7th Mechanized Division (Syria)

The 7th Mechanized Division ( ar, فرقة المشاة الآلية السابعة) is a division of the Syrian Arab Army, currently engaged in the Syrian Civil War. It was established in 1970.

Command structure

;7th Mechanized Division (2019)
* 88th Mechanized Brigade
* 90th Mechanized Brigade
* 121st Mechanized Brigade
* 78th Armored Brigade
* 70th Artillery Brigade

Combat history

Yom Kippur War

The division, formed as 7th Infantry Division, was a key component of the Syrian attack force in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, involved in some of the heaviest fighting in the Golan Heights, especially in the aptly named 'Valley of Tears'. The division, with its attached armoured brigade, lost a great number of tanks when trying on many accounts to rush the Israeli defenses. Omar Abrash was serving as the division commander.

Although Syrian division had a nominal strength of around 10,000 men, 200 tanks, 72 artillery pieces and similar numbers of SAMs and anti-aircraft guns, the 7th Infantry Division had only 80% of its tanks and APCs during the war. Furthermore, although designated as an infantry division, the division was essentially mechanised. Because of the extensive losses suffered by the division during the battle of the Valley of Tears, one of the division's brigades had to be pulled out of action for 3 days before being reorganized as a battalion.

In 1973, the division's equipment, organisation, tactics, and training were virtually identical to those of the 5th Infantry Division during its action in Jordan.

Syrian Civil War

In August 2012, Mohamed Moussa al-Khairat, reported as the division commander, defected to Jordan. In 2015, the 68th Brigade was transferred from the 7th Division to the 1st Division. Elements of the brigade also deployed with the 7th Division's 137th Artillery Regiment to Deir ez-Zor and then to Beit Jin in the second half of 2017. The 241st Mechanized Battalion of the 68th Brigade was one of the first units deployed to Deir ez-Zor in 2011. The remnants of the battalion remained here until 2017.

The 88th Brigade, long stationed in northern Hama/Idlib, became part of the newly created 6th Division of the 4th Volunteer Assault Corps in early 2015, but suffered significant losses during the opposition offensive in the spring of 2015. The rest of the 7th Division has fought almost exclusively in southern Syria since at least late 2017, although elements of the 137th Artillery Regiment have been deployed to Deir ez-Zor Governorate in March 2017.

On 10 May 2018, the SAA High Command appointed Major General Hussam Louka in charge of the reorganization of the 7th Division. Louka turned the remaining four brigades of the 7th Division into "elite units" as well as moved the division’s headquarters from Damascus to Aleppo. In November 2018, he was promoted again to director of the Political Security Directorate of Syria.

References

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Infantry divisions of Syria