Syrian Army

The Syrian Arab Army is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It originated in local military forces formed by the French after World War I, after France obtained a mandate over the region. It was officially formed in 1945, before Syria obtained full independence in 1946. After 1946, it played a major role in Syria's governance, mounting six military coups: two in 1949, including the March 1949 Syrian coup d'état and the August 1949 coup by Colonel Sami al-Hinnawi, and one each in 1951, 1954, 1963, 1966, and 1970. It fought four wars with Israel (1948, the Six-Day War in 1967, the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and 1982 Lebanon War) and one with Jordan ("Black September" in Jordan, 1970). An armored division was also deployed to Saudi Arabia in 1990–91 during the Gulf War, but saw little action. From 1976 to 2005 it was the major pillar of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Internally, it played a major part in suppressing the 1979–82 Islamist uprising in Syria, and from 2011 to 2024 was heavily engaged in fighting the Syrian civil war, the most violent and prolonged war the Syrian Arab Army had taken part in since its establishment in the 1940s. The Syrian Arab Army Command told soldiers and officers they were no longer in service as of 8 December 2024, with the fall of the Assad regime. As of December 2024, a new Syrian Arab Army led by ex-Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham forces began a process of reconstruction. On 25 August 2026, following negotiations for a unified military, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) formally dissolved and integrated into the Syrian Armed Forces, contributing an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 active combatants and bringing total army strength to between 180,000 and 182,000 personnel.