Mandate and independence (1923–1945) The
French Mandate volunteer force, which would later become the Syrian army, was established in 1923 with the threat of
Syrian Arab nationalism in mind. Although the unit's officers were originally all French, it was, in effect, the first indigenous modern Syrian army. In 1925, this force was expanded and designated the
Special Troops of the Levant (Troupes Spéciales du Levant). In 1941, during the
Second World War, the Army of the Levant participated in a futile resistance to the
Syria–Lebanon Campaign, the British and
Free French invasion that ousted the
Vichy French from Syria. After the
Allied takeover, the army came under the control of the Free French and was designated the
Levantine Forces (Troupes du Levant). French Mandate authorities maintained a
gendarmerie to police Syria's vast rural areas. This paramilitary force was used to combat criminals and political foes of the Mandate government. As with the Levantine Special Troops, French officers held the top posts, but as
Syrian independence approached, the ranks below major were gradually filled by Syrian officers who had graduated from the
Homs Military Academy, which had been established by the French during the 1930s. In 1938, the Troupes Spéciales numbered around 10,000 men and 306 officers (of whom 88 were French, mainly in the higher ranks). A majority of the Syrian troops were of rural background and minority ethnic origin, mainly
Alawite,
Druze,
Kurds,
Circassians and
Bosniaks. By the end of 1945, the army numbered about 5,000 and the gendarmerie some 3,500. In April 1946, the last French officers were forced to leave Syria due to sustained resistance offensives; the Levantine Forces then became the regular armed forces of the newly independent state and grew rapidly to about 12,000 by the time of the 1948 Arab−Israeli War, the first of four Arab−Israeli wars involving Syria between 1948 and 1986.
First and Second Republic (1946–1963) (1958–1961) The Syrian Armed Forces fought in the
1948 Arab–Israeli War (against Israel) and were involved in some
military coups. Between 1948 and 1967, a series of coups destroyed the stability of the government and any remaining professionalism within the armed forces. In March 1949, the chief of staff, Gen.
Husni al-Za'im, installed himself as president. Two more military dictators followed by December 1949. Gen.
Adib Shishakli then held power until deposed in the
1954 Syrian coup d'état. Further coups followed, each attended by a purge of the officer corps to remove supporters of the losers from the force. The Syrian armed forces were part of the
Armed Forces of the United Arab Republic between 1958 and 1961. Some Syrian ground forces formed the
First Army (United Arab Republic) while the Second and Third Armies were established by the Egyptian half of the unified state.
Ba'athist Syria (1963–2024) In 1963, the Military Committee of the
Syrian Regional Command of the
Ba'ath Party spent most of its time planning to take power through a conventional military coup. From the very beginning, the Military Committee knew it had to capture
al-Kiswah and
Qatana, two military camps and seize control of the 70th Armored Brigade at al-Kiswah, the Military Academy in the city of Homs and the Damascus radio station. While the conspirators of the Military Committee were all young, their aim was not out of reach; the sitting regime had been slowly disintegrating and the traditional elite had lost effective political power over the country. A small group of military officers, including
Hafez al-Assad, seized control in the
March 1963 Syrian coup d'état. Following the coup, Gen.
Amin al-Hafiz discharged many ranking Sunni officers, thereby,
Stratfor says, "providing openings for hundreds of
Alawites to fill top-tier military positions during the 1963–1965 period on the grounds of being opposed to Arab unity. This measure tipped the balance in favor of Alawite officers who staged a coup in 1966 and, for the first time, placed Damascus in the hands of the Alawites." The Armed Forces were involved in the 1967
Six-Day War (against Israel). Since 1967, most of the
Golan Heights territory of southwestern Syria has been under Israeli occupation. They then fought in the late 1960s
War of Attrition (against Israel) and the 1970
Black September invasion of Jordan. When Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1971, the army began to modernize and change. In the first 10 years of Assad's rule, the army increased by 162%, and by 264% by 2000. At one point, 70% of the country's annual budget spend only to the army. At the beginning of the
1973 Arab-Israel War, the Syrian Army launched an attack to seize the Golan Heights that was only narrowly repulsed by two vastly outnumbered Israeli brigades. Since 1973 the
cease-fire line has been respected by both sides, with very few incidents until the
Syrian civil war. Syria was invited into Lebanon by that country's president in 1976, to intervene on the side of the Lebanese government against
PLO guerilla and Lebanese Christian forces. The
Arab Deterrent Force originally consisted of a Syrian core, up to 25,000 troops, with participation by some other
Arab League states totaling only around 5,000 troops. In late 1978, after the Arab League had extended the mandate of the Arab Deterrent Force, the
Sudanese, the Saudis and the
United Arab Emirates announced intentions to withdraw troops from Lebanon, extending their stay into the early months of 1979 at the Lebanese government's request. The Libyan troops were abandoned, and the ADF thereby became a purely Syrian force (which did include the
Palestine Liberation Army (PLA)). A year after Israel invaded and occupied
Southern Lebanon during the
1982 Lebanon War, the Lebanese government failed to extend the ADF's mandate, thereby effectively ending its existence, although not the Syrian or Israeli military presence in Lebanon. Eventually the Syrian presence became known as the
Syrian occupation of Lebanon.
Occupation of Lebanon (1982–2005) Syrian forces, still technically known as the Arab Deterrent Force, lingered in Lebanon throughout the
Lebanese civil war (1975–90). Eventually, the Syrians brought most of the nation under their control as part of a power struggle with Israel, which had occupied areas of southern Lebanon in 1978. In 1985, Israel began to withdraw from Lebanon, as a result of domestic opposition to Israel and international pressure. In the aftermath of this withdrawal, the
War of the Camps broke out, with Syria fighting their former Palestinian allies. Following the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990, the
Syrian occupation of Lebanon continued until they were also forced out by widespread public protest and international pressure. About 20,000 Syrian soldiers were deployed in Lebanon until 27 April 2005, when the last of Syria's troops left the country. Syrian forces were accused of involvement in the murder of
Rafiq al-Hariri, as well as continued meddling in Lebanese affairs, and an international investigation into the Hariri killing and several subsequent bomb attacks has been launched by the UN.
Other engagements Engagements since 1979 included the
Muslim Brotherhood insurgency (1979–82), notably including the
Hama massacre, the
1982 Lebanon War (against Israel) and the dispatch of the
9th Armored Division to Saudi Arabia in 1990–91, ahead of the
Gulf War against Iraq. The 9th Armored Division served as the Arab Joint Forces Command North reserve and saw little action. Syria's force numbered ~20,000 in strength (the sixth-largest contingent) and its involvement was justified domestically as an effort to defend Saudi Arabia. Syria's initial involvement in
Operation Desert Shield also rolled into the Allied
Operation Desert Storm, as Syrian forces did participate in helping dislodge and drive Iraqi forces out of
Kuwait City. The total losses sustained were two dead and one wounded. There were indications the Syrian government had been prepared to double its force to 40,000.
Modernisation during the 2000s During the 2000s, Syria relied on Russian arms purchases to acquire modern weapons. Those purchases included anti-tank and air defense systems. In early September 2008 the Syrian government ordered
Mikoyan MiG-29SMT fighters,
Pantsir S1E air-defence systems,
Iskander tactical missile systems,
Yak-130 aircraft, and two
Amur-1650 submarines from Russia. Russia's Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov asserted that the sale wouldn't upset the balance of power in the Middle East and was "in line with ... international law." At the same time, Russia sought to transform its
naval facility in Tartus into a permanent base. Israel and the United States opposed further arms sales to Syria, fearing that the weapons could fall under the control of Iran or
Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.
Syrian civil war (2011–2024) Because of the violence against the people by the Syrian Army and the detention of a great number of people, some soldiers from different religions and sects (Sunni, Shia, Druze and Christian) defected in protest at orders to kill protesters in April 2011. By 2014, the number of defecting officers had reached approximately 170,000, from different ranks. They formed the
Free Syrian Army on 29 July 2011 and at the beginning of the conflict they depended on light weapons. The arming of the Free Syrian Army began in mid-2012. In March 2012 the Syrian government issued new travel restrictions for military-aged males. Under the new restrictions, reported by
local Syrian news outlets, all males between 18 and 42 were banned from traveling outside the country. In a late June 2012 interview given by the FSA's
Asharq Al-Awsat he claimed
Riad al-Asaad said that about 20–30 Syrian officers defected to Turkey each day. On 18 July 2012 the Syrian Defense Minister
Dawoud Rajha, former defense minister
Hasan Turkmani and the president's brother-in-law Gen.
Assef Shawkat were killed in a
bomb attack in Damascus. Syrian intelligence chief
Hisham Bekhityar and Head of the 4th Army Division Maher Al Assad – brother of President Assad – were also injured in the explosion. Since the start of the
conflict in Syria, human rights groups say that the majority of abuses were committed by the Syrian government's forces, and UN investigations concluded that the government's abuses were the greatest in both gravity and scale. The branches of the Syrian Armed Forces that committed war crimes include at least the Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Air Force and the Syrian Military Intelligence. However the Syrian authorities denied these accusations and claimed that irregular armed groups with foreign support are behind the atrocities, including Al Qaeda linked Insurgents. The numbers in the Syrian armed forces had reduced considerably during the Civil War, although estimates varied. Russian sources gave higher estimates. In 2011, 300,000 reserves were reported in addition to regular forces. In 2014,
Gazeta.ru reported that the regular army had reduced from 325,000 to 150,000 due to "mortality, desertions and deviations", but that this was supplemented by 60,000 Republican Guards and 50,000 Kurdish militias. In 2015,
LifeNews still reported the same figures. Despite shrinking by nearly half from the 2011 beginning of the civil war by 2014, the Armed Forces became much more flexible and capable, especially in anti-guerilla warfare. Their
modus operandi switched from traditional Soviet-modeled conventional military forces into a force of smaller groups fighting in close-quarters guerrilla combat with an increasing role for junior officers. After the civil war Bashar Al-Assad made little efforts to rehabilitate the military from the losses sustained during the civil war. This was most likely not due to a lack of resources, but instead it was an active choice of the regime. This left the military weakened and suspectable to attacks, such as from
Israel. , leaders of the
Syrian Democratic Forces, the military forces of the
Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, were preparing for "negotiations that would create a broader-based Syrian government that is not under
al-Sharaa's control". Leaders of the
Southern Operations Room met with al-Sharaa on 11 December and expressed interest in "coordination", a "unified effort" and "cooperation", without stating that they would support the HTS transitional government. On 17 December 2024, Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Bashir has said the
defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad's army.
Murhaf Abu Qasra (
nom de guerre; Abu Hassan al-Hamawi), the military commander of
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham said to
The Economist, "All military units will naturally transition to the ministry of defence, forming a unified army tasked with protecting the nation on behalf of all Syrians."
The Economist added that Qasra insisted "..that there will be no place in the new Syria for jihadists eager to launch attacks". Abu Qasra, speaking with
AFP, said that HTS would be "among the first to take the initiative" to dissolve its armed wing for a national army; On 22 December 2024,
Ahmed al-Sharaa said that the new Syrian government would announce the new structure of the Syrian military within days. Two days later, the transitional government announced that a meeting between opposition groups and Ahmed al-Sharaa "ended in an agreement on the dissolution of all the groups and their integration under the supervision of the ministry of defence". On 26 December 2024, the "former forces of deposed leader Bashar al-Assad" killed 14 HTS fighters in the process of the new government capturing
Mohammad Kanjo Hassan. General Hassan, the former chief of military justice and head of the field court, had been closely associated with the
Sednaya Prison, where detainees had been often been brutally tortured. This has led to the
Western Syria clashes against the
Syrian transitional government. On 29 December 2024,
Ahmed al-Sharaa announced the
promotion of 42 individuals to the rank of Colonel, 5 to the rank of Brigadier General, and 2 to the rank of Major-General in the
Syrian Army. This number included Defense Minister Abu Qasra and new
Chief of the General Staff of the Syrian Armed Forces and Army
Ali Noureddine Al-Naasan, who were both elevated to the rank of Major-General. In January 2025 the defense ministry said that it has met with over 60 armed groups and claimed that all of the armed groups agreed to be a part of the armed forces and reorganized into units. but they reject the SDF proposal of creating a Kurdish "bloc" within the armed forces. Later in February the SDF, the
Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), and the
Syrian Democratic Council decided in a meeting that the SDF would merge with the Syrian army. On 8 March 2025, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Syrian security forces and pro-government fighters had been involved in the
mass killings of more than 750 Alawite civilians amidst clashes with supposed remaining pro-Assad groups in the western governorates of Syria. By June 2025, the Syrian transitional government had recruited half of its planned 200,000-man army by uniting various Syrian factions led by
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, including 30,000 members of the
Syrian National Army and 15,000 members of the
Syrian Democratic Forces, as well as foreign fighters. Two-thirds of the senior commanders are HTS members.
Reuters reported that the US gave the nod to Syria to integrate foreign fighters into its army. == Structure ==