or throws can be described by replacing the "S" or "D" with a number (e.g. 3PST, SP4T, etc.) or in some cases the letter "T" (for "triple") or "Q" (for "quadruple"). In the rest of this article the terms "SPST", "SPDT" and "intermediate" will be used to avoid the ambiguity.


title: Switch

text: Contact bounce (also called "chatter") is a common problem with mechanical switches and relays, which arises as the result of electrical contact resistance (ECR) phenomena at interfaces. Switch and relay contacts are usually made of springy metals. When the contacts strike together, their momentum and elasticity act together to cause them to bounce apart one or more times before making steady contact. The result is a rapidly pulsed electric current instead of a clean transition from zero to full current. The effect is usually unimportant in power circuits, but causes problems in some analogue and logic circuits that respond fast enough to misinterpret the on‑off pulses as a data stream. In the design of micro-contacts, controlling surface structure (surface roughness) and minimizing the formation of passivated layers on metallic surfaces are instrumental in inhibiting chatter.


title: Switch

text: In the Hammond organ, multiple wires are pressed together under the piano keys of the manuals. Their bouncing and non-synchronous closing of the switches is known as "Hammond Click" and compositions exist that use and emphasize this feature. Some electronic organs have a switchable replica of this sound effect.


title: Switch

text: When the power being switched is sufficiently large, the electron flow across opening switch contacts is sufficient to ionize the air molecules across the tiny gap between the contacts as the switch is opened, forming a gas plasma, also known as an electric arc. The plasma is of low resistance and is able to sustain power flow, even with the separation distance between the switch contacts steadily increasing. The plasma is also very hot and is capable of eroding the metal surfaces of the switch contacts (the same true for vacuum switches). Electric current arcing causes significant degradation of the contacts and also significant electromagnetic interference (EMI), requiring the use of arc suppression methods.


title: Switch

text: Where the voltage is sufficiently high, an arc can also form as the switch is closed and the contacts approach. If the voltage potential is sufficient to exceed the breakdown voltage of the air separating the contacts, an arc forms which is sustained until the switch closes completely and the switch surfaces make contact.


title: Switch

text: In either case, the standard method for minimizing arc formation and preventing contact damage is to use a fast-moving switch mechanism, typically using a spring-operated tipping-point mechanism to assure quick motion of switch contacts, regardless of the speed at which the switch control is operated by the user. Movement of the switch control lever applies tension to a spring until a tipping point is reached, and the contacts suddenly snap open or closed as the spring tension is released.


title: Switch

text: As the power being switched increases, other methods are used to minimize or prevent arc formation. A plasma is hot and will rise due to convection air currents. The arc can be quenched with a series of non-conductive blades spanning the distance between switch contacts, and as the arc rises, its length increases as it forms ridges rising into the spaces between the blades, until the arc is too long to stay sustained and is extinguished. A "puffer" may be used to blow a sudden high velocity burst of gas across the switch contacts, which rapidly extends the length of the arc to extinguish it quickly.


title: Switch

text: Extremely large switches often have switch contacts surrounded by something other than air to more rapidly extinguish the arc. For example, the switch contacts may operate in a vacuum, immersed in mineral oil, or in sulfur hexafluoride.


title: Switch

text: In AC power service, the current periodically passes through zero; this effect makes it harder to sustain an arc on opening. Manufacturers may rate switches with lower voltage or current rating when used in DC circuits.


title: Switch

text: When a switch is designed to switch significant power, the transitional state of the switch as well as the ability to withstand continuous operating currents must be considered. When a switch is in the on state, its resistance is near zero and very little power is dropped in the contacts; when a switch is in the off state, its resistance is extremely high and even less power is dropped in the contacts. However, when the switch is flicked, the resistance must pass through a state where a quarter of the load's rated power (or worse if the load is not purely resistive) is briefly dropped in the switch.


title: Switch

text: For this reason, power switches intended to interrupt a load current have spring mechanisms to make sure the transition between on and off is as short as possible regardless of the speed at which the user moves the rocker.


title: Switch

text: Power switches usually come in two types. A momentary on‑off switch (such as on a laser pointer) usually takes the form of a button and only closes the circuit when the button is depressed. A regular on‑off switch (such as on a flashlight) has a constant on-off feature. Dual-action switches incorporate both of these features.


title: Switch

text: When a strongly inductive load such as an electric motor is switched off, the current cannot drop instantaneously to zero; a spark will jump across the opening contacts. Switches for inductive loads must be rated to handle these cases. The spark will cause electromagnetic interference if not suppressed; a snubber network of a resistor and capacitor in series will quell the spark.


title: Switch

text: When turned on, an incandescent lamp draws a large inrush current of about ten times the steady-state current; as the filament heats up, its resistance rises and the current decreases to a steady-state value. A switch designed for an incandescent lamp load can withstand this inrush current.


title: Switch

text: "Wetting current" is the minimum current needing to flow through a mechanical switch while it is operated to break through any film of oxidation that may have been deposited on the switch contacts. The film of oxidation occurs often in areas with high humidity. Providing a sufficient amount of wetting current is a crucial step in designing systems that use delicate switches with small contact pressure as sensor inputs. Failing to do this might result in switches remaining electrically "open" due to contact oxidation.


title: Switch

text: The moving part that applies the operating force to the contacts is called the "actuator", and may be a toggle or "dolly", a rocker, a push-button or any type of mechanical linkage "(see photo)."


title: Switch

text: A switch normally maintains its set position once operated. A biased switch contains a mechanism that springs it into another position when released by an operator. The momentary push-button switch is a type of biased switch. The most common type is a "push-to-make" (or normally-open or NO) switch, which makes contact when the button is pressed and breaks when the button is released. Each key of a computer keyboard, for example, is a normally-open "push-to-make" switch. A "push-to-break" (or normally-closed or NC) switch, on the other hand, breaks contact when the button is pressed and makes contact when it is released. An example of a push-to-break switch is a button used to release a door held closed by an electromagnet. The interior lamp of a household refrigerator is controlled by a switch that is held open when the door is closed.


title: Switch

text: A rotary switch operates with a twisting motion of the operating handle with at least two positions. One or more positions of the switch may be momentary (biased with a spring), requiring the operator to hold the switch in the position. Other positions may have a detent to hold the position when released. A rotary switch may have multiple levels or "decks" in order to allow it to control multiple circuits.


title: Switch

text: One form of rotary switch consists of a spindle or "rotor" that has a contact arm or "spoke" which projects from its surface like a cam. It has an array of terminals, arranged in a circle around the rotor, each of which serves as a contact for the "spoke" through which any one of a number of different electrical circuits can be connected to the rotor. The switch is layered to allow the use of multiple poles, each layer is equivalent to one pole. Usually such a switch has a detent mechanism so it "clicks" from one active position to another rather than stalls in an intermediate position. Thus a rotary switch provides greater pole and throw capabilities than simpler switches do.


title: Switch

text: Rotary switches were used as channel selectors on television receivers until the early 1970s, as range selectors on electrical metering equipment, as band selectors on multi-band radios and other similar purposes. In industry, rotary switches are used for control of measuring instruments, switchgear, or in control circuits. For example, a radio controlled overhead crane may have a large multi-circuit rotary switch to transfer hard-wired control signals from the local manual controls in the cab to the outputs of the remote control receiver.


title: Switch

text: A toggle switch or tumbler switch is a class of electrical switches that are manually actuated by a mechanical lever, handle, or rocking mechanism.


title: Switch

text: Toggle switches are available in many different styles and sizes, and are used in numerous applications. Many are designed to provide the simultaneous actuation of multiple sets of electrical contacts, or the control of large amounts of electric current or mains voltages.


title: Switch

text: The word "toggle" is a reference to a kind of mechanism or joint consisting of two arms, which are almost in line with each other, connected with an elbow-like pivot. However, the phrase "toggle switch" is applied to a switch with a short handle and a positive snap-action, whether it actually contains a toggle mechanism or not. Similarly, a switch where a definitive click is heard, is called a "positive on-off switch". A very common use of this type of switch is to switch lights or other electrical equipment on or off. Multiple toggle switches may be mechanically interlocked to prevent forbidden combinations.


title: Switch

text: In some contexts, particularly computing, a toggle switch, or the action of toggling, is understood in the different sense of a mechanical or software switch that alternates between two states each time it is activated, regardless of mechanical construction. For example, the caps lock key on a computer causes all letters to be generated in capitals after it is pressed once; pressing it again reverts to lower-case letters.


title: Switch

text: Switches can be designed to respond to any type of mechanical stimulus: for example, vibration (the trembler switch), tilt, air pressure, fluid level (a float switch), the turning of a key (key switch), linear or rotary movement (a limit switch or microswitch), or presence of a magnetic field (the reed switch). Many switches are operated automatically by changes in some environmental condition or by motion of machinery. A limit switch is used, for example, in machine tools to interlock operation with the proper position of tools. In heating or cooling systems a sail switch ensures that air flow is adequate in a duct. Pressure switches respond to fluid pressure.


title: Switch

text: The mercury switch consists of a drop of mercury inside a glass bulb with two or more contacts. The two contacts pass through the glass, and are connected by the mercury when the bulb is tilted to make the mercury roll on to them.


title: Switch

text: This type of switch performs much better than the ball tilt switch, as the liquid metal connection is unaffected by dirt, debris and oxidation, it wets the contacts ensuring a very low resistance bounce-free connection, and movement and vibration do not produce a poor contact. These types can be used for precision works.


title: Switch

text: It can also be used where arcing is dangerous (such as in the presence of explosive vapour) as the entire unit is sealed.


title: Switch

text: Knife switches consist of a flat metal blade, hinged at one end, with an insulating handle for operation, and a fixed contact. When the switch is closed, current flows through the hinged pivot and blade and through the fixed contact. Such switches are usually not enclosed. The knife and contacts are typically formed of copper, steel, or brass, depending on the application. Fixed contacts may be backed up with a spring. Several parallel blades can be operated at the same time by one handle. The parts may be mounted on an insulating base with terminals for wiring, or may be directly bolted to an insulated switch board in a large assembly. Since the electrical contacts are exposed, the switch is used only where people cannot accidentally come in contact with the switch or where the voltage is so low as to not present a hazard.


title: Switch

text: Knife switches are made in many sizes from miniature switches to large devices used to carry thousands of amperes. In electrical transmission and distribution, gang-operated switches are used in circuits up to the highest voltages.


title: Switch

text: The disadvantages of the knife switch are the slow opening speed and the proximity of the operator to exposed live parts. Metal-enclosed safety disconnect switches are used for isolation of circuits in industrial power distribution. Sometimes spring-loaded auxiliary blades are fitted which momentarily carry the full current during opening, then quickly part to rapidly extinguish the arc.


title: Switch

text: A footswitch is a rugged switch which is operated by foot pressure. An example of use is in the control of a machine tool, allowing the operator to have both hands free to manipulate the workpiece. The foot controls of an electric guitarist's effects pedals and amp are also footswitches.


title: Switch

text: A DPDT switch has six connections, but since polarity reversal is a very common usage of DPDT switches, some variations of the DPDT switch are internally wired specifically for polarity reversal. These crossover switches only have four terminals rather than six. Two of the terminals are inputs and two are outputs. When connected to a battery or other DC source, the 4-way switch selects from either normal or reversed polarity. Such switches can also be used as intermediate switches in a multiway switching system for control of lamps by more than two switches.


title: Switch

text: In building wiring, light switches are installed at convenient locations to control lighting and occasionally other circuits. By use of multiple-pole switches, multiway switching control of a lamp can be obtained from two or more places, such as the ends of a corridor or stairwell. A wireless light switch allows remote control of lamps for convenience; some lamps include a touch switch which electronically controls the lamp if touched anywhere. In public buildings several types of vandal resistant switches are used to prevent unauthorized use.


title: Switch

text: Slide switches are mechanical switches using a slider that moves (slides) from the open (off) position to the closed (on) position.


title: Switch

text: A relay is an electrically operated switch. Many relays use an electromagnet to operate a switching mechanism mechanically, but other operating principles are also used. Solid-state relays control power circuits with no moving parts, instead using a semiconductor device to perform switching—often a silicon-controlled rectifier or triac.


title: Switch

text: The analogue switch uses two MOSFET transistors in a transmission gate arrangement as a switch that works much like a relay, with some advantages and several limitations compared to an electromechanical relay.


title: Switch

text: The power transistor(s) in a switching voltage regulator, such as a power supply unit, are used like a switch to alternately let power flow and block power from flowing.


title: Switch

text: Many people use metonymy to call a variety of devices "switches" that conceptually connect or disconnect signals and communication paths between electrical devices, analogous to the way mechanical switches connect and disconnect paths for electrons to flow between two conductors. Early telephone systems used an automatically operated Strowger switch to connect telephone callers; telephone exchanges contain one or more crossbar switches today.


title: Switch

text: Since the advent of digital logic in the 1950s, the term "switch" has spread to a variety of digital active devices such as transistors and logic gates whose function is to change their output state between two logic levels or connect different signal lines, and even computers, network switches, whose function is to provide connections between different ports in a computer network. The most widely used electronic switch in digital circuits is the metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET).


title: Switch

text: The term 'switched' is also applied to telecommunications networks, and signifies a network that is circuit switched, providing dedicated circuits for communication between end nodes, such as the public switched telephone network. The common feature of all these usages is they refer to devices that control a binary state: they are either "on" or "off", "closed" or "open", "connected" or "not connected".


title: Charli Baltimore

text: Tiffany Lane (born August 16, 1974), better known as Charli Baltimore, is an American rapper and reality television personality. Her stage name is taken from Geena Davis's character in the film "The Long Kiss Goodnight".


title: Charli Baltimore

text: Charli Baltimore began her musical career when she met The Notorious B.I.G. in the summer of 1995, and they became involved in a romantic relationship. Several months into their relationship, she left him a voicemail of a rap verse that she had written and he began encouraging her to pursue a career in rap music.


title: Charli Baltimore

text: Following the death of B.I.G., Charli continued her career in the industry, booking several modeling jobs and creating a number of hip-hop and R&B songs including "Money", with Gamble and Huff, and "Stand Up", which rose to the top ten of Billboard Magazine's Hot Rap Singles Chart.


title: Charli Baltimore

text: Despite her moderate success on the charts, Baltimore's first studio album "Cold as Ice" was never released. She continued to be in the rap industry, and joined Irv Gotti's label Murder Inc in 2002. During this time, Baltimore made appearances on songs, such as "Down 4 U", "We Still Don't Give a Fuck", and "No One Does It Better" from Irv Gotti Presents The Inc. She was also featured on Ja Rule's "Down Ass Bitch" and "The Last Temptation", as well as the Christina Milian track "Spending Time", and Ashanti's "Rain on Me" (remix). In 2003, she earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Rap Solo Performance, for her single "Diary". Baltimore parted ways with Irv Gotti and Murder Inc in 2004.


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: Paul Blart: Mall Cop is a 2009 American action comedy film starring Kevin James as the titular character Paul Blart. The film was directed by Steve Carr and written by James and Nick Bakay. The film tells a story of Blart, a single dad and bumbling mall security guard, who finds himself in the middle of a heist and the only one in position to rescue hostages.


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: Filming began in February 2008 with a majority of the shooting taking place at the Burlington Mall in Burlington, Massachusetts. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" opened in the United States on January 16, 2009, and was distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film was poorly received by critics but grossed $183.3 million worldwide against a production budget of $26 million. A sequel titled "" was released in 2015.


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: Paul Blart lives in West Orange, New Jersey with his teenage daughter Maya and his mother. Aspiring to join the New Jersey State Police, he trains at the police academy, but his hypoglycemia causes him to collapse before finishing the exam. Blart works as a security guard at the West Orange Pavilion Mall.


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: Blart patrols the mall on a Segway and begins training Veck Simms, a new hire who shows little interest in the job. Meanwhile, Blart becomes acquainted with Amy Anderson, a vendor of a new kiosk. Paul meets her one evening at a restaurant with other mall employees. Things initially go well, but when Blart participates in a nacho-eating contest with his friend Leon, the jalapeño peppers are too spicy for him and he chugs two glasses of margarita, mistaking it for lemonade. He gets drunk and makes a wild exit by falling through a window.


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: Two days later on the night of Black Friday, an organized gang of thugs disguised as Santa's Village employees begin a heist inside the mall. They take Amy and others inside a bank hostage, and Simms is revealed as the gang’s leader. The crew force the majority of shoppers to exit the mall and place motion sensors at each entrance to detect any attempt to enter or exit the building.


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: Blart is oblivious as he plays "Rock Band" before walking back into the mall to discover that it is nearly empty. He calls the police and plans to leave the mall, but he realizes that Amy is still inside and returns to the mall to look for her. A SWAT team arrives with commander James Kent at the helm. Kent, a former classmate and bully from Blart's childhood, takes control of the police units and orders Blart to let them handle the situation. Blart refuses and attempts a rescue. Vastly outnumbered, he takes a stand against Simms' crew, improvising to take them down one by one. He discovers credit-card codes written in invisible ink on the burglars' arms, realizing that their plans go beyond robbing the bank.


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: Maya, unaware of what is happening, shows up at the mall to bring Blart some food, but Simms' henchmen seize her and add her to the hostages. Blart manages to subdue all of Simms' accomplices and attempts to rescue the hostages by pulling them up into the air vent. The plan fails when Leon does not fit. Simms enters the room, capturing Blart and forcing him to give up the credit card codes recorded on his cell phone. Simms flees, taking Amy and Maya with him. As the SWAT team raids the mall, Blart borrows a display minivan with Kent, pursuing Simms to the airport, where he is attempting to escape to the Cayman Islands.


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: After a brief scuffle, Blart overpowers Simms and puts him in handcuffs. Moments later, however, Kent pulls his gun on Blart, revealing that he was working with Simms. Kent demands the phone containing the codes from Blart, who refuses and destroys the phone. Before Kent can retaliate by shooting Blart, Chief Brooks of the mall security team arrives and shoots Kent in the arm. Kent and Simms are arrested, and Amy and Maya are returned safely. For his bravery and assistance, Howard offers Blart a job with the New Jersey State Police. Blart declines, preferring to remain in mall security. Blart and Amy are eventually married in the mall, where they exchange vows on a set of black and white Segways.


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: Production began in late February 2008 in Boston. Principal photography took place at the Burlington Mall in Burlington, Massachusetts after being denied a permit from Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, New Jersey. From late February until mid-April, the mall and its stores were decorated with Christmas decorations, and there was a large prop ball-pit in the main foyer of the mall near the Sears branch, and a Santa's Village at the opposite end near the Macy's branch where the mall usually puts its own Santa's Village. Interior filming took place mostly at night. Some of the aerial stunts, such as Blart being attacked in the scenic elevator, were performed at the South Shore Plaza in Braintree, MA, as the Burlington Mall's construction did not allow for some of these stunts.


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" has an approval rating of 34% based on 117 reviews, with an average rating of 4.60/10. The website's critical consensus states ""Paul Blart: Mall Cop" has some laughs, but its plot is flimsy and lacking in any sustained comic momentum." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 39 out of 100, based on review from 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F.


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film one star out of four, panning the concept and juvenile humor. Variety's Brian Lowry called it "An almost shockingly amateurish one-note-joke comedy." James Berardinelli was also unimpressed by the juvenile tone, but praised the character of Paul Blart and a refreshing change from Adam Sandler's typical films calling it "a passable choice for watching at home, when viewers tend to be less demanding." Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave it three stars out of four, praising the film's "wholesome" comedy. Nathan Rabin of "The A.V. Club" gave the film a grade C−, calling it "a shamelessly sentimental comedy with a few crude gags thrown in arbitrarily" which "turns into a stale riff on "Die Hard"."


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: The film ranked #1 at the domestic box office with $9,791,368 from 3,144 theaters for an opening day average of $3,105. During the film's entire three-day opening weekend, the film remained at the top spot, grossing a total of $31,832,636, with a per screen average of $10,125, outgrossing its $26 million budget. It grossed $39,234,238 over the entire four-day MLK weekend, for a four-day average of $12,479. The film was the second best opening of all-time for the MLK weekend, behind 2008's "Cloverfield". The film stayed at number one in its second weekend, grossing another $21,623,182, dropping just 32%, and boosting the ten day income to $64,923,380. In its third weekend it dropped to second place with $13,872,751, a 36% decline from the last weekend, for an average of $4,327 from 3,206 theaters, bringing the seventeen day gross to $83,247,655. In its fourth weekend, it dropped to fifth place with $10,884,825, a drop of 22% from the last weekend, for an average of $3,435 from 3,169 theaters, and bringing the 24-day tally to $96,886,687. In its fifth weekend (President's Day weekend), it dropped to sixth place, making another $10,983,319 over the three-day span, actually increasing 1%, for an average of $3,704 from 2,965 theaters, and bringing the 31-day total to $109,787,819, having broken the $100 million mark on Friday February 13. Over the four-day President's Day weekend, it made $13,574,027 for an average of $4,578, and bringing the 32-day cume to $112,388,524. The film closed on Monday, May 25, 2009, with a final domestic gross of $146,336,178, with the three-day opening weekend making up 21.75% of the total gross (26.81% for the four-day opening weekend). The film had as of 2009 made $36,625,591 internationally, bringing the total worldwide gross to $183,293,131, against a modest $26 million budget.


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and UMD on May 19, 2009. The DVD sold 1,817,747 copies, making US $29,411,146 for the week of May 24, 2009, having only been out for six days, and it ranked No. 1 for DVD sales that week as well. For the week of May 31, 2009, it again made No. 1 on the US DVD Charts as it sold an additional 553,681 copies and making US $9,921,964 for a total of 2,834,826 units sold with earnings of US $46,676,902 as of November 1, 2009. As of November 1, 2009, when combined with box office results and total DVD sales, the film has grossed a total of US $227,126,523.


title: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

text: Sony expressed interest in producing a sequel to the film in January 2009. In early 2014, it was confirmed that the studio was moving forward, and shooting began in April 2014. Andy Fickman was hired to direct the sequel, while Kevin James co-wrote the script with Nick Bakay and returned to star in the leading role. The sequel was called "" and released on April 17, 2015.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born Ellen Eugenia Johnson, 29 October 1938) is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: Sirleaf was born in Monrovia to a Gola father and Kru-German mother. She was educated at the College of West Africa. She completed her education in the United States, where she studied at Madison Business College and Harvard University. She returned to Liberia to work in William Tolbert's government as Deputy Minister of Finance from 1971 to 1974. Later, she worked again in the West, for the World Bank in the Caribbean and Latin America. In 1979, she received a cabinet appointment as Minister of Finance, serving to 1980.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: After Samuel Doe seized power in 1980 in a coup d'état and executed Tolbert, Sirleaf fled to the United States. She worked for Citibank and then the Equator Bank. She returned to Liberia to contest a senatorial seat for Montserrado County in 1985, an election that was disputed. She was arrested as a result of her open criticism of the military government in 1985 and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment, although she was later released. Sirleaf continued to be involved in politics. She finished in second place at the 1997 presidential election, which was won by Charles Taylor.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: She won the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006. She was re-elected in 2011. She was the first woman in Africa elected as president of her country. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, in recognition of her efforts to bring women into the peacekeeping process. She has received numerous other awards for her leadership. In June 2016, Sirleaf was elected as the Chair of the Economic Community of West African States, making her the first woman to hold the position since it was created.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: While not in fact Americo-Liberian in terms of ancestry, because of her parents' upbringing and her own education in the West, Sirleaf is considered to be culturally Americo-Liberian, or assumed to be Americo-Liberian. Her parents both grew up in Monrovia, a center of Americo-Liberian influence, after being born in poor rural areas. Sirleaf does not identify as such.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: Sirleaf's father, Jahmale Carney Johnson, was born into a Gola family in an impoverished rural region. He was the son of a minor Gola chief named Jahmale Carney and one of his wives, Jenneh, in Julijuah, Bomi County. Her father was sent to Monrovia for education, where he changed his surname to Johnson due to her father's loyalty to President Hilary R. W. Johnson, Liberia's first native-born president. Jahmale Johnson grew up in Monrovia, where he was raised by an Americo-Liberian family with the surname McCritty. He later entered politics; he was the first Liberian from an indigenous ethnic group to be elected to the country's national legislature.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: Sirleaf's mother was also born into poverty, in Greenville. Her grandmother, Juah Sarwee, sent Sirleaf's mother to the capital, Monrovia, when her German husband (Sirleaf's grandfather) had to flee the country after Liberia declared war on Germany during World War I. Cecilia Dunbar, a member of a prominent Americo-Liberian family in the capital, adopted and raised Sirleaf's mother.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: Sirleaf was born in Monrovia in 1938. She attended the College of West Africa, a preparatory school, from 1948 to 1955. She married James Sirleaf when she was seventeen years old. The couple had four sons together, and she was primarily occupied as a homemaker. Early on in their marriage, James worked for the Department of Agriculture, and Sirleaf worked as a bookkeeper for an auto-repair shop.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: She traveled with her husband to the United States in 1961 to continue her education and earned an associate degree in Accounting at Madison Business College, in Madison, Wisconsin. When they returned to Liberia, James continued his work in the Agriculture Department and Sirleaf pursued a career in the Treasury Department (Ministry of Finance). They divorced in 1961 because of James' abuse.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: Sirleaf returned to college to finish her bachelor's degree. In 1970, she earned a BA in economics from the Economics Institute of the University of Colorado Boulder, where she also spent a summer preparing for graduate studies. Sirleaf studied economics and public policy at Harvard Kennedy School from 1969 to 1971, earning a Master of Public Administration. She returned to her native Liberia to work in the administration of William Tolbert, where she was appointed as Assistant Minister of Finance. Whilst in that position, she attracted attention with a "bombshell" speech to the Liberian Chamber of Commerce that claimed that the country's corporations were harming the economy by hoarding or sending their profits overseas.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: Sirleaf served as Assistant Minister from 1972 to 1973 in the Tolbert administration. She resigned after a disagreement about government spending. Subsequently, she was appointed as Minister of Finance a few years later, serving from 1979 to April 1980.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, a member of the indigenous Krahn ethnic group, seized power in a military coup on 12 April 1980; he ordered the assassination of Tolbert and execution by firing squad of all but four members of his Cabinet. The People's Redemption Council took control of the country and led a purge against the previous government. Sirleaf initially accepted a post in the new government as the President of the Liberian Bank for Development and Investment. She fled the country in November 1980 after publicly criticising Doe and the People's Redemption Council for their management of the country.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: Sirleaf initially moved to Washington, D.C., and worked for the World Bank. In 1981, she moved to Nairobi, Kenya to serve as Vice President of the African Regional Office of Citibank. She resigned from Citibank in 1985 following her involvement at the 1985 general election in Liberia. She went to work for Equator Bank, a subsidiary of HSBC.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: In 1992, Sirleaf was appointed as the Director of the United Nations Development Programme's Regional Bureau for Africa at the rank of Assistant Administrator and Assistant Secretary General (ASG). She is internationally known as Africa's Iron Lady, due to her political prowess. She resigned from this role in 1997 in order to run for the presidency of Liberia. During her time at the UN, she was one of the seven internationally eminent persons designated in 1999 by the Organization of African Unity to investigate the Rwandan genocide, one of the five Commission Chairs for the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, and one of the two international experts selected by UNIFEM to investigate and report on the effect of conflict on women and women's roles in peace building. She was the initial Chairperson of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and a visiting Professor of Governance at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: While working at Citibank, Sirleaf returned to Liberia in 1985 to run for Vice President under Jackson Doe on the ticket of the Liberian Action Party in the 1985 elections. However, Sirleaf was placed under house arrest in August 1985 and soon after sentenced to ten years in prison for sedition, as a consequence of a speech in which she insulted the members of the Samuel Doe regime. Following international calls for her release, Samuel Doe pardoned and released her in September. Due to government pressure, she was removed from the presidential ticket and instead ran for a Senate seat in Montserrado County.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: In the 1985 elections, Samuel Doe and the National Democratic Party won the presidency and large majorities in both houses. The elections were widely condemned as neither free nor fair. Sirleaf was declared the winner of her Senate race, but she refused to accept the seat in protest of the election fraud.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: After an attempted coup against the Doe government by Thomas Quiwonkpa on 12 November 1985, Sirleaf was arrested and imprisoned again on 13 November by Doe's forces. Despite continuing to refuse to accept her seat in the Senate, she was released in July 1986. She secretly fled the country to the United States later that year.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: At the beginning of the First Liberian Civil War in 1989, Sirleaf supported Charles Taylor's rebellion against Doe. She helped raise money for the war and founded the National Patriotic Front of Liberia with Taylor and Tom Woewiyu. Because of this, Doe's government recommended that Sirleaf be banned from politics in Liberia for 30 years.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: But, she later opposed Taylor's handling of the war and his treatment of rival opposition leaders such as Jackson Doe. By 1996, the presence of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) peacekeepers led to a cessation of hostilities. The nation held the 1997 general election, which Sirleaf returned to Liberia to contest. She ran as the presidential candidate for the Unity Party and placed second in a controversial election, getting 25% of the vote to Charles Taylor's 75%. After controversy about the results and being accused of treason, Sirleaf left Liberia and went into exile in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: After the end of the Second Liberian Civil War and the establishment of a transitional government, Sirleaf was proposed as a possible candidate for chairman of the government. Ultimately, Gyude Bryant, a political neutral, was chosen as chairman, while Sirleaf served as head of the Governance Reform Commission.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: Sirleaf stood for president as the candidate of the Unity Party in the 2005 general election. She placed second in the first round of voting behind George Weah, a former footballer. In the subsequent run-off election, Sirleaf earned 59% of the vote versus 40% for Weah, though Weah disputed the results.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: The announcement of the new leader was postponed until further election investigations were carried out. On 23 November 2005, Sirleaf was declared the winner of the Liberian election and confirmed as the country's next president and the first woman to be elected as president of an African country. Her inauguration took place on 16 January 2006. It was attended by many foreign dignitaries, including United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and First Lady Laura Bush.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: In January 2010, Sirleaf announced that she would run for a second term in office in the 2011 presidential election while speaking to a joint session of the Legislature. Opposition leaders noted that in doing so, she had broken a promise made during her 2005 campaign to only serve one term if elected. Sirleaf was renominated as the Unity Party's presidential candidate at the party's national convention on 31 October 2010. That same day, Vice President Joseph Boakai was nominated by Sirleaf and confirmed by the delegates as Sirleaf's running mate.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Sirleaf four days prior to the election sparked criticism from opposition parties, with Congress for Democratic Change candidate Winston Tubman calling the award "undeserved" and "a political interference in our country's politics." Sirleaf called the timing of the award a coincidence and avoided mentioning the award during the final days of campaigning.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: Sirleaf garnered 43.9% of the vote in the first round, more than any other candidate but short of the 50% needed to avoid a run-off. Tubman came in second with 32.7%, pitting him against Sirleaf in the second round. Tubman called for a boycott of the run-off, claiming that the results of the first round had been fraudulent. Sirleaf denied the allegations, and international observers reported that the first round election had been free, fair and transparent. As a result of the boycott, Sirleaf won the second round with 90.7% of the vote, though voter turnout significantly declined from the first round. Following the election, Sirleaf announced the creation of a "national peace and reconciliation initiative," led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee, to address the country's divisions and begin "a national dialogue that would bring us together." She took the presidential oath for her second presidency on 16 January 2012.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: Sirleaf crossed party lines to support George Weah in the 2017 presidential campaign. In the late evening hours of 13 January 2018, she along with some officials of the Unity Party were expelled by the National Executive Committee of the party, for failing to support Unity Party presidential candidate, and Sirleaf’s Vice President, Joseph Boakai.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: A fire broke out at the Executive Mansion on 26 July 2006, seriously damaging the structure. An independent panel formed to investigate the incident ruled out arson, attributing the fire to an electrical malfunction. Sirleaf's government called funding for the repair of the mansion a low priority in the face of more pressing needs, with Sirleaf transferring her office to the nearby Foreign Ministry building and choosing to live at her personal home in Monrovia.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: On 26 July 2007, Sirleaf celebrated Liberia's 160th Independence Day under the theme "Liberia at 160: Reclaiming the future." She took an unprecedented and symbolic move by asking 25-year-old Liberian activist Kimmie Weeks to serve as National Orator for the celebrations, where Weeks called for the government to prioritize education and health care. A few days later, President Sirleaf issued an Executive Order making education free and compulsory for all elementary school aged children.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: On 4th, October 2010, Sirleaf signed into law a Freedom of Information bill, the first legislation of its kind in West Africa. In recognition of this, she became the first sitting head of state to receive the Friend of the Media in Africa Award from The African Editor's Union.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: On 1 April 2011, Sirleaf told reporters that she planned to charge an opposition candidate with sedition for organizing a rally protesting corruption in the government. Her press secretary later clarified that the remark had been an April Fools' prank.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: From the beginning of her presidency, Sirleaf vowed to make reduction of the national debt, which stood at approximately US$4.9 billion in 2006, a top priority for her administration. The United States became the first country to grant debt relief to Liberia, waiving the full $391 million owed to it by Liberia in early 2007. In September of that year, the G-8 headed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel provided $324.5 million to paying off 60% of Liberia's debt to the International Monetary Fund, crediting their decision to the macroeconomic policies pursued by the Sirleaf administration.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: In April 2009, the government successfully wrote off an additional $1.2 billion in foreign commercial debt in a deal that saw the government buy back the debt at a 97% discounted rate through financing provided by the International Development Association, Germany, Norway, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The discounted rate was the largest ever for a developing country.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: The country was deemed eligible to participate in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative in 2008. In June 2010, the country reached the completion point of the HIPC initiative, qualifying it for relief from its entire external debt. That same month, the World Bank and IMF agreed to fund $1.5 billion in writing off the Liberia's multilateral debt. On 16 September, the Paris Club agreed to cancel $1.26 billion, with independent bilateral creditors canceling an additional $107 million, essentially writing off Liberia's remaining external debt. Sirleaf vowed to prevent unsustainable borrowing in the future by restricting annual borrowing to 3% of GDP and limiting expenditure of all borrowed funds to one-off infrastructure projects.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: In 2006, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission began work with a mandate to "promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation" by investigating more than 20 years of civil conflict in the country. The TRC was formed through a legislation in 2005 under the Interim government headed by C. Gyude Bryant.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: In their final report, issued in June 2009, the TRC included Sirleaf in a list of 50 names of people that should be "specifically barred from holding public offices; elected or appointed for a period of thirty (30) years" for "being associated with former warring factions." The proposed ban stemmed from her financial support of former President Taylor in the early years of the First Liberian Civil War.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: On 26 July 2009, Sirleaf apologized to Liberia for supporting Charles Taylor, saying: "When the true nature of Mr. Taylor's intentions became known, there was no more impassioned critic or strong opponent to him in a democratic process" than she. On 28 August, the Legislature announced they must "consult our constituents for about a year" before deciding whether or not to implement the Commission's recommendations.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: During an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations in 2010, Sirleaf argued that the implementation of the TRC's recommended ban would unconstitutionally violate her right to due process. In October 2010, the chairman of Sirleaf's Unity Party, Varney Sherman, argued that implementation of the recommendation would be unconstitutional, as Article 21(a) of the Constitution prohibits "ex post facto" laws, and Sirleaf had broken no law by financially supporting Taylor that imposed a ban from public office as a penalty.


title: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

text: In January 2011, the Supreme Court ruled in "Williams v. Tah", a case brought by another person recommended for being banned from public office in the TRC report, that the TRC's recommendation was an unconstitutional violation of the listed individuals' right to procedural due process, and that it would be unconstitutional for the government to implement the proposed bans.