June 19, 2013
The week's top five must-sees,
delivered to your inbox.
Features include interactive map, in-depth stories, and more.
Download now. »
The week's top five must-sees,
delivered to your inbox.
|
Description
The Syrian Army, officially the Syrian Arab Army, is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It is the dominant military service of the four uniformed services, controlling the senior most posts in the armed forces, and has the greatest manpower, approximately 80 percent of the combined services. The Syrian Army was formed by the French after World War I, after the French obtained a mandate over the region.
Since 1948 it has played a major role in Syria's governance, mounting five military coups. It has fought four wars with Israel and one with Jordan. An armoured division was also deployed to Saudi Arabia in 1990–91, but saw little action. From 1976 to 2005 it was the major pillar of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Internally it played a major part in suppressing the 1979–82 Islamic uprising in Syria, and since early 2011 has been heavily engaged in fighting what initially was an uprising, but is now being referred to as the Syrian civil war.
(via Freebase)
|
![Deadly explosions rock central Aleppo [Al Jazeera, Qatar]](/images/image_cache/base-11545000/11545272/thumbnail.width=304,height=171,grow=1,crop=center.jpg?sig=1dbca65ebf5451a89e1c4b03eddf6c31)
![Syrian refugee population could reach 700,000 by year's end: UN [Al Jazeera, Qatar]](/images/image_cache/base-11213000/11213536/thumbnail.width=304,height=171,grow=1,crop=center.jpg?sig=4a5bc0aa5b02cb772514f29727e439f3)
![Defected Syrian general: Assad regime planning chemical weapons assault [IBA, Israel]](/images/image_cache/base-10718000/10718923/thumbnail.width=304,height=171,grow=1,crop=center.jpg?sig=38fba4c544bc26449f0a3917a56aea8a)
![Syria tests firing systems for chemical weapons [IBA, Israel]](/images/image_cache/base-10657000/10657282/thumbnail.width=304,height=171,grow=1,crop=center.jpg?sig=86331c781cfdf5f3a1e46cdc5f3b9866)
