, native_name_lang=Ar , war=the Syrian Civil War , image= Afrine 2018 23e division ASL (1).jpg , caption= Fighters of the 23rd Division, led by Col. Abu Mustafa, during the

Turkish military operation in Afrin Operation Olive Branch ( tr, Zeytin Dalı Harekâtı) was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) in the majority-Kurdish Afrin District of northwest Syria, against the People's P ...

in February 2018. The group's flag can be seen in the background. , active=19 September 2013 – 25 July 2016 (16th Division)
July 2016 – 8 August 2020 (23rd Division Aleppo branch only) , ideology= , leaders= *

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

Hassan Rajoub (Abu Omar, since July 2016) *Col. Abu Mustafa *Abu al-Joud al-Homsi Former: *Col. Suleyman Shalal *Khaled Saraj ("Khaled Hayani") (2013–15) *Abdul Khaliq Lahyani (resigned in July 2016) , clans= *Badr Martyrs' Brigade *Descendents of Omar Battalions *Lions of the Revolution Brigade *Mustafa Martyrs Brigade *Hawks of Islam Battalions Former: *

Yusuf al-'Azma Yusuf al-Azma ( ar, يوسف العظمة, ALA-LC: ''Yūsuf al-ʻAẓmah''; 1883 – 24 July 1920) was the Syrian minister of war in the governments of prime ministers Rida al-Rikabi and Hashim al-Atassi, and the Arab Army's chief of general st ...

Brigade * Saladin Ayubi Brigade * Free Syria Brigade **

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econom ...

Brigade *

Al-Aqsa Aqsa'', ''Aksa, al-Aksa or al-Aqsa ( ar, الأقصى, link=no, translit=al-Aqṣā) usually refer to either: *al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also known as , a religious site in Jerusalem located on the Temple Mount *, also known as the Qibli Mosque, ...

Brigade , headquarters=Khalidiya District, Aleppo (2013–16)
Qah,

Idlib Governorate Idlib Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة ادلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Idlib'') is one of the 14 governorates of Syria. It is situated in northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey's Hatay province to the north, Aleppo Governorate to the east, Ham ...

(2016–18)

Azaz Azaz ( ar, أَعْزَاز, ʾAʿzāz) is a city in northwest Syria, roughly north-northwest of Aleppo. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Azaz had a population of 31,623 in the 2004 census.

and Afrin, northern

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( ar, محافظة حلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' / ) is one of the fourteen governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of ...

(2018–20) , area=

and northern

, Syria , size=+1,600 (own claim in 2014) , partof=

Syrian National Army The Syrian National Army (SNA) ( ar, الجيش الوطني السوري, al-Jayš al-Waṭanī as-Sūrī), previously the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and also known as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA), is a coalition of armed Syrian op ...

National Front for Liberation The National Front for Liberation ( ar, الجبهة الوطنية للتحرير, ''Al-Jabhat al-Wataniya lil-Tahrir'') is a Syrian rebel coalition that is part of the Syrian National Army (SNA) fighting in the Syrian Civil War. The group was ...

Fatah Halab Fatah Halab ( ar, فتح حلب, Fataḥ Ḥalab, lit=Conquest of Aleppo), or Aleppo Conquest, was a joint operations room of Syrian rebel factions operating in and around Aleppo, Syria. Succeeding the Aleppo Liberation operations room, its ...

(2015–16) , successor= , allies=*

Ahrar al-Sham Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya ( ar-at, حركة أحرار الشام الإسلامية, Ḥarakat Aḥrāru š-Šām al-Islāmiyah, lit=Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant), commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, is a coalition ...

* Mountain Hawks Brigade * Knights of Justice Brigade *

Levant Front The Levant Front ( ar, الجبهة الشامية, al-Jabhat aš-Šāmiyya, Jabhat al-Shamiyah, also translated as the Sham Front or the Levantine Front) is a Syrian rebel group based around Aleppo involved in the Syrian Civil War. It was fo ...

(until August 2020) *

Fastaqim Union The Fastaqim Kama Umirt Union ( ar-at, تجمعُ فاستقم كما أمرتَ, Tajammuʿ Fastaqim Kamā Umirt, lit=Union of Be Upright as Ordered) is a rebel group active during the Syrian Civil War. History Operations of the main faction ...

Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement The Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement ( ar, حركة نور الدين الزنكي ''Ḥaraka Nūr ad-Dīn az-Zankī'') was a Sunni Islamist rebel group involved in the Syrian Civil War. In 2014, it was reportedly one of the most influential factions ...

* *

Al-Nusra Front Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) (, transliteration: ', "Organization for the Liberation of the Levant" or "Levant Liberation Committee"), commonly referred to as Tahrir al-Sham, is a Sunni Islamist political and armed organisation involved in the ...

(sometimes) , opponents=*

Syrian Armed Forces The Syrian Arab Armed Forces ( ar, الْقُوَّاتُ الْمُسَلَّحَةُ الْعَرَبِيَّةُ السُّورِيَّةُ, al-Quwwāt al-Musallaḥah al-ʿArabīyah as-Sūrīyah) are the military forces of the Syrian Arab R ...

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's paramil ...

* *

Syrian Democratic Forces , war = the Syrian Civil War , image = Flag of Syrian Democratic Forces.svgborder , caption = Flag , active = 10 October 2015 – present , ideology = DemocracyDecentralizationSecularism ...

(sometimes) *

(August 2020) , battles= Syrian Civil War *

Battle of Aleppo A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

Aleppo offensive (October–December 2013) The October–December 2013 Aleppo offensive or Operation Northern Storm was a campaign during the Syrian civil war launched by the Syrian army in the Aleppo Governorate to reopen a key supply route linking central Syria to the largest city, Al ...

Aleppo offensive (July 2015) The Aleppo offensive (July 2015) was a military operation launched by two rebel coalitions against the Syrian Army, during the Syrian Civil War, in the city of Aleppo. The aim of the operation was to breach Army defenses and enter, and potential ...

Aleppo offensive (October–December 2015) The Aleppo offensive (October–December 2015) was a Syrian Army large-scale strategic offensive south of Aleppo. The main objective of the operation was to secure the Azzan Mountains, while also creating a larger buffer zone around the onl ...

Northern Aleppo offensive (February 2016) The Northern Aleppo offensive (February 2016) refers to a military operation launched northwest of Aleppo in early February 2016 by the Syrian Arab Army and its allies. The offensive successfully broke the three-year Siege of Nubl and Al-Zahraa ...

Aleppo offensive (June–July 2016) The Aleppo offensive (June–July 2016) refers to a military operation launched on the northern outskirts of Aleppo in late June 2016, by the Syrian Army. The aim of the offensive was to cut the last rebel supply line into Aleppo city. The off ...

* Al-Nusra Front-SRF/Hazzm Movement conflict *

The 23rd Division ( ar, الفرقة 23) or 16th Infantry Division ( ar, الفرقة 16 مشاة) was a

Syrian rebel A number of states and armed groups have involved themselves in the ongoing Syrian Civil War as belligerents. Syrian Arab Republic and allies A number of sources have emphasized that as of at least late-2015/early-2016 the Syrian Arab Republic ...

group affiliated with the

Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the governm ...

. Formed in September 2013, the group was active mainly in the city Aleppo and its surroundings. After rebel lines in Aleppo collapsed due to advances by the

Syrian 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 ...

during the

in mid-2016, the 16th Division suffered heavy casualties and was dissolved. Remnants of the group then formed the 23rd Division ( ar, الفرقة 23). The

faction of the group in northern Aleppo was disbanded after its leadership was attacked by the

in August 2020, with its other members were transferred to other groups under the SNA's 3rd Legion.

History

16th Division

The 16th Division was formed on 19 September 2013 as a merger of 10 rebel groups in the city of Aleppo. Its main subgroup, the Badr Martyrs' Brigade, was infamous for

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/ asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the ...

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

, and most notably mass

looting Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting ...

of factories in Aleppo districts and shipping truckloads of looted items to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. In October 2013, the 16th Division's territory in northern Aleppo was overran by the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

. During the ISIL offensive, ISIL fighters captured a 16th Division base and found a large quantity of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

cash In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-immed ...

in the form of

United States dollar The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

hashish Hashish ( ar, حشيش, ()), also known as hash, "dry herb, hay" is a cannabis (drug), drug made by compressing and processing parts of the cannabis plant, typically focusing on flowering buds (female flowers) containing the most trichomes. Eu ...

, and

gas cylinder A gas cylinder is a pressure vessel for storage and containment of gases at above atmospheric pressure. High-pressure gas cylinders are also called ''bottles''. Inside the cylinder the stored contents may be in a state of compressed gas, vapo ...

s used in the production of hell cannons used by the group. In November 2013, in response to the "aggression" on their "brothers" of ISIL by the 16th Division, the

al-Aqsa Aqsa'', ''Aksa, al-Aksa or al-Aqsa ( ar, الأقصى, link=no, translit=al-Aqṣā) usually refer to either: *al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also known as , a religious site in Jerusalem located on the Temple Mount *, also known as the Qibli Mosque, ...

Brigade defected from the 16th Division. In February 2014, the Badr Martyrs' Brigade of the 16th Division clashed with the foreign jihadist-led Jaysh al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar over the

Haritan Haritan ( ar, حريتان, Ḥuraytān, also spelled Huraytan or Hreitan) is a town in northern Syria, administratively part of the Mount Simeon District of the Aleppo Governorate, just northwest of Aleppo. Nearby localities include Ratyan, B ...

and Mallah areas of Aleppo. An agreement was then signed on 16 February between Badr Martyrs' Brigade leader Abdul Khaliq Lahyani and Jaysh al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar representative Abu Karim al- Ukraini under the auspices of

representative Abu Amir al-Shami, in which the two groups agreed to release their prisoners from the other party and to work together against the Syrian government, and the Badr Martyrs' Brigade agreed to not set up military headquarters in and around Mallah and to hand over houses to Jaysh al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, while Jaysh al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar agreed for its fighters to remain in these houses and its headquarters, not to stand masked at checkpoints which were to be manned by Ahrar al-Sham and the

al-Nusra Front Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...

. However, on the next day the commander of Jaysh al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, Salahuddin al-Shishani, stated that al-Ukraini signed the agreement without consulting him and the rest of Jaysh al-Muhajireen and Ansar's leadership. Al-Shishani denounced the Badr Martyrs' Brigade as apostates "supported by the

infidel An infidel (literally "unfaithful") is a person accused of disbelief in the central tenets of one's own religion, such as members of another religion, or the irreligious. Infidel is an ecclesiastical term in Christianity around which the Churc ...

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

" through the Supreme Military Council, and rejected the agreement as invalid. In January 2015, the al-Nusra Front captured 11 fighters from the 16th Division in Aleppo during the former's conflict with the

Hazzm Movement The Hazzm Movement ( ar, حركة حزم, ''Ḥarakat Ḥazzm'', meaning ''Movement of Steadfastness'') was an alliance of Syrian rebel groups affiliated with the Free Syrian Army in northwestern Syria that existed from 25 January 2014 until 1 Mar ...

. In response, the 16th Division called for the unconditional release of its fighters. On 7 December 2015, the 16th Division and the Knights of Justice Brigade conducted a joint bombing of the Syrian government defence laboratory in the central Khalidiya district of Aleppo. Since November 2015, the group took part in the indiscriminate shelling of Sheikh Maqsoud, which killed dozens of civilians and sparked a retaliation from the

People's Protection Units The People's Defense Units (YPG), (YPG) ; ar, وحدات حماية الشعب, Waḥdāt Ḥimāyat aš-Šaʽb) also called People's Protection Units, is a mainly- Kurdish militia in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democ ...

(YPG), which killed several of its members in April 2016. During the northern Aleppo offensive (June-July 2016), the 16th Division suffered heavy casualties, including 29 killed, more than 54 wounded, and 7 missing, its headquarter overran, and its commanders, including the top leader, Abdul Khaliq Lahyani, resigned and was relieved of all duties. A new commander, former

Syrian Air Force ) , mascot = , anniversaries = 16 October , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = * 1948 Arab-Israeli War * Six-Day War * Yom Kippur War ...

Hassan Rajoub, was appointed. Subsequently, the group went defunct.

23rd Division

Following the 16th Division's dissolution in July 2016, remnants of the group, led by Col. Hassan Rajoub, regrouped and formed the 23rd Division. Since January 2018, the group have participated in the

against the YPG-led

in the

Afrin Region Afrin Region ( ku, Herêma Efrînê, ar, إقليم عفرين, syc, ܦܢܝܬܐ ܕܥܦܪܝܢ, translit=Ponyotho d'Afrin) is the westernmost of the three original regions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. The region pr ...

. On 28 February,

Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) (, transliteration: ', "Organization for the Liberation of the Levant" or "Levant Liberation Committee"), commonly referred to as Tahrir al-Sham, is a Sunni Islamist political and armed organisation involved in the ...

besieged the headquarters of the 23rd Division in the village of Qah in the northern

. After less than an hour of clashes, Tahrir al-Sham fighters captured the headquarter and seized equipment and weapons. In May 2018, along with 10 other rebel groups in northwestern Syria, the 23rd Division formed the

, which was officially announced on 28 May. By 2020, most of the 23rd Division's fighters came from

Tell Rifaat Tell Rifaat ( ar, تل رفعت, Tall Rifʿat, also spelled Tel Rifaat, Tel Rif'at or Tal Rifaat) ( Kurdish: Arfêd/ ئارفێد) is a city in northern Aleppo Governorate, northwestern Syria. Located roughly north of Aleppo, the town is the ad ...

in the northern Aleppo Governorate. On 8 August 2020, the Levant Front, which accused the 23rd Division of "inciting hatred and strife, abetting infighting, and comprising corrupt officials", stormed the group's headquarters

and Afrin, taking over the 23rd Division's bases and capturing its leaders and their escorts. The 3rd Legion of the Syrian National Army, led by the Levant Front, then made a court decision ordering the disbandment of the 23rd Division and the transfer of its members who were not arrested during the attack to other groups within the legion.

War crimes

According to the

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , image = Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Logo.jpg , image_size = 200px , caption = The logo of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , type = NGO , founded_date = , founder ...

, the 16th Division's Badr Martyrs Brigade, led by Khaled Hayani, was responsible for the deaths of more than 203 civilians, including 42 children, at least 25 women, and 136 men, with more than 900 wounded, 175 of them seriously, in the city of Aleppo between July and December 2014 with hell cannons and other mortars, in addition to

improvised explosive device An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mecha ...

References

{{Syrian Civil War Anti-government factions of the Syrian civil war Anti-ISIL factions in Syria Free Syrian Army Military units and formations established in 2013 2013 establishments in Syria Military units and formations disestablished in 2016