Syrian Army The Syrian Army , officially the Syrian Arab Army ( " al - Jaysh al - ’ Arabī as - Sūrī " ) , is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces . It is the dominant military service of the four uniformed services , controlling the senior most posts in the armed forces , and has the greatest manpower , approximately 80 percent of the combined services . The Syrian Army was formed by the French after World War I , after the French obtained a mandate over the region . Since 1948 it has played a major role in Syria ' s governance , mounting five military coups ( two in 1949 , including the March 1949 Syrian coup d ' état and the August 1949 coup by Colonel Sami al - Hinnawi , 1954 , 1963 , 1966 , and in 1970 . It has fought four wars with Israel ( 1948 , the Six Day War in 1967 , 1973 , and 1982 in Lebanon ) and one with Jordan ( Black September in Jordan , 1970 ) . An armoured division was also deployed to Saudi Arabia in 1990 – 91 , 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 Islamic uprising in Syria , and since early 2011 has been heavily engaged in fighting the Syrian civil war . History . In 1919 , the French formed the " " as part of the Army of the Levant . The former with 8 , 000 men later grew into both the Syrian and Lebanese armies . This force was used primarily as auxiliaries in support of French troops , and senior officer posts were held by Frenchmen , although Syrians were allowed to hold commissions below the rank of major . As Syria gained independence in 1946 , its leaders envisioned a division - sized army . The 1st Brigade was ready by the time of the Syrian war against Israel on May 15 , 1948 . It consisted of two infantry battalion s and one armoured battalion . The 2nd Brigade was organized during the 1948 Arab - Israeli War and also included two infantry battalions and one armoured battalion . At the time of the 1948 Arab - Israeli War , the army was small , poorly armed , and poorly trained . ' Paris had relied primarily on French regulars to keep the peace in Syria and had neglected indigenous forces . Consequently , training was lackadaisical , discipline lax , and staff work almost unheard of . . . . there were about 12 , 000 men in the Syrian army . These troops were mostly grouped into three infantry brigades and an armored force of about battalion size ' writes Pollack . Between 1948 and 1967 , a series of military coups destroyed the stability of the government and any remaining professionalism within the army . In March 1949 , the chief of staff , General Husni al - Za ' im , installed himself as president . Two more military dictators followed by December 1949 . General Adib Shishakli then held power until deposed in the 1954 Syrian coup d ' etat . Further coups followed , each attended by a purge of the officer corps to remove supporters of the losers from the force . ' Discipline in the army broke down across the board as units and their commanders pledged their allegiance to different groups and parties . Indeed , by the late 1950s , the situation had become so bad that Syrian officers regularly disobeyed the orders of superiors who belonged to different ethnic or political groups ' writes Pollack . The 1963 Syrian coup d ' état had as one of its key objectives the seizure of the Al - Kiswah military camp , home to the 70th Armoured Brigade . There was another 1966 Syrian coup d ' etat . However in 1967 the army did appear to have some strength . It had around 70 , 000 personnel , roughly 550 tanks and assault guns , 500 APCs , and nearly 300 artillery pieces . The army had sixteen brigades : twelve infantry , two armoured ( probably including the 70th Armoured ) , and two mechanised . The Syrian government deployed twelve of the sixteen brigades to the Golan , including both armoured brigades and one mechanised brigade . Three ' brigade groups ' , each comprising four brigades , were deployed : the 12th in the north , holding the sector from the B ' nat Ya ' acov bridge to the slopes of Mount Hermon , the 35th in the south from the B ' nat Ya ' acov bridge to the Yarmuk River border with Jordan , and the 42nd in reserve , earmarked for a theatre - level counterattack role . During the Six Day War Israeli assault of the Golan heights , the Syrian army failed to counterattack the Israelis as the Israelis breached the Syrian positions . While Syrian units fought hard whenever the Israelis entered their fields of fire , no attempts appear to have been made to exploit Israeli disorientation and confusion during the initial assault . Judging from reports of 1967 - 1970 , including the reporting of the 5th Infantry Division in 1970 , the Army appears to have formed its first division s during this period . The 1st and 3rd Armoured Division , and 5th , 7th , and 9th Mechanised Infantry Divisions were all formed prior to 1973 . Samuel M . Katz writes that after Hafez al - Assad gained power in November 1970 , the army expanded to the five divisions listed above , plus ten independent brigades , an artillery rocket brigade ( the 69th ) , and ' . . a reinforced brigade variously termed the 70th Armoured Brigade or the Assad Republican Guard . It is today known as the Armoured Defence Force ; as Assad ' s praetorian guard it is stationed in and around Damascus and subordinate to the Defence Companies under the command of Assad ' s brother Rifa ' at . 1970 - 2010 . On 18 September 1970 , the Syrian government became involved in Black September in Jordan when it sent a reinforced armoured brigade to aid the Palestinian Liberation Organisation . Syrian armoured units crossed the border and overran Irbid with the help of local Palestinian forces . They encountered several Jordanian Army detachments , but rebuffed them without major difficulty . Two days later , the 5th Infantry Division , heavily reinforced , was also sent into Jordan . Two armoured brigades were attached to the division , bringing its tank strength up to over 300 T - 55 s and its manpower to over 16 , 000 . The division entered Jordan at ar - Ramtha , destroyed a company of Jordanian Centurion tank s there , and continued directly towards Amman . Pollack says it is likely that they intended to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy itself . Despite defeating the Jordanian Army at al - Ramtha on 21 September , after fierce air attacks on 22 September , the Syrians stopped the attack and began to retreat . After 1970 further Syrian engagements included : In March 1980 the 3rd Armoured Division and detachments from the Defense Companies arrived in Aleppo . The division was under the command of General Shafiq Fayadh , Hafiz Assad ' s first cousin . The troops sealed ' . . off whole quarters and carr [ ied ] out house - to - house searches , often preceded by tank fire . ' Hundreds of suspects were rounded up . Only two conventional Army brigades deployed to Hama in 1982 , the 3rd Armoured Division ’ s 47th Armoured and 21st Mechanised Brigades . Three quarters of the officers and one third of the soldiers in the two brigades were Alawites . Most of the repression was carried out by the Defence Companies and the Special Forces . Meanwhile , the Special Forces were isolating and combing through Hama , killing and capturing suspected regime opponents . Syrian forces fought Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War . In 1984 , Major General Ali Haidar ' s Special Forces were instrumental in blocking an abortive attempt by Rifaat Assad and his Defense Companies to seize the capital . Fayadh ' s 3rd Armoured Division moved into the capital to join Haidar ' s forces in the confrontation with the Defense Companies . The 3rd Armoured Division , it seems , had historically been based at al - Qutayfah , near Damascus . The 9th Armoured Division served in the 1991 Gulf War as the Arab Joint Forces Command North reserve and saw little action . In 1994 , Haidar expressed objections to the Syrian president ' s decision to bring Bashar home from his studies in Britain and groom him for the succession after the death of Basil , the eldest Assad son . Soon afterwards , on 3 September 1994 , Jane ' s Defence Weekly reported that then - President Hafez Assad had dismissed at least 16 senior military commanders . Among them was Haidar , then commander of the Special Forces , and General Shafiq Fayadh , a cousin of the President who had commanded the ' crack ' 3rd Armoured Division for nearly two decades . The 3rd Armoured Division was ' deployed around Damascus . ' JDW commented that ' the Special Forces and the 3rd Armoured Division , along with the 1st Armoured Division are key elements in the security structure that protects Assad ' s government . Any command changes involving those formations have considerable political significance . ' Post - uprising reporting indicated the 1st Armoured Division had historically been at al - Kiswah . In 2010 , the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated the Army had 220 , 000 regulars and 280 , 000 reservists . The Syrian armed forces have also been involved in suppressing dissident movements within Syria , for example by fighting a Muslim Brotherhood insurrection in the 1980s . Syrian Civil War . The use of the army both to hold territory and fight rebels has caused mixed results ; around 10 , 000 soldiers , including high - ranking officers , initially defected or deserted in late 2011 , but the main force remained . Rami Abdel Rahman , the head of the UK - based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , placed the initial figure at less than 1000 soldiers , insisting that the claims of thousands of defected soldiers announced are a ' false hope ' . Defectors formed the Free Syrian Army as the armed wing of the uprising , and engaged in combat with security forces and soldiers around Syria . However , by March 2012 , many more soldiers , unhappy with crackdowns on pro - democracy protesters , switched sides and Turkish officials said that 60 , 000 soldiers had deserted the Syrian army , including 20 , 000 in one month . It was added that most of the deserters were junior officers and soldiers . In June 2012 , the UN head of peacekeeping said that Syria was in a state of " civil war " with the rebel Free Syrian Army trying to overthrow the current government controlled territory with the Syrian Army attempting to regain control of it . In total , 40 Brigadier generals from the Army have defected to the opposition army , out of a total 1 , 200 generals . On 14 June 73 Syrian Army officers and their families , some 202 people in total , sought refuge in Turkey . Amongst their number were seven generals and 20 colonels . According to General Mostafa Ahmad al - Sheikh , one of the most senior defectors , Syrian forces were estimated at 280 , 000 including conscripts after a year of desertions or defections in January 2012 . Reliable reports indicate that part of the problem facing the Army and other security forces is that Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar , Saudi Arabia , and Turkey — are supporting militants operating inside Syria to overthrow the Bashar al - Assad ' s government . An analyst , Joseph Holliday , wrote in 2013 that ' . . the Assad government has from the beginning of the conflict been unable to mobilize all of its forces without risking largescale defections . The single greatest liability that the Assad regime has faced in employing its forces has been the challenge of relying on units to carry out orders to brutalize the opposition . ' This has resulted in Bashar ' s following his father ' s precedent by attaching regular army units to more reliable forces ( Special Forces , Republican Guard , or 4th Armoured Division ) . When Hafez al - Assad directed both the suppression of revolts in Hama in 1982 and during the present civil war , this technique has been used . The 3rd Armoured Division has deployed elements of three brigades from its bases around Qutayfah to Deraa , Zabadani , and Hama , while the 11th Armoured Division has stayed close to its bases in Homs and Hama . Structure in 2001 . Richard Bennett wrote in 2001 that ' three corps [ were ] formed in 1985 to give the Army more flexibility and to improve combat efficiency by decentralizing the command structure , absorbing at least some of the lessons learned during the Israeli invasion of the Lebanon in 1982 . ' Richard Bennett ' s estimate of the 2001 order of battle was : Bennett said the 1st Corps also [ had ] four independent special forces regiments , including two trained for heliborne commando operations against the Israeli signals intelligence & observation posts on Mount Hermon and elsewhere in the Golan Heights . The IISS listed smaller formations in 2006 as : Protecting Damascus : Aleppo was home to the " Al - Assad Military Academy " ( ) , which provided basic training for infantry and armoured corps conscripts and advanced training for Army engineers . It was overrun and captured by Free Syrian Army rebel forces in December 2012 , but by June 2013 appears to be back under central government control . Structure details made available from 2011 . Human Rights Watch and Washington Institute reports seem to confirm the existence of the 15th Special Forces Division , which appears to have remained steadfastly loyal to the government . The European Council named Major General Wajih Mahmud as commander of the 18th Armoured Division in the Official Journal of the European Union on 15 November 2011 , sanctioning him for violence committed in Homs . Henry Boyd of the IISS noted that " . . . in Homs , the 18th Armoured Division was reinforced by Special Forces units and . . by elements of the 4th Division under Maher ’ s de facto command . " Information from Holliday 2013 suggests that the reserve armoured division is the 17th ( rather than any other designation ) , which was responsible for eastern Syria . The division ' s 93rd Brigade left Idlib to secure Al - Raqqah Governorate in early 2012 . Following the reported capture of Raqqa on 3 – 6 March 2013 , elements of the 17th Division remained under siege to the north of the city in October 2013 . Uniforms and Rank Insignia ( 1987 ) . Uniforms . Service uniforms for Syrian officers generally follow the British Army style , although army combat clothing follows the Soviet model . Each uniform has two coats : a long one for dress and a short jacket for informal wear . Army officer uniforms are khaki in summer , olive in winter . Certain Army ( paratroops and special forces ) and Air Defense Force personnel may wear camouflage uniforms . Among the camouflage are Red Lizard , and Syrian Leaf pattern ; a locally - made copy of the ERDL . Air force officers have two uniforms for each season : a khaki and a light gray for summer and a dark blue and a light gray in winter . Naval officers wear white in summer and navy blue in winter while lower ranks wear the traditional bell bottoms and white blouse . The uniform for naval chief petty officers is a buttoned jacket , similar to that worn by United States chief petty officers . Officers have a variety of headgear , including a service cap , garrison cap , and beret ( linen in summer and wool in winter ) . The color of the beret varies according to the officer ' s unit . The most common beret colour is black , for infantry , Engineering , Signals and supporting arms personnel , followed by Green , for Armoured , Mechanized and Artillery personnel , Red for the Republican Guard and Military Police , and Maroon for the Special Forces . Current combat helmets include the SSh - 68 and green PASGT ; both of which can be equipped with " Syrian Leaf " helmet covers . Ranks . Commissioned officers ' rank insignia are identical for the army and air force . These are gold on a bright green or black shoulder board for the army and gold on a bright blue board for the air force . Officer ranks are standard , although the highest is the equivalent of Colonel General , a rank held in 1986 only by the commander in chief and the minister of defense . Navy officer rank insignia are gold stripes worn on the lower sleeve . The highest - ranking officer in Syria ' s navy is the equivalent of lieutenant general . Army and air force rank for warrant officers is indicated by gold stars on an olive green shield worn on the upper left arm . Lower noncommissioned ranks are indicated by upright and inverted chevrons worn on the upper left arm . Awards . Although some twenty - five orders and medals are authorized , generally only senior officers and warrant officers wear medal ribbons . The following are some important Syrian awards : Order of Umayyads , Medal of Military Honor , the War Medal , Medal for Courage , Yarmuk Medal , Wounded in Action Medal , and Medal of March 8 , 1963 . Anniversary . August 1 is nationally considered Army Day . In 2013 , President Assad visited soldiers in Darayya . He gave the army a message saying he was sure of victory over the rebels .