The Deir ez-Zor Governorate campaign of the
Syrian civil war consists of several battles and offensives fought across the governorate of
Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
:
*
Deir ez-Zor clashes (2011–2014)
**
2012 Deir ez-Zor bombing
**
Hatla massacre
*
Battle of Deir ez-Zor (2014–2017)
**
Deir ez-Zor offensive (April–July 2014)
**
Deir ez-Zor offensive (December 2014)
**
Deir ez-Zor offensive (2016)
**
September 2016 Deir ez-Zor air raid
**
Deir ez-Zor offensive (January–February 2017)
**
Central Syria campaign (2017)
***
2017 Deir ez-Zor missile strike
***
Deir ez-Zor offensive (September–November 2017)
*
2016 Abu Kamal offensive
*
Raqqa campaign (2016–2017) (the SDF first entered Deir ez-Zor Governorate)
*
Syrian Desert campaign (December 2016–April 2017)
Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...
*
Deir ez-Zor campaign (2017–2019)
The Deir ez-Zor campaign, codenamed the al-Jazeera Storm campaign, was a military operation launched by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria's Deir ez-Zor Governorate in 2017 during the Syrian Civil War with ...
**
Battle of Khasham
The Battle of Khasham, also known as the Battle of Conoco Fields, was a military engagement of the Syrian civil war fought on 7 February 2018 near the towns of Khasham and Al Tabiyeh in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria. The Operation Inher ...
**
Battle of Hajin
**
Battle of Baghuz Fawqani
The Battle of Baghuz Fawqani was an offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), assisted by Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) coalition airstrikes, artillery, and special forces personnel, that began on 9 ...
*
Eastern Syria campaign (September–December 2017)
The Eastern Syria campaign of September–December 2017 was a large-scale military operation of the Syrian Army (SAA) and its allies against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the Syrian Civil War. Its goal was to clear the ...
**
2017 Euphrates Crossing offensive
**
2017 Mayadin offensive
**
2017 Abu Kamal offensive
*
Syrian Desert campaign (December 2017–present)
**
Deir ez-Zor offensive (May–June 2018)
*
Deir ez-Zor Governorate clashes (April 2018)
*
Eastern Syria insurgency
*
Iranian strike on Hajin
*
Deir ez-Zor clashes (2023)
*
Deir ez-Zor offensive (2024)
Order of battle
Pro-government forces
Syrian government
The government of Syria takes place in a presidential system and is currently in a transitionary period under and led by a transitional government. The seat of the government is located in Damascus, Syria.
On 8 December 2024, after the succ ...
*
Syrian Armed Forces
The Syrian Armed Forces () are the military forces of Syria.
Up until the fall of Bashar al-Assad's Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region, Ba'ath Party Ba'athist Syria, regime in December 2024, the Syrian Arab Armed Forces were the sta ...
**
Syrian Army
The Syrian Army is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. Up until the fall of the Assad regime, the Syrian Arab Army existed as a land force branch of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, which dominanted the military service of the fo ...
***
1st Armoured Division
***
3rd Armoured Division
****
Qalamoun Shield Forces
***
4th Armoured Division
**** 38th Brigade
***
5th Corps
****
ISIS Hunters
***
17th Division
***
18th Armoured Division
****137th Brigade
***
Republican Guard
A republican guard, sometimes called a national guard, is a state organization of a country (often a republic, hence the name ''Republican'') which typically serves to protect the head of state and the government, and thus is often synonymous wit ...
****104th Brigade
**** 800th Regiment
***
Tiger Forces
**
Syrian Air Force
The Syrian Air Force () is the air force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It was established in 1948, and first saw action in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Under Ba'athist Syria until December 8, 2024, it was known as the Syrian Arab Air Forc ...
**
National Defence Forces
The National Defense Forces (NDF; ''Quwāt ad-Difāʿ al-Watanī'') was a Syrian paramilitary volunteer militia, that was formed on 1 November 2012 and organized by Ba'athist Syria during the Syrian civil war as a part-time volunteer reserve co ...
***
Baqir Brigade
***
Lions of Hussein
*
Military Intelligence Directorate
**
Military Security Shield Forces
**
Forces of the Fighters of the Tribes
Hezbollah
Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...
* Lebanese Hezbollah
**
Radwan Force
*
Syrian Hezbollah
** Imam Mahdi Scouts from
Nubl
** Hezbollah Rocket Division
*
Russian Armed Forces
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Russian Ground Forces, Ground Forces, Russian Navy, Navy, and Russi ...
**
***
29th Army
**** 200th Artillery Brigade
***
Special Operations Forces
Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...
**
Russian Aerospace Forces
The Russian Aerospace Forces or Russian Air and Space Forces (VKS) comprise the air force, aerial, space force, space warfare, and Missile defense, missile defence Military branch, branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It was ...
***
**
*
Wagner Group
The Wagner Group (), officially known as PMC Wagner (, ), is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled 2023 Wagner Group plane crash, until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Pu ...
** 5 Storm unit
( since 2013)
*
Iranian Armed Forces
The Iranian Armed Forces, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces, are the combined military forces of Iran, comprising the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (''Artesh''), the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (''Sepah'') and the Polic ...
**
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also known as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is a multi-service primary branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces, Iranian Armed Forces. It was officially established by Ruhollah Khom ...
***
Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
***
Quds Force
The Quds Force () is one of five branches of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It specializes in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. U.S. Army's Iraq War General Stanley McChrystal describes the Quds Fo ...
PMF-affiliated militias
*
Kata'ib al-Imam Ali
*
Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba
** 12th Mechanized Brigade
*
Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada
*
Kata'ib Hezbollah
Kata'ib Hezbollah (), also known as the Hezbollah Brigades, is an Iraqi Shia paramilitary group which is a part of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), staffing the 45th, 46th, and 47th Brigades. During the Iraq War (2003–11), the g ...
*
Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq
** Kafeel Zaynab Brigade
(since 2017, against ISIS only)
*
Iraqi Air Force
The Iraqi Air Force (IQAF; ) is the aerial warfare service branch of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It is responsible for the defense of Iraqi airspace as well as the policing of its international borders. The IQAF also acts as a support force for t ...
Other armed groups:
*
Shabiha
''Shabiha'' (North Levantine Arabic, Levantine Arabic: ', ; also romanized ''Shabeeha'' or ''Shabbiha''; ) is a colloquial and generally derogatory term for various loosely-organised Syrian militias loyal to the Ba'athist Syria, Ba'athist govern ...
(2011–12, merged into NDF)
*
Liwa Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas (2011–14, rebel claim)
* Foreign
Shia
Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...
groups
**
Liwa Fatemiyoun
Liwa Fatemiyoun (; Persian language, Persian/Dari Persian, Dari: ), literally "Fatimid Liwa (Arabic), Banner" or Fatemiyoun Brigade, also known as Lashkar-e-Fatemiyoun (; Persian language, Persian/Dari Persian, Dari: ) or Fatemiyoun Division is an ...
**
Liwa Zainebiyoun[Christoph Reuter]
American Fury: The Truth About the Russian Deaths in Syria: Hundreds of Russian soldiers are alleged to have died in U.S. airstrikes at the beginning of February. Reporting by DER SPIEGEL shows that events were likely very different.
''Der Spiegel
(, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'', 2 March 2018.
*
Syrian Resistance
** Falcons of the Jazira and Euphrates
*
Palestinian
Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine.
*: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...
groups
**
Al-Quds Brigade
**
Galilee Forces
**
Fatah al-Intifada
**
Free Palestine Movement
*
Sootoro
* Allied local tribes
**
Al-Shaitat
**
Al-Baggara
Rebel forces
;
Free Syrian Army
The Free Syrian Army (FSA; ) is a Big tent, big-tent coalition of decentralized Syrian opposition (2011–2024), Syrian opposition rebel groups in the Syrian civil war founded on 29 July 2011 by Colonel Riad al-Asaad and six officers who defe ...
/
SNC-aligned units
The rebel units in eastern Syria were originally largely independent and unorganized, until many accepted the authority of the
(SNC) in late 2012. The authority of the SNC remained mostly nominal, however, and by late 2013 this alliance already began to disintegrate again.
* 3rd Infantry Division
* 4th Infantry Division
* 5th Commando Division
* 7th Division
* 11th Division
* Liwa Jund al-Rahman
* Liwa Chouhada' Deïr ez-Zor
*
Ahfad al-Rasul Brigade
* Liwa al-Khadra'
* Liwa al-Abbas
* Liwa al-Qadisiya
* Liwa al-Muhajirin ila Allah
* Lions of Al Jazeera
*
Retribution Army
*
Al-Tawhid Brigade
;
Mujahideen
''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...
and
Islamists
Islamism is a range of Religion, religious and Politics, political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is su ...
Over time, several units left the SNC alliance due to differences, and formed new, often more Islamist coalitions. Nevertheless, these new alliances generally remained allied with the council.
* Harakat Abna' al-Islam
** Jaysh Al-Tawhid (also member of the
Syrian Islamic Front)
**
Kata'ib al-Ansar
** Kata'ib al-Sa’iqa
* Jaysh Ahl as-Sunna wa-l-Jama’a (formed from former
Authenticity and Development Front member groups)
** Liwa al-Athar
** Liwa Usud as-Sunna
** Liwa Ahl al-Raya
* Jabhat al-Jihad wal-Bina' al-Islamiyya (under command of the Islamic Court of Deir ez-Zor)
** Liwa Jaf’ar al-Tayyar
** Liwa la Ilaha illa Allah
** Liwa al-Hawaz, Liwa Ibn Qiam
** Liwa al-Risalla
** Liwa al-Tawhid al-Islami
** Liwa Othman bin Afan
** Liwa Ahfad Mohammad
** Liwa Sarayat al-Rasoul
** Liwa Sadiq al-Amin
** Tajamm’u al-Rachidin
* Brigade of al-Qaka
; Radical
jihadists
Besides the SNC and the allied Islamist coalitions, there were also number of radical
jihadist
Jihadism is a neologism for modern, armed militant Political aspects of Islam, Islamic movements that seek to Islamic state, establish states based on Islamic principles. In a narrower sense, it refers to the belief that armed confrontation ...
groups active in Deir ez-Zor; though they normally also cooperated with other, more moderate rebels, they also worked with the Islamic State, especially in Deir ez-Zor's hinterland.
*
Al-Nusra Front
Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra or Jabhat Nusrat Ahl al-Sham, also known as Front for the Conquest of the Levant, and also later known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham was a Salafi-jihadist organization that fought against Ba'athist Syria, Ba'athist ...
* Liwa al-Fatihoun min Ard ash-Sham
*
Ahrar al-Sham
SDF forces and allies
( since 2016)
*
Syrian Democratic Forces
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is a Kurds in Syria, Kurdish-led coalition of U.S.-backed Left-wing politics, left-wing ethnic militias and rebel groups, and serves as the official military wing of the Democratic Autonomous Administration ...
**
People's Protection Units
The People's Defense Units (YPG), also called People's Protection Units, is a libertarian socialist US-backed Kurds in Syria, Kurdish militant group in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The YPG mostl ...
(YPG)
***
Anti-Terror Units
The Anti-Terror Units (, short: YAT, ) are the special forces of the Syrian Democratic Forces, consisting of the best trained and equipped members of the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Women's Protection Units (YPJ). They were led by the Sy ...
***
YPG International
**
Women's Protection Units
The Women's Protection Units (YPJ) or Women's Defense Units is an all-female militia involved in the Syrian civil war. The YPJ is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the armed forces of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and Ea ...
(YPJ)
**
Deir ez-Zor Military Council
*** Gathering of
al-Baggara Youth
*** Khabat al-Sha'iti Battalion
*** Hajin battalion
**
Al-Sanadid Forces
**
Manbij Military Council
***
Manbij Revolutionaries Battalion
*** Martyr Abdo Dushka Regiment
**
Army of Revolutionaries
***
Kurdish Front
**
Northern Democratic Brigade
The Northern Democratic Brigade () is a Free Syrian Army unit that is closely allied to the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, YPG and Women's Protection Units, YPJ in Afrin Region since 2014. Led by Abu Omar al-Idlibi, Absi Taha, Alexander ...
**
Syriac Military Council
The Syriac Military Council (, MFS; ) is an Assyrian people, Assyrian military organisation in Syria, part of the Syrian Democratic Forces. The establishment of the organisation was announced on 8 January 2013. According to the Syriac Military Co ...
(MFS)
*** Special Forces unit
**
Nattoreh
* Federal security forces
**
Self Defence Forces (HXP)
**
Asayish
International Freedom Battalion (IFB)
*
Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist (TKP/ML)
**
Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey (TİKKO)
Foreign support:
*
CJTF–OIR
**
***
United States Armed Forces
The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. U.S. United States Code, federal law names six armed forces: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States Navy, Na ...
****
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
*****
Delta Force
The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (1st SFOD-D), also known as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group (CAG), or within Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) as Task Force Green, is a Special operation forces, special operat ...
****
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
****
United States special operations forces
****
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...
**
***
British Armed Forces
The British Armed Forces are the unified military, military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its British Overseas Territories, Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests ...
****
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
****
*****
Special Air Service
The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, and in 1950 it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terr ...
**
***
French Air Force
The French Air and Space Force (, , ) is the air force, air and space force of the French Armed Forces. Formed in 1909 as the ("Aeronautical Service"), a service arm of the French Army, it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the Fr ...
***
French Army
The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...
****
***
French SOF
**
***
**
(2016)
***
**
(2016)
***
*
(minor cross border support since 2018, against ISIS only)
**
Popular Mobilization Forces
The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF; ), also known as the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), is an Iranian-backed paramilitary umbrella group that operates within Iraq. Although formally and legally part of the Iraqi Armed Forces and reportin ...
*
(air support since 2018, against ISIS only)
**
Pro-ISIS forces
(IS)
*
Military of ISIS
** Wilayat al-Khayr
(until 2018)
** Wilayat al-Sham
(since 2018)
***
al-Barakah district (2016–2019)
*** al-Khayr district
(2018–19)
*** al-Furat district
(2018–19)
References
{{Reflist
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Deir ez-Zor Governorate in the Syrian civil war
Campaigns of the Syrian civil war