Editing Syrian Armed Forces (section)

=== Ba'athist Syria (1963–2024) ===
{{main|Syrian Arab Armed Forces}}
In 1963, the Military Committee of the [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region|Syrian Regional Command]] of the [[Ba'ath Party|Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party]] spent most of its time planning to take power through a conventional military coup. From the very beginning, the Military Committee knew it had to capture [[al-Kiswah]] and [[Qatana]] two military camps and seize control of the 70th Armored Brigade at al-Kiswah, the Military Academy in the city of Homs and the Damascus radio station. While the conspirators of the Military Committee were all young, their aim was not out of reach; the sitting regime had been slowly disintegrating and the traditional elite had lost effective political power over the country.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=72}} A small group of military officers, including [[Hafez al-Assad]], seized control in the [[8th of March Revolution|March 1963 Syrian coup d'etat]]. Following the coup, Gen. [[Amin al-Hafiz]] discharged many ranking Sunni officers, thereby, [[Stratfor]] says, "providing openings for hundreds of [[Alawites]] to fill top-tier military positions during the 1963–1965 period on the grounds of being opposed to Arab unity. This measure tipped the balance in favor of Alawite officers who staged a coup in 1966 and, for the first time, placed Damascus in the hands of the Alawites."<ref name=Bhalla>{{cite web|last=Bhalla|first=Reva|title=Making Sense of the Syrian Crisis|url=http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110504-making-sense-syrian-crisis?elq=2ef73758a9434404bd465acd3490d5fe#ixzz1LTPFUuuw|publisher=[[Stratfor]]|access-date=9 May 2011|date=5 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009214700/https://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110504-making-sense-syrian-crisis?elq=2ef73758a9434404bd465acd3490d5fe#ixzz1LTPFUuuw|archive-date=9 October 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Armed Forces were involved in the 1967 [[Six-Day War]] (against Israel). Since 1967, most of the [[Golan Heights]] territory of southwestern Syria has been under Israeli occupation. They then fought in the late 1960s [[War of Attrition]] (against Israel) and the 1970 [[Black September in Jordan#Syrian intervention attempt|Black September]] invasion of Jordan.

When Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1971, the army began to modernize and change. In the first 10 years of Assad's rule, the army increased by 162%, and by 264% by 2000. At one point, 70% of the country's annual budget spend only to the army.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reich |first=Bernard |title=Political Leaders of the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa: A Biographical Dictionary. |date=1990 |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-313-26213-5}}</ref> At the beginning of the [[Yom Kippur War]] of 1973, the Syrian Army launched an attack to seize the Golan Heights that was only narrowly repulsed by two vastly outnumbered Israeli brigades. Since 1973 the [[cease-fire]] line has been respected by both sides, with very few incidents until the [[Syrian civil war]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/03/israel-deploys-artillery-after-golan-blast-2014318173434341989.html |title=Israel bombs Syria's Golan after blast |publisher=[[Al Jazeera English]] |access-date=20 March 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/syrian-missiles-fired-israeli-jets-struck-syria-050954013.html |title=Syria fires missiles at Israeli jets after airstrikes |publisher=Yahoo! News |author=Ian Deitch |date=17 March 2017 |agency=[[Associated Press]] |archive-date=25 July 2018 |access-date=23 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725214426/https://www.yahoo.com/news/syrian-missiles-fired-israeli-jets-struck-syria-050954013.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Syria was invited into Lebanon by that country's president in 1976, to intervene on the side of the Lebanese government against [[PLO]] guerilla and Lebanese Christian forces. The [[Arab Deterrent Force]] originally consisted of a Syrian core, up to 25,000 troops, with participation by some other [[Arab League]] states totaling only around 5,000 troops.<ref>{{cite book |last=Weisburd |first=Arthur |author-link= |date=1997 |title=Use of force: the practice of states since World War II |url= |location= |publisher=Penn State Press |page=156 |isbn=9780271016801}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12663376 |title=The Current legal regulation of the use of force |date=1986 |publisher=M. Nijhoff |others=Antonio Cassese |isbn=90-247-3247-6 |location=Dordrecht, The Netherlands |pages=195–197 |oclc=12663376}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thompson |first=Eric V. |date=2002 |title=Will Syria Have to Withdraw from Lebanon? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4329721 |journal=Middle East Journal |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=72–93, 76 |jstor=4329721 |issn=0026-3141}}</ref> In late 1978, after the Arab League had extended the mandate of the Arab Deterrent Force, the [[Sudan]]ese, the Saudis and the [[United Arab Emirates]] announced intentions to withdraw troops from Lebanon, extending their stay into the early months of 1979 at the Lebanese government's request.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12663376 |title=The Current legal regulation of the use of force |date=1986 |publisher=M. Nijhoff |others=Antonio Cassese |isbn=90-247-3247-6 |location=Dordrecht, The Netherlands |pages=196–197 |oclc=12663376}}</ref> The Libyan troops were essentially abandoned and had to find their way home (if at all), and the ADF thereby became a purely Syrian force (which did include the [[Palestinian Liberation Army]] (PLA)).<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12663376 |title=The Current legal regulation of the use of force |date=1986 |publisher=M. Nijhoff |others=Antonio Cassese |isbn=90-247-3247-6 |location=Dordrecht, The Netherlands |pages=192–197 |oclc=12663376}}</ref>

A year after Israel invaded and occupied [[Southern Lebanon]] during the [[1982 Lebanon War]], the Lebanese government failed to extend the ADF's mandate, thereby effectively ending its existence, although not the Syrian or Israeli military presence in Lebanon.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12663376 |title=The Current legal regulation of the use of force |date=1986 |publisher=M. Nijhoff |others=Antonio Cassese |isbn=90-247-3247-6 |location=Dordrecht, The Netherlands |pages=198–201 |oclc=12663376}}</ref> Eventually the Syrian presence became known as the [[Syrian occupation of Lebanon]].