The Syrian Arab Armed Forces (SAAF; ) were the combined military forces of Ba'athist Syria.
The SAAF consisted of the Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Air Force, Syrian Arab Air Defense Force, Syrian Arab Navy. According to the 2012 Constitution of Syria, the President of Syria was the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The Minister of Defence held the position of Deputy Commander-in-chief of the Army and Armed Forces.
The SAAF utilized conscription; males served in the military at age 18, but they were exempted from service if they did not have a brother who can take care of their parents. After the beginning of the Syrian civil war, Syrian military enlisted strength dropped by over half from a pre-civil war figure of 325,000 to 150,000 soldiers in the army in December 2014 due to casualties, desertions and draft dodging, reaching between 178,000 and 220,000 soldiers in the army,Daily Star 23 September 2014 in addition to 80,000 to 100,000 irregular forces. By 2023, the number of active Syrian soldiers had increased to 170,000, but the number of active paramilitary and reserve forces may have decreased by as much as 50,000.
The Syrian Arab Armed Forces collapsed in 2024 with the fall of the Assad regime and flight of Bashar al-Assad. The new de-facto rulers of Syria, led by associates of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, are making preparations to drastically reorganise Syria's military forces and ambitions. On 21 December 2024 it was reported that Murhaf Abu Qasra had been appointed the new defence minister for the interim government.
History
The 1963 coup and early history of the Arab Armed Forces In 1963, the Military Committee of the Syrian Regional Command of the Arab Socialist 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—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'etat. 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 Arab 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 GDP went only to the army. At the beginning of the Yom Kippur War of 1973 the Syrian Army launched an attack to seize the Golan Heights that was repelled by two Israeli brigades. Since 1973 the cease-fire line has been respected by both sides, with very few incidents until the Syrian civil war.
The Lebanese President invited Syria into his country 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 totalling 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 essentially abandoned and had to find their own way home (if at all), and the ADF thereby became a purely Syrian force (which did include the Palestinian 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 in 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 themselves 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. 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.
Modernization efforts
In recent years Syria has relied on Russian arms purchases to obtain modern weapons. Purchases included anti-tank and air defense systems. In early September 2008 the Syrian government ordered 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 Sergei Lavrov asserted that the sale wouldn't upset the balance of power in the Middle East and were "in line with . . . international law."
Russia aimed to turn the Russian naval base in Tartus into a permanent base. Israel and the US oppose further arms sales to Syria due to fears that the weapons could fall under the control of Iran or Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.
Syrian civil war (2011–2024)
In March 2011, protests erupted in the southern city of Daraa after the arrest and torture of fifteen students for writing anti-government graffiti. As demonstrations spread, local security forces were unable to contain the unrest, prompting the Assad government to deploy Syrian Arab Army units to restore control. Troops surrounded the city, imposed a siege, and opened fire on unarmed demonstrators—marking the first major military crackdown of the uprising. The violence in Daraa provoked nationwide outrage, transforming peaceful protests into an armed rebellion that quickly spread across Syria. As the army intensified its campaign of repression and mass arrests in April 2011, growing numbers of soldiers and officers—drawn from various sectarian and religious backgrounds, including Sunni, Shia, Druze, and Christian—refused orders to fire on civilians and defected, exposing early fractures within the military. Many former soldiers and officers left the Syrian Arab Army to form or join armed opposition groups. The most prominent of these during the early stage of the war was the Free Syrian Army, who had the primary goal of overthrowing the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
By March 2012, the government sought to stem further defections and desertions by imposing strict travel restrictions on military-aged men, banning all males between 18 and 42 years old from leaving the country. Despite this, defections continued at a rapid pace; by June 2012, Free Syrian Army commander Riad al-Asaad claimed that 20–30 Syrian officers were fleeing to Turkey each day. The crisis deepened on 18 July 2012, when a bomb explosion at Syria’s national security headquarters in Damascus killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, former defense minister Hasan Turkmani, and the president’s brother-in-law, General Assef Shawkat. Intelligence chief Hisham Bekhityar and Maher al-Assad, commander of the elite 4th Armored Division and brother of the president, were also wounded in the blast—further demonstrating the regime’s growing internal vulnerability as the war escalated.
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. The number of defections within the Syrian military was estimated at around 170,000 personnel spanning multiple ranks and divisions. Throughout the war, they employed systematically brutal tactics—besieging entire cities, cutting off food, medicine, and water, and bombarding civilian areas to force capitulation. They indiscriminately used barrel bombs, cluster munitions, and heavy artillery in densely populated neighborhoods, carried out chemical attacks, and repeatedly struck hospitals, schools, and aid convoys. These actions caused widespread civilian suffering and drew international condemnation, economic sanctions, and U.S. military missile strikes in 2017 and 2018. Human Rights Watch documented deliberate demolition of neighborhoods as collective punishment, beyond immediate battle damage. Throughout the entirety of the war, most Syrian Arab Army units were operating with severely outdated and poorly maintained Soviet-era equipment dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. Years of combat, sanctions, and loss of foreign suppliers left many vehicles in disrepair, forcing troops to reuse salvaged parts or improvise battlefield repairs. Russia provided limited modernization and battlefield aid, including T-90 tanks, guided munitions, refurbished aircraft, and training support, which temporarily improved performance in key offensives. The army struggled to contain ISIS due to manpower shortages, collapsing logistics, and outdated equipment, losing major bases and cities such as Raqqa and Palmyra.