What's Left of the Syrian Arab Army? Not Much

(War Is Boring) Tom Cooper - The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and National Defense Forces (NDF) under the control of the Assad government are nearly extinct. Because of draft-avoidance and defections, the SAA never managed to fully mobilize. Not one of its 20 divisions has ever deployed more than one-third of its nominal strength on the battlefield. The resulting forces were then further hit by extensive losses caused by the incompetence of their commanders. It's unlikely that Assad has more than 70,000 troops left under his command, while Iran oversees at least 40,000 combatants from various Shi'a militias, and the Russians have 10,000-15,000 troops in Syria.


2016-05-25 00:00:00

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