Editing Syrian Armed Forces (section)

=== Army ===
The [[Syrian Army]] was historically the dominant military service, controlled the seniormost posts in the armed forces, and had approximately 80% of the armed forces' personnel. In 1987 Joshua Sinai wrote that the major recent structural developments were the establishment of a [[special forces]] division (the [[14th Special Forces Division]]) and the organization of ground formations into three corps.{{sfn|Sinai|1987}} In 2010, the [[International Institute for Strategic Studies]] estimated army regulars or professionals at 220,000, with an additional 280,000 reserves. That figure was unchanged in the 2011 edition of the ''Military Balance'',{{sfn|IISS|2011|p=330}} but in the 2013 edition, during the war, the IISS estimated that army strength was 110,000.{{sfn|IISS|2019|p=368}} By the end of 2018, analysts estimated the SAA to have just 100,000 combat-ready troops.{{sfn|IISS|2019|p=368}}

After the beginning of the [[Syrian Civil War]], Syrian military enlisted strength 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]],<ref name="SCMP2014">{{cite news| url=http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1670515/syria-increasing-efforts-build-military-after-substantial-loses| title=Syria increasing efforts to build up military after substantial losses| newspaper=South China Morning Post| date=29 December 2014| access-date=29 December 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141230104413/http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1670515/syria-increasing-efforts-build-military-after-substantial-loses| archive-date=30 December 2014| url-status=live| df=dmy-all}}</ref> reaching between 178,000 and 220,000 soldiers in the army,<ref>[[The Daily Star (Lebanon)|Daily Star]] 23 September 2014</ref> in addition to 80,000 to 100,000 irregular forces. By 2023, the number of active Syrian soldiers had increased to 170,000,<ref name="Military Balance 2023">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1372013483 |title=The Military Balance 2023 |date=2023 |editor=James Hackett, International Institute for Strategic Studies |isbn=978-1-003-40022-6 |location=London |oclc=1372013483}}</ref> but the number of active paramilitary and reserve forces may have decreased by as much as 50,000.