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Struggle Companies (Syria)
The Struggle Companies ( ar, سرايا الصراع; ''Saraya al-Sira'') was 5,000-strong commando force deployed around Damascus. Created in 1973 and commanded by Maj. Gen Adnan Assad, a cousin of the late Syrian president, Hafez Assad.MIDDLE EAST SECURITY REPORT 8:The Assad Regime by Joseph Holliday, dtd March 2013 The all Alawite Struggle Companies are broadly similar to the Defense Companies and are/were fanatically loyal to the Syrian government and were heavily used during the 1982 Hama Muslim Brotherhood uprising The Syrian president exercises direct control over the Saraya al-Sira', Saraya al-Difa', and the Republican Guard all of whom function as a Praetorian Guard.Arab Amies of the Middle East Wars (2), Osprey Men at Arms series #194 p43 by Samuel Katz The headquarters of the Saraya al-Sira' is Mezzeh Military Airport The Saraya al-Sira' wore combat uniforms quite distinct from the regular Syrian military, their uniform consisted of lizard-patterned camouflage fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syrian Armed Forces
The Syrian Arab Armed Forces ( ar, الْقُوَّاتُ الْمُسَلَّحَةُ الْعَرَبِيَّةُ السُّورِيَّةُ, al-Quwwāt al-Musallaḥah al-ʿArabīyah as-Sūrīyah) are the military forces of the Syrian Arab Republic. They consist of the Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Air Force, Syrian Arab Navy, Syrian Arab Air Defense Force, and paramilitary forces, such as the National Defence Force. According to the Syrian constitution, the President of Syria is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The military is a conscripted force; males serve in the military upon reaching the age of 18, but they are exempted from service if they do not have a brother who can take care of their parents. Since the Syrian Civil War, the enlisted members of the Syrian military have 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muhammad Al-Assa
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He is believed to be the Seal of the Prophets within Islam. Muhammad united Arabia into a single Muslim polity, with the Quran as well as his teachings and practices forming the basis of Islamic religious belief. Muhammad was born approximately 570CE in Mecca. He was the son of Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib and Amina bint Wahb. His father Abdullah was the son of Quraysh tribal leader Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim, and he died a few months before Muhammad's birth. His mother Amina died when he was six, leaving Muhammad an orphan. He was raised under the care of his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, and paternal uncle, Abu Talib. In later years, he would periodically seclude himsel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shabiha
''Shabiha'' (Levantine Arabic: ', ; also romanized ''Shabeeha'' or ''Shabbiha''; ) is a term for state sponsored militias of the Syrian government. However, in the Aleppo Governorate the term Shabiha is used frequently to refer to pro-Assad Sunni tribes such as al-Berri, al-Baggara, al-Hasasne and al-Zeido. In the city of Aleppo itself it was led by the powerful Sunni Arab al-Berri tribe. The word became common in the 90s, when it was being used to refer to "thugs" who work with the government and often drove Mercedes-Benz S-Class and gave their guards the same car; that specific car model was nicknamed Shabah (Ghost) in many Arabic countries which led to its drivers being called Shabeeh The Syrian opposition stated that the ''shabiha'' are a tool of the government for cracking down on dissent. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has stated that some of the ''shabiha'' are mercenaries. Before the Syrian civil war According to defectors privately interviewed by ''The Star' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fatigues
Workwear is clothing worn for work, especially work that involves manual labour. Often those employed within trade industries elect to be outfitted in workwear because it is built to provide durability and safety. The workwear clothing industry is growing and consumers have numerous retailers to choose from. Chains that have made a commitment to the $1 billion and rising workwear business report steady 6 percent to 8 percent annual gains in men's workwear. In the United Kingdom, if workwear is provided to an employee without a logo, it may be subject to income tax being levied on the employee for a " payment in kind." However, if company clothing is provided with logos on then the employee may be entitled to a tax rebate to help pay for the upkeep. History In Britain from the mid 19th century until the 1970s, dustmen, coalmen, and the manual laborers known as navvies wore flat caps, corduroy pants, heavy boots, and donkey jackets, often with a brightly colored cotton neckerch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lizard (camouflage)
The lizard pattern (TAP47 pattern or Leopard pattern for the French) is a family of many related designs of military camouflage pattern, first used by the French Army on uniforms from 1947 to the late 1980s. It was based on the British paratroopers' Denison smock. The use of the pattern is widespread in Africa, despite its association with France, because armed factions and militaries tend to obtain them from whichever source has it available. There are two major types of lizard pattern, horizontal like the original French design, and vertical like the early variant developed by Portugal. In addition, the Vietnam War tigerstripe pattern is descended from Lizard. Evolution of lizard patterns Lizard patterns have two overlapping prints, generally green and brown, printed with gaps so that a third dyed color, such as a lighter green or khaki, makes up a large part of the pattern. In this, it is printed like earlier British patterns used on that country's Paratroopers Denison smo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mezzeh Military Airport
Mezzeh Military Airport (also spelled ''Mazzeh'') is a Syrian Air Force military air base located in Mezzeh, Damascus, Syria, south-west of the old centre of Damascus. It has one runway of 8258 ft length, at elevation 2407 ft.globalsecurity.orSyrian Airfields/ref> In mid-2013 the airport was described by the BBC as "an important strategic installation hichplays a significant role in distributing the government's military supplies." Reuters reported in mid-2013 that it was "used by Syria's elite Republican Guards, Special Forces and Air Force Intelligence, ndalso serves as a private airport for the Assad family."Reuters, 16 June 2013Explosion hits military airport in Damascus: activists/ref> It also said that during the Syrian civil war the base was "used to fire rockets and artillery at rebellious Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods on the edge of the capital." The location of the Mezzeh military airport has also been used by the Syrian regime as a jail to imprison opponents duri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Republican Guard (Syria)
The Syrian Republican Guard ( ar, الْحَرَسُ الْجُمْهُورِيُّ, ''al-Ḥaras al-Jumhūriyy''), also known as the Presidential Guard, is an elite 25,000 man mechanized division, although it may actually approach corps size with around 60,000 guardsman. Its main purpose is to protect the capital, Damascus, from any foreign or domestic threats. The Guard was the only Syrian military unit allowed within the capital city before the civil war. History The Guard was formed in 1976 after the after the Syrian occupation of Lebanon to protect the increasingly unpopular president. Major-General Adnan Makhlouf commanded the Guard from 1976 until 1997. The Republican Guard is used mostly to protect top Syrian government officials from any external threats and to serve as a counter-weight to the other powerful Syrian Army formations near the capital, the 4th Mechanized Division, the 3rd Armoured Division, and the 14th Special Forces (Airborne) Division. Many members of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1982 Hama Massacre
The Hama Massacre ( ar, مجزرة حماة), or Hama Uprising, occurred in February 1982 when the Syrian Arab Army and the Defense Companies, under orders of the country's president Hafez al-Assad, besieged the town of Hama for 27 days in order to quell an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood against al-Assad's government. Fisk 2010 MEMRI 2002 The massacre, carried out by the Syrian Army under commanding General Rifaat al-Assad, effectively ended the campaign begun in 1976 by Sunni Muslim groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, against the government. Initial diplomatic reports from Western countries stated that 1,000 were killed. Subsequent estimates vary, with the lower estimates claiming that at least 2,000 Syrian citizens were killed,''New York Times'' 2011 March 26 while others put the number at 20,000 (Robert Fisk) or 40,000 (Syrian Human Rights Committee).Syrian Human Rights Committee, 2005 About 1,000 Syrian soldiers were killed during the operation, and large part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hama
, timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 33 , geocode = C2987 , blank_name = Climate , blank_info = BSk , website = , footnotes = , name = Hama ( ar, حَمَاة ', ; syr, ܚܡܬ, ħ(ə)mɑθ, lit=fortress; Biblical Hebrew: ''Ḥamāṯ'') is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 854,000 (2009 census), Hama is the fourth-largest city in Syria after Damascus, Aleppo and Homs. The city is renowned for its sev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Defense Companies (Syria)
The Defense Companies ( ar, سرايا الدفاع; ) were a paramilitary force in Syria that were commanded by Rifaat al-Assad. Their task was to defend the Assad government, and Damascus, from internal and external attack. In 1984 the 55,000 strong Defense Companies was broken up and merged into the Syrian Arab Army as the Republican Guard (Syria), Republican Guard, and the 14th Special Forces Division, comprising 5 Special Forces regiments. The rump force then became the 569th Armored Division, which years later became the 4th Armoured Division (Syria), 4th Armoured division History and deployment The lessons of the Six-Day War of 1967 pointed to the fact of the weak airborne and heavy armor capabilities of the Syrian Military. There was a perceptible lack of expertise in combined arms operations involving a combined deployment of armoured, artillery and airborne infantry units. Top Syrian military commanders and Hafez al Assad recognized the need to create a powerful and op ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alawite
The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Islam. The Alawites revere Ali (Ali ibn Abi Talib), considered the first Imam of the Twelver school. The group is believed to have been founded by Ibn Nusayr during the 9th century. Ibn Nusayr was a disciple of the tenth Twelver Imam, Ali al-Hadi and of the eleventh Twelver Imam, Hasan al-Askari. For this reason, Alawites are also called ''Nusayris''. Surveys suggest Alawites represent an important portion of the Syrian population and are a significant minority in the Hatay Province of Turkey and northern Lebanon. There is also a population living in the village of Ghajar in the Golan Heights. Alawites form the dominant religious group on the Syrian coast and towns near the coast, which are also inhabited by Sunnis, Christians, and Ism ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hafez Assad
Hafez al-Assad ', , (, 6 October 1930 – 10 June 2000) was a Syrian statesman and military officer who served as President of Syria from taking power in 1971 until his death in 2000. He was also Prime Minister of Syria from 1970 to 1971, as well as regional secretary of the regional command of the Syrian regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and secretary general of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party from 1970 to 2000. Assad participated in the 1963 Syrian coup d'état which brought the Syrian regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to power, and the new leadership appointed him commander of the Syrian Air Force. In February 1966, Assad participated in a second coup, which toppled the traditional leaders of the Ba'ath Party. Assad was appointed defence minister by the new government. Four years later, Assad initiated a third coup which ousted the ''de facto'' leader Salah Jadid and appointed himself as leader of Syria. Assad imposed c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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