Syria’s challenges to rebuild its armed forces

Syria is still facing numerous challenges a year after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Among the key priorities for the new government is rebuilding its national army and security forces.

For decades, Syria’s security apparatus and the military were considered by many as a brutal force to protect the regime and crack down on dissent.

The new interim government has begun the restructuring and recruiting process, focused on rebuilding the armed forces and adopting a new doctrine where loyalty is to the country.

“We started the process of restructuring our military and army … and we are meeting the need of the moment by having an army that Syria deserves as a nation to building an army that represents Syria and is able to face the challenges,’’ Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said during a ceremony for soldiers graduating from a military academy in the city of Aleppo.

“We will develop all branches of the armed forces and increase our military preparedness and efficiency to protect our nation. And we already issued rules of conduct and discipline,” Abu Qasra said after attending a military march by newly graduating candidates showing off their camouflage uniform and military vehicles and rifles.

But analysts warn that the process of rebuilding could be long and difficult, given the challenges that lie ahead – not least among them changing the mentality of armed groups and transforming them into part of an organised, professional army.

And among the main issues is vetting the large number of recruits to the country’s newly formed security forces, deciding whether to continue with Russian equipment, integrating forces from southern Syria and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast, and building the trust of the country’s many minority groups.

The success of the Syrian armed forces would go a long way to providing political stability in the country, and, with it, possible foreign investment and support for the government in Damascus.

“If Syria fails to integrate all armed forces and former opposition groups into its army, it faces an existential challenge of fragmentation and disintegration,” Caroline Rose, director of military and national security priorities at the New Lines Institute, told media.

“Without unification within its army and ongoing sectarian division, the country risks frequent security flashpoints – infighting between different armed groups and its armed forces – that could put Syria back on the path to civil war,” Rose explained.

Vetting

When the al-Assad regime collapsed on December 8, 2024, so did its security apparatus and armed forces. Many abdicated and fled to neighbouring countries, some hid in their homes, and others turned in their weapons and military IDs to the new authority.

In the first hours after al-Assad fled, Israel also began widespread air attacks around the country. On December 10, the Israeli military said in a statement that it had destroyed 80 percent of Syria’s strategic military capabilities. In the last year, Israel attacked Syria more than 600 times.

“With Israel having destroyed much of Syria’s conventional land, aerial, and naval military equipment in the initial days after al-Assad’s fall, along with the fact that the new administration has purged many regime-era officers and soldiers from its ranks, the new Syrian Army is, in many ways, starting from scratch,” Rose said.

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa has dissolved the former army. His group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which controlled the province of Idlib for years during Syria’s revolution and was the main fighting force that toppled al-Assad – along with other, smaller groups – makes up about 40,000 fighters.

With those numbers, the government would struggle to govern the entirety of Syria.

President al-Sharaa appointed military commanders and merged several anti-Assad factions into the new security apparatus and military. The Ministry of Defence now oversees the Syrian Armed Forces, while the Ministry of Interior oversees internal security forces such as the General Security. They also opened up recruitment to the general population, bringing in tens of thousands of new faces, which, according to analysts, brings two major problems.

The first was the breakneck speed of recruitment, due to the need for manpower, which meant vetting was sidelined. Thousands of young men in the 18-23-year-old age range sought these positions, at least, in part, because they were among the few economic prospects after years of sanctions, open conflict, and state pilfering destroyed Syria’s economy.

“It’s a very delicate balance to keep Syria’s security glued together,” Samy Akil, a nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute, told media.

“It’s not about recruiting only; it’s about the merger of so many factions and no proper vetting process. I am sure after the one- or two-year benchmark, they can be more selective in the recruitment processes.”

Also, a key problem for Syria’s new rulers is the issue of foreign fighters who played an integral part within numerous factions that fought against the al-Assad regime.

Western powers, including the US, had issued clear warnings to Damascus: No room for foreign fighters in any key military positions. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on multiple occasions that those fighters will not assume key positions and ‘’will not pose any threat’’ to their countries.

The other major issue, according to analysts, is that there are still tens of thousands of officers or noncommissioned officers (NCOs) with military training who are unlikely to be integrated into Syria’s new security apparatus.

The Syrian defence minister has said that the army welcomed about 3000 regime-era soldiers back into its ranks after vetting. But analysts estimate that there is still a deficit of high and mid-level military officers with both conventional and irregular battlefield experience.

A report by the Washington, DC-based Middle East Institute quoted a Syrian military official as saying that about 70,000 Alawite officers and NCOs were in the Syrian army under al-Assad and were highly unlikely to be reinstated. Battle-hardened, military-capable men not serving in the country’s military could also pose a problem to Damascus.

On December 5, the Reuters news agency reported that Rami Makhlouf, a billionaire and al-Assad’s cousin, and Syria’s ex-intelligence chief Kamal Hassan “are spending millions of dollars in competing efforts to build fighting forces that would lead a revolt along Syria’s coast (al-Assad’s former stronghold)”. US media reports also indicated that Makhlouf is bankrolling a force made up of more than 160,000 Alawite and former army soldiers to revolt against the government.

Russia or the US

In the late years of al-Assad’s reign, Syria had become isolated internationally. Russia and Iran were among the few remaining allies, and analysts say that without them, al-Assad would not have been able to stay in power as long as he did.

But after al-Assad fled to Moscow in the early hours of December 8, Syria’s position in the international community quickly changed. Syria under al-Sharaa has gained crucial support from countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which had previously opposed al-Assad, while Iranian-Syrian relations were severed.

In November, al-Sharaa became the first Syrian president to visit the White House, signalling warming ties between his country and the United States. But despite Russia’s support of al-Assad and providing him refuge, relations with the new Syrian government are not completely shattered.

“The biggest challenge the SAA faces is that it is essentially a Russian force in its doctrine and equipment,” Rob Geist Pinfold, a scholar of international security at King’s College London, told media.

“This means that whenever they need spare parts or more stock, it’s Russian equipment that they currently need to buy.

“This not only gives Russia some leverage over the government; it also creates problems for Syria-US relations, since the Trump administration wants to pry Damascus away from not just Tehran but Moscow as well,” Geist Pinfold added.

In addition to military equipment, a number of regional and international actors are working to bolster the Syrian military’s capabilities, analysts said.

“The US is most certainly playing a role in bolstering the Syrian Army’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) abilities through frequent intelligence exchange,” Rose, from the New Lines Institute, said.

“With Syria now in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, we should expect the US to foster a closer security relationship, sending advisers for training and guidance as Syria faces a potential resurgence from ISIS cells.”

In addition to the US, Turkiye signed a bilateral defence deal with Syria in August to provide training, advisory and technical support to the Syrian Armed Forces. Under the deal, 49 Syrian cadets (10 army, 18 navy and 21 air force) started undergoing training in Turkish academies, according to reports in Turkish media.

Integration and minorities

But even with international support, Syria’s security forces still need to build domestic legitimacy and gain trust.

Security forces were reportedly involved in sectarian massacres along Syria’s coast and in the southern region of Suwayda. These incidents gained international attention but also eroded trust in the military among many inside the country.

“Opinion polls suggest most Sunni Arab Syrians still trust the army and the government. But minority communities do not,” Geist Pinfold said.

“For these groups, the SAA [Syrian Arab Army] is less an army and more a sectarian militia; they not only think it doesn’t protect them but is actively out to undermine their own interests and safety.”

That lack of trust also extends to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which control the country’s northeast. On March 10, the SDF and Damascus signed a deal to integrate SDF forces into the Syrian military before the end of 2025. Yet, tensions between the two sides are growing and at times descending into clashes.