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Unidentified flags (Syria)

Possible ISIS flag
Royal flag of Syria 1920?
Syrian-US combination

See also:

Syria

Possible ISIS flag seen in Syria

image located by Esteban Rivera, 28 September 2012

Al-Jazeera shows today in its online edition a picture of a white horizontal flag, displaying a red circle in the middle, with an inscription most likely in Arabic. My best guess is that it resembles pretty much the ISIS/ISIL flag, but in red letters on white. Any other guesses?
Esteban Rivera, 28 September 2012

image from Esteban Rivera, 21 September 2012

Yes, you posted a news photo of a similar flag a little while ago. [see editorial comment above]
Andy Shelton, 29 September 2012

Royal flag of Syria 1920?

image located by Jaume Ollé, 7 July 2016

An image at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Kingdom_of_Syria#/media/File:Damas_Juillet_1920.jpg shows an unknown flag of 7 vertical stripes of R-W-R-W-R-W-R with golden half moon in the corners. Could this be the royal flag of King Faisal? Or perhaps a local flag from Damascus?
Jaume Ollé, 7 July 2016

Here's the full page of Jaumé's flag: (image) (source) The image caption reads: Livre de famille du général Goybet, sur prise de Damas (General Goybet's family book on Damascus takeover). The text in the image is the following: Décidé à en finir avec la duplicité de l'Emir Faycal, le général Gouraud donna l'ordre au Général Goybet d'attaquer l'armée Chérifienne avec sa 3 D.I. et d'occuper Damas. Après avoir traversé le liban et l'anti-Liban, la 3ème D.I. livra un violent combat à Khan Meiseloun; victorieux, le Général Goybet fit son entrée à DAMAS, le 25 juillet 1920, déposa l'Emir Faycal, pacifia le Hauran révolté et exerca le commandement du territoire de Damas, jusqu'a sa mise au cadre de reserve, le 17 août 1921. Il revint en France Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur et titulaire d'une 5 eme citation à l'ordre de l'armée, de la croix de guerre des TOE et de la médaille de Syrie. Le 30 juin 1923, il fut nommé Général de Division.

A loose translation (worth revising indeed) would be: "Decided to end the duplicity of Emir Faisal, General Gouraud ordered General Goybet to attack the Chief's Army with his 3 Infantry Division and occupy Damascus. After crossing (Mount) Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon (mountains), the 3rd I.D. delivered a violent fight at Khan Maysalun (mountains); victorious, General Goybet arrived at Damascus, July 25, 1920, deposed Emir Faisal, quelled the Hauran (region) rebellion and exercised control of the territory of Damascus, until its completion on August 17, 1921. He returned to France (and was awarded the) Commander of the Legion of Honor and a fifth mention in dispatches, (as well as) the Military Cross TOE (Theater of Operations) and the Medal of Syria. (On) June 30, 1923, he was appointed Major General."

At first I was mislead into the translation of the text "...l'armée Chérifienne..." because there was a similar entity that existed in Morocco, called Empire chérifien (Sherifian Empire), but then realized that it simply meant the Chief's (Faisal) Army, when reading it in context.

My personal conclusion is that the flag in question is a battle flag used by the Arabs at either the Battle of Maysalun or during the revolts of that time. There are still doubts since the only two captured flags that remain from that period, are black, green, white and red (source), and not red and white with a yellow crescent as described in the image first submitted by Jaumé.

In the same image, one can see yet another unidentified flag below the Légend (Caption) letter "D" at the start of the chapter.

It is important to notice that in the Goybet family's coat of arms (source) (image), there's a crescent featured, perhaps granted for his participation during these military actions as a member of the (French) Army of the Levant and part of the Franco-Syrian War against the (Arab) Kingdom of Syria.

Esteban Rivera, 12 June 2019

The Sherif was, as far as I know, the ruler in Mecca from the Hashemite dynasty, who had their own country Hedschas on the Western shores of the Arabian peninsula and afterwards had been expelled by the Saudis. Thus it means the Army of the Sherif (of Mecca).
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 15 June 2017

Syrian-US combination

image at https://www.jpost.com

The "source's" Jerusalem Sept. 25, 2020 website does not identify where or when this Syria-U.S. flag is being used. The article refers to U.S. military action in Syria, but does not specifically inform a reader about where this flag is utilized. With the flag's "Free Syria" slogan being printed in English, one might deduce that it might have been distributed at some anti-Pres.-Assad policy-influencing rally in Washington, D.C. If it had been used somewhere in Syria, one would think that the slogan would have been printed in Arabic.

source: https://www.jpost.com/international/us-is-beefing-up-forces-in-eastern-syria-to-counter-russian-harassment-643517?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=It+s+been+a+year+of+biblical+blunders&utm_campaign=Friday+Frontlines+-+September+25
William Garrison, 25 September 2020

The flag in question, by Thomson Reuters, has been in use (at least) since October 2015, as this article shows: https://www.businessinsider.com/r-exclusive-congress-probing-us-spy-agencies-possible-lapses-on-russia-2015-10 (date quoted: Reuters, Oct 8, 2015, 1:03 AM).

In the article mentioned above, the same image is seen (located here: https://i.insider.com/5615fbdb5afbd36b718b4567?width=400&format=jpeg&auto=webp) and the picture caption reads: "Syrian-Americans protest Russian intervention in Syria outside a Russian consular office in Santa Monica". Hence, the inscription of "FREE SYRIA" in English and not in Arabic.
Esteban Rivera, 25 September 2020