The 25th Special Mission Forces Division, colloquially known by their former name Tiger Forces (; ''Quwwat al-Nimr''), was an elite

special forces Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

unit, that was part of the

Syrian Army The Syrian Army is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. Up until the fall of the Assad regime, the Syrian Arab Army existed as a land force branch of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, which dominanted the military service of the fo ...

under the charge of the commander Major General Saleh Abdullah. It was formed in late 2013 and functioned primarily as an offensive unit in the Syrian Civil War. It had been described as a "hot commodity for any government offensive", but their relatively small numbers made it difficult to deploy them to multiple fronts at once.

Command structure

;25th SMF Division (2023) * 26th Infantry Brigade * 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Special Forces ( Airborne) Regiments * 75th Armored Regiment * 78th Armored Regiment * Independent Artillery Regiment

Organization until 2019

According to Gregory Waters of the

Middle East Institute The Middle East Institute (MEI) is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank and cultural center in Washington, D.C., founded in 1946. It seeks to "increase knowledge of the Middle East among the United States citizens and promote a better understan ...

in October 2018, the Tiger Forces used to deploy approximately 24 groups (halfway between a

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

and a battalion), which organised about 4,000 infantry, as well as an attached artillery regiment and an armoured unit.^p. 6 Alongside permanent troops, the Tiger Forces made use of affiliated militia, who remained largely garrisoned in their hometowns until called on to join offensives as the need arose.

List of subordinate units in 2018

Later reports seemed to suggest an altered internal structure, stating that the unit consisted of the following subunits: * Termah (or Tarmeh) Group/Regiment: according to opposition sources had a strength of about 2,000 troops, recruited from northern

Hama Hama ( ', ) is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 996,000 (2023 census), Hama is one o ...

.^p. 6 * Taha Group, officially "Taha Regiment – Assault." It was an assault unit formed in 2014, and was led by Ali Taha. The unit claimed to have 2,500 active members by mid-2018. * Yarrob Group/Regiment * Shaheen Group/Regiment * Shabaat Group/Regiment * Al Hawarith Group/Regiment (Navaris Group)https://www.facebook.com/SYRIAN.SYriaRealInfosAndNews/videos/syrian-armys-tiger-forces_-history-and-capabilities/348833845868494/ * Zaydar Group/Regiment * Al Shabbour Group/Regiment * Al-Komeet Group/Regiment * Al-Luyouth Group/Regiment (Shadi Group) * Hayder Group/Regiment * Raqqa Hawks Brigade (not to be confused with the

Syrian Democratic Forces The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is a Kurds in Syria, Kurdish-led coalition of U.S.-backed Left-wing politics, left-wing ethnic militias and rebel groups, and serves as the official military wing of the Democratic Autonomous Administration ...

Raqqa Hawks Brigade The Raqqa Hawks Brigade (), also known as Raqqa Falcons Brigade, is a primarily Arab militia, composed mostly of Raqqa natives, that is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and fights against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). ...

) The Tiger Forces consisted of as many as 24 subgroups of varying size. Tiger Forces groups/subunits were founded by prominent individuals who often also served as commanders of a particular group (the group often bearing the name of the individual who founded and/or commanded the group). The Tiger Forces regular groups had local defensive units, as well as operational units which deployed across the country.^p. 6 According Gregory Waters, the operational units outside standing groups made up one-and-a-half to two brigades.^p. 6

Cheetah Forces

Cheetah Forces or Qawat al-Fahoud () as of October 2018 was the largest sub-unit of the Tiger Forces.^p. 8 The Cheetah Forces was subdivided into as many as 14 Company-level units: Cheetah 1 to Cheetah 10, Cheetah 15, Cheetah 16, Cheetah 41 and the 2nd Storming Battalion (Rami Hamadi Group).^p. 8 Cheetah 6 were the first soldiers that ended the 35-month long Relieving of Kuweires Military Airbase, while Cheetah 3 along with the

Desert Hawks Brigade The Desert Hawks Brigade (, ''liwāʾ suqūr aṣ-ṣaḥrāʾ'', Liwa Suqur al-Sahara) was an armed private militia branch affiliated with the Syrian Arab Army which fought on the side of the Syrian government in the Syrian Civil War. It was pr ...

completed the East Aleppo ISIS encirclement. The commander of the Cheetah Forces was Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Kna’an al-Hajji^p. 11 and the deputy commander was Colonel Lu’ayy Sleitan.

Panther Forces

Panther Forces – According to Leith Fadel in 2016, the commander was Colonel Ali Shaheen, and they were involved in the

Palmyra offensive (March 2016) The Palmyra offensive (March 2016) was a military operation of the Syrian Arab Army, supported by Russian airstrikes, to recapture from the Islamic State the city of Tadmur (near the ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra), which was strategic ...

, where they were redeployed to another front after it was over. According to Waters, the "Panther Groups" were actually the Cheetahs, and were not commanded by Ali Shaheen, who instead commanded the Leouth Groups.

Armour and artillery units

The Tiger Forces had a dedicated artillery regiment (led by Lieutenant Colonel Dourid Awad) and an armoured unit; both the artillery and armoured units appeared to be distinct entities within the Tiger Forces.^p. 6 Both the artillery and armoured units were independent from other groups, reporting directly to the Tiger Forces’ command. The size of the armoured unit was unknown.

Combat history

The special forces unit was formed during the Syrian civil war. According to Gregory Waters, the Tiger Forces were operated by the

Air Force Intelligence Directorate The Air Force Intelligence Directorate () was an intelligence service of Ba'athist Syria from 1970 until 2024, owing its importance to Hafez al-Assad's role as the Air Force commander. Despite its name, it was mainly involved with issues other t ...

.^p. 2 After successful operations in Latakia and Hama,^p. 2 Colonel

Suheil al-Hassan Major general, Major General Suhayl al-Hasan (; born 10 June 1970) is a Syrian Military Officer, military officer, formerly serving as the commander of the Syrian Arab Army's Special Forces. He graduated from the Syrian Air Force academy in 1991 ...

was tasked a special project by the

Syrian Armed Forces The Syrian Armed Forces () are the military forces of Syria. Up until the fall of Bashar al-Assad's Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region, Ba'ath Party Ba'athist Syria, regime in December 2024, the Syrian Arab Armed Forces were the sta ...

Central Command in the fall of 2013—to train and lead a Special Forces unit that would work primarily as an offensive unit. Colonel Hassan handpicked many of the soldiers that would later form the Tiger Forces. Initially, the unit was formed by recruiting personnel from the 53rd Regiment (part of Special Forces Command) and the 14th Special Forces Division, on the other hand, heavy equipment was supplied by the 4th and 11th Divisions. On 25 December 2015, Suheil al-Hassan was promoted to major general after refusing to be brigadier general the year before. He played a key role in commanding Syrian troops during the 2016 Aleppo campaign. The Tiger Forces were tasked with cutting the key rebel supply lines to Aleppo city. In early spring 2015, following Syrian government's

loss Loss may refer to: *Economic loss *Grief, an emotional response to loss **Animal loss, grief over the loss of an animal Mathematics, science, and technology * Angular misalignment loss, power loss caused by the deviation from optimum angular al ...

of the city of

Idlib Idlib (, ; also spelt Idleb or Edlib) is a city in northwestern Syria, and is the capital of the Idlib Governorate. It has an elevation of nearly above sea level, and is southwest of Aleppo. It is located near the border with Turkey. History ...

, the unit was reorganised.^p. 3 The Tiger Forces were one of few in the Syrian Army to first deploy Russian

T-90 The T-90 is a third-generation Russian main battle tank developed from, and designed to replace the T-72. It uses a 125mm 2A46 smoothbore main gun, the 1A45T fire-control system, an upgraded engine, and gunner's thermal sight. Standard p ...

tanks, others being the 4th Armoured Division and

. A Russian-supplied Rys LMV was seen after defeating ISIL in the village of Ayn Al-Hanish in the Dayr Hafir Plains. The most famous and effective tactic of the Tiger Forces was probing the enemy from multiple axes to find a weak spot, then sending a large mechanized force to that area to capture many villages at once. According to Gregory Waters, they ultimately reported to Major General Jamil Hassan, the director of the country's

. In September/October 2018, reports indicated that between 6,500 and 8,000 Tiger Forces members would be demobilized. It was reported that the unit worked closely with Russian KSSO units, the latter acting as advisors.

Renaming and reorganization

On 29 August 2019, the Syrian

Ministry of Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divided ...

reorganized the unit, renaming it from Tiger Forces to 25th Special Mission Forces Division and placing it under the

's central command, while keeping Maj. Gen.

as its commanding officer. In March 2022, the

Wagner Group The Wagner Group (), officially known as PMC Wagner (, ), is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled 2023 Wagner Group plane crash, until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Pu ...

began recruiting ex-members of the 25th Special Mission Forces Division so that they could fight for Russia in the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

, which was later denied. Nine soldiers from this unit were killed as mercenaries in Ukraine as of November 2022. In April 2024, Maj. Gen.

was replaced as head of 25th Division by former senior Tiger Forces commander, former 30th Division commander Maj. Gen. Saleh Abdullah.

Fall of the Assad regime

When the Syrian opposition launched a series of major offensives in late 2024, the 25th Division was among the few loyalist units which tried to stem the rebel advance. The division was deployed to Aleppo, where it joined the unsuccessful defense of the city. On 30 November 2024, the unit was redeployed to stop the Tahrir al-Sham and the

Syrian National Army The Syrian National Army (SNA; ), also known as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA), is a coalition of armed Syrian opposition groups that participate in the Syrian civil war. Comprising various rebel factions that emerged at the sta ...

in their

2024 Hama offensive The 2024 Hama offensive was a military operation launched by forces of the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) and Turkey, Turkish-backed rebel groups of the Syrian Interim Government (SIG) during the 2024 Syrian opposition offensive, a phase of ...

. On December 4, 2024 rebels captured a base of the 25th SMFD in Hama. Following the

fall of the Assad regime On 8 December 2024, the Assad regime collapsed during a 2024 Syrian opposition offensives, major offensive by Syrian opposition, opposition forces. The offensive was spearheaded by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and supported mainly by the Turk ...

, 25th Division member Talal Dakkak, who had previously "fed prisoners to President's pet lion", was captured and executed by a pro-opposition militia in Hama. The whereabouts of division commander

Suhayl al-Hasan Major General Suhayl al-Hasan (; born 10 June 1970) is a Syrian military officer, formerly serving as the commander of the Syrian Arab Army's Special Forces. He graduated from the Syrian Air Force academy in 1991, and served in many units in th ...

initially remained unknown. Followers of al-Hasan subsequently became involved in a Ba'athist insurgency.

Command structure

Organization until 2019

List of subordinate units in 2018

Cheetah Forces

Panther Forces

Armour and artillery units

Combat history

Renaming and reorganization

Fall of the Assad regime

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading