Steep uphill battle: The many challenges in building Syria's new army

Integrating assortment of former rebels and an urgent need for new equipment are among most pressing concerns

Those undertaking the colossal task of building Syria’s new army face significant challenges.

While former rebel commanders accuse the new authorities of sidelining some factions, others are placing conditions on integration, Syrian military sources told The National. Another enormous hurdle lies in the country's crippled military infrastructure, which will require massive international support to rebuild.

Military figures, including senior officials, said some opposition factions are still operating in the formations they used before the fall of former president Bashar Al Assad in December, alongside a gradual handover to Damascus-led brigades as a nascent army forms.

Who exactly is in control and where, remains blurry and fluid.

“There is no full control of one side without the other,” a senior Syrian military source told The National. “There is an overlap of powers.” Syria’s new leaders face the daunting task of merging scores of rebel groups emerging from nearly 14 years of conflict into a united army.

Most former opposition factions attended a “victory conference” held in Damascus on January 29, at which Syrian leader Ahmed Al Shara announced the dissolution of all armed factions, political and civilian revolutionary bodies, and their merging into state institutions. It made official a reality that had existed in practice since the fall of the former regime in a lightning offensive led by Mr Al Shara’s Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), which was formerly linked to Al Qaeda.

The difficulties around military transition echo those of Syria’s wider evolution: sanctions are blocking incoming funds to a cash-strapped state, broken institutions need to be rebuilt, and communities need uniting.

The military restructuring must be tightly linked to the political transition, stressed another source – any new military cannot be fully formed until Syria has a constitution to define the role of the country’s armed forces, and a legal framework to pass laws related to the military. A temporary constitution could be declared to allow steps being taken in rebuilding the military to run according to a recognised framework, and an alternative mechanism to temporarily replace elections, which could take years, one of the sources said.

Turkish-backed Syrian National Army forces are continuing clashes with Kurdish militias in northern Syria. Getty Images

There needs to be a “quick solution” for the “continuity of the state, so it does not remain idle for years until we see elections,” he said. The source requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue.

New Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra has held dozens of meetings with more than 60 rebel groups, according to interviews conducted by The National and statements released by the Defence Ministry. It has formed a committee tasked with restructuring the Syrian armed forces and collecting data on current assets, alongside a sub-committee responsible for drawing up a new internal structure. Many former rebels say they are willing to unite Syria after collectively suffering under the Assad regime.

“We have sat down with the Defence Minister and we talked about the Defence Ministry, and the new army, and its presence in southern Syria,” Abu Murshed, deputy commander of the Southern Operations Room, a coalition of rebel forces across the country’s south that participated in toppling Al Assad in December, told The National in an interview in Deraa province. “The issue is progressing, it’s moving towards an agreement on which everyone agrees to form brigades within an army under the Defence Ministry.”

"We are done with the factions," another military commander in the desert city of Palmyra told The National. "Any person as a faction commander who leaves the Defence Ministry is disobedient, he can put down his weapons and become a civilian."

But the issue is far more complex. Some factions feel they have been sidelined, that new military appointees are not fit for the job, and are continuing negotiations with Damascus over the shape of a new army and the rights and duties of its troops.

In north-eastern Syria, a large area of land is still under the control of US-backed Kurdish militias who carved out a zone of autonomous rule. Its military integration is proving to be among the most challenging problems for the new authorities.

Syrian soldiers take part in a military parade in Aleppo. EPA

In north-western Syria, some Turkish-backed groups, collectively known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), are still operating in several areas, according to two officials, although they are gradually handing over some tasks to formations controlled by Damascus. HTS has been on a recruitment drive to urgently boost its manpower and has begun to train new soldiers under central control.

“The borders and checkpoints have now been handed over to Damascus, while the rest of the institutions are still under the control of the Syrian Interim Government (SIG), including military institutions such as military courts and the military police,” one of the sources said, referring to an opposition political force that controlled areas of north-western Syria when Mr Al Assad was still in power.

“The local councils and their subordinate institutions are still in place, for example, Education is under the control of Damascus in general. To some extent, the Ministry of Agriculture, for example, has been handed over.”

A third source said that the SNA factions were "still deployed in their barracks outside the cities and at deployment points," but had "become affiliated with the Ministry of Defense in Damascus".

Sidelining rebel factions

SNA factions, which were affiliated with the SIG, are keen to be represented in a new Syrian army, even if not in their current shape, the sources said. In recent weeks its factions were called individually, rather than as a whole, to meetings with new defence chiefs in Damascus to discuss how they would coalesce into a new Syrian army.

“Currently, the new state is entering the regions of northern Syria and work is being done to receive all official departments in co-operation with the SNA and its institutions,” another source said, also on condition of anonymity. But there are concerns among some former rebels that the new army will sideline some factions. The SNA includes around 70,000 men, whose concerns, if not addressed, could grow into rising discontent with the shape of the new administration in Damascus.

There was a “marginalisation” of former SNA commanders and a prioritisation of HTS loyalists in the nascent military, one of the sources said. “No disagreements have occurred, but so far there is no specific place for the SNA factions, and things are uncomfortable for its men,” the source continued. “Until now no place of work, salary, expenses and compensations have been allocated, especially for the martyrs and wounded. Things are still unclear.”

Senior officials from former opposition forces in northern Syria voiced concern that the first appointments in the new military were of people loyal to HTS and not necessarily the best candidates for the jobs. “They are certainly not suitable, the first thing is that they are not specialists, they are not officers, some of them are civilians. Even if some of them are officers, they are not suitable,” one of the sources said.

Foreign fighters were among nearly 50 top military appointments in late December – a move that has prompted umbrage among senior Syrian military officials. “This cannot be called a national army or a Syrian army, there are too many foreigners,” one of the sources said. Earlier this week reports circulated in the Syrian media that an Egyptian national, Rashid Asim Al Hawari, had been made commander of the Syrian Air Force, although the Verify-Sy fact-checking platform said he was a Syrian national from rural Damascus.

Each faction has its own internal system, and therefore it needs training from scratch, so we have a real organisation

Senior Syrian military official

Overall, faction commanders across Syria are keen, the sources said, to ensure that their men are paid, and that the families of fallen fighters receive some sort of benefits or stipend. In Deraa, the Southern Operations Room is pushing for its men’s rights as it merges with a new army.

“Every faction in Syria has demands: rights for the fighters, the martyrs, the martyrs’ children,” Abu Murshed said. “Anyone who served Syria over the past 14 years, he has rights. There are duties for both sides.”

More than twenty men from the Southern Operation's Room were killed during the advance towards Damascus in December that led to the fall of the Assad regime. Matt Kynaston / The National.

Another source said that individual SNA fighters would sign contracts to serve in the new armed forces, and that there is an inventory of wounded and killed fighters for receipt of benefits by their families. “We have taken a promise to arrange their rights,” one of the sources said. “But there are no guarantees for that currently.”

The future unity of Syria’s armed forces is complicated further by the presence of an autonomous region in the country’s north-east, which is home to US-backed Kurdish-majority militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). They control an area that contains most of Syria’s oil and gas, as well as major water reserves.

The SDF played a large role in anti-ISIS operations, but neighbouring Turkey sees the group as an extension of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group, and has vowed to eliminate them in Syria. Mr Al Shara has ruled out a federal system in which Kurdish groups would maintain some rights devolved from Damascus.

There is still a “crisis of trust” from other Syrians towards the SDF, one of the sources said. “Maybe there will be a secession or they will retain the geographical territory containing 70 per cent of the country’s resources.”

Earlier this week, the SDF and political leaders in north-eastern Syria said they had agreed, internally, to integrate the SDF and other security institutions into the structure of the Syrian army, “with the aim of unifying efforts and strengthening national power.” In a statement, the groups also said that foreign fighters would leave the SDF’s ranks – a demand that Turkey has made of Syria to avert another cross-border military incursion by Ankara to curb Kurdish militant activity.

The statement did not indicate that Damascus had reached an agreement with the SDF over their role in the future Syrian army, although it included an invitation for Ahmed Al-Shara to visit the north-east of Syria, indicating a willingness to continue talks.

Finances are another problem in the restructuring of Syria's military. With international sanctions and a broken economy, the country is burdened with the huge task of re-equipping and sourcing hardware suitable to secure a nation of over 23 million people that still faces security threats from ISIS.

“There should be new equipment, new weapons, especially in the field of aviation, air defence systems, military vehicles and naval forces,” one of the sources said. “Therefore the restructuring needs to be done from scratch, and it needs international support to provide training and weapons.”

Abu Murshad, deputy commander of the Southern Operations Room, a military formation in control of swathes of southern Syria. Matt Kynaston / The National.

As for the country’s air force, there are perhaps fewer than 20 aircraft of all types currently fit for purpose, the source estimated. “Most of them are obsolete, so they may serve for a while,” the source said. “But they are not fit to be part of the army.”

The forces also need retraining, according to one of the sources, and its overall size will depend on the political transition, as the scope of the army’s duties will need to be determined in a future constitution. The aim is to avoid a return to a military that echoes that of the former regime, which forcibly recruited hundreds of thousands of young men and still relied on foreign, Iran-backed militias to remain in power.

“Syria now needs a renaissance on all fronts, including the army. The army needs training because we have got to a zero, there is no institution,” he said. “True, there are factions, but each faction has its own internal system, and therefore it needs training from scratch, so we have a real organisation.”