Formations

The new national military being assembled since January 2025 from the victorious factions, HTS-derived formations, integrating SDF divisions and vetted personnel — replacing the dissolved Assad-era army rather than inheriting it. Described at structural level only.

The Kurdish-led, multi-ethnic force that defeated the ISIS caliphate — commanded by Mazloum Abdi, integrating into the Ministry of Defence under the January 2026 agreement as three divisions and two specialised brigades. Structural level only.

The insurgent remnant of the Islamic State after the 2019 territorial defeat — desert cells and attack networks concentrated in Deir ez-Zor and the central Badia, reduced and recalibrating since the January 2026 settlement of the east.

The Islamist armed movement that ruled Idlib, led the offensive that toppled the Assad government, and dissolved itself into the new state in January 2025 — the institutional predecessor of the transitional government's core forces. Historical record.

The transitional state's interior security structures — successor space to the Assad era's police and feared intelligence branches, rebuilt around the General Security Service, and the destination of the Asayish under the integration agreement's interior file. Structural description only.

The Kurdish militia core of the SDF — the YPG and its women's units, the YPJ — rooted in the PYD movement family. Türkiye considers them a PKK extension and demands their dissolution; the units reject the equation. Component and historical context.

The Autonomous Administration's internal security force — police, checkpoints and detention responsibilities across the northeast for a decade, including guard roles in the ISIS detention system. Entering Interior Ministry structures under the January 2026 agreement. Structural description only.

Türkiye's military presence in northern Syria since 2016 — the garrisons, observation arrangements and patronage structures built through operations Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch and Peace Spring, now recalibrating around partnership with the transitional government. Broad structural description only.

The factions organised under Turkish patronage from 2016 as the "Syrian National Army" — garrison and administration forces of the northern zones with a heavily documented abuse record in Afrin, now folding unevenly into the new national military. Structural level only.

The Druze-led armed factions of Sweida province — local self-defence structures hardened by the July 2025 violence into the de facto security authority of most of the province, outside state control and without unified command. Structural description only; listing is description, not recognition.

The US military presence that anchored the anti-ISIS campaign and the SDF partnership from 2015 — ended with the handover of the last major base to the Syrian government on 16 April 2026. Historical record, broad structural level only.

Russia's remaining publicly documented presence — the Khmeimim air base and Tartus naval facility, hubs of the 2015–2024 intervention, retained under negotiation with the transitional government. Broad structural level only; no current dispositions represented.

Israel's regional posture bearing on Syria — the strike campaign of December 2024, presence in and beyond the Golan buffer zone, and recurring operations in the south alongside the security negotiation. Broad strategic description only; no positions or operational detail represented.

A navigation grouping, not a command: the Iranian-coordinated militia, logistics and financing structures of the Assad era — Hezbollah's Syrian role, aligned foreign militias, the Iraq–Lebanon corridor — dismantled or dispersed since December 2024, with residual activity reported and hard to verify. Each element's real parent institutions differed; historical and strategic scale only.