The 18th Armoured Division ( ar, الفرقة المدرعة الثامنة عشر or الفرقة المدرعة 18) is one of two autonomous reserve divisions of the

Syrian Arab Army " (''Guardians of the Homeland'') , colors = * Service uniform: Khaki, Olive * Combat uniform: Green, Black, Khaki , anniversaries = August 1st , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = 1948 Arab–Israeli War Six-D ...

, the other being the 17th Division.

Structure

This is the smallest conventional division in the Syrian Arab Army with only about 7,000 men. Its force structure is made up of the: *131st, 134th and 167th Armored Brigades *120th Mechanized Brigade *64th Artillery Regiment

Syrian Civil War

The division was in a reserve role leading up to the summer of 2013. Since then it has been heavily engaged in the Syrian Civil War. The European Council named Major General Wajih Mahmud as commander of the 18th Armored Division in the ''Official Journal of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

'' on 15 November 2011, sanctioning him for violence committed in Homs. Henry Boyd of the

IISS The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is a British research institute or think tank in the area of international affairs. Since 1997, its headquarters have been Arundel House in London, England. The 2017 Global Go To Think ...

noted that "... in Homs, the 18th Armored Division was reinforced by Special Forces units and ... by elements of the 4th Division under Maher’s de facto command." On 13 August, clashes took place in Deir ez-Zor city in the Rashdin suburb, as army attempted to liberate it from the militants. Rebels earlier attacked the cardiac hospital in the city, no reports of losses. 4 rebels killed by clashes in al-Jbeila, Hawiqa and Sina'a neighborhoods. As of 20 August, the western Hawiqa neighborhood, including the local Baath Party headquarters, had fallen to the rebels. The opposition claimed that 160 government soldiers and dozens of rebels had died in the fight for Hawiqa. Government forces retaliated by bombarding the rebels from their positions in the Joura and Ghazi Ayyash districts. The Free Syrian Army-affiliated Ahfad al-Rasul Brigade, recently supplied by

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

with anti-aircraft missiles, played an important role in taking Hawiqa. On the same day, the Army hit rebel forces in Hawiqa district with tanks and multiple rocket launchers, and also battled them in territory separating Hawiqa from the district of Joura, opposition sources in the city said. The government was trying to regain Hawiqa because it could not afford the rebels to be so close to its most important stronghold of Joura and the Army camp there. Air force intelligence and military intelligence, two important security compounds in the city, were also located in the nearby Ghazi Ayyash district, and came within the range of rebel

rocket-propelled grenades A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) is a shoulder-fired missile weapon that launches rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. Most RPGs can be carried by an individual soldier, and are frequently used as anti-tank weapons. These warheads are ...

. Researchers estimated in late 2019 that the 167th Brigade was the last remaining operational brigade of the division. In addition, "..As of November 2018, the division consisted of only 4,000 men — including reservists and civilian employees — largely concentrated within the 167th Brigade."Waters
The Lion and the Eagle
July 18, 2019

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Armoured divisions of Syria Armoured Division Armoured Division

Structure

Syrian Civil War

See also

References