The Syrian Armed Forces Seven Years into the Conflict: From a Regular Army to Volunteer Corps

... him to the conditions of the conflict within the country, a conflict for which they were wholly unprepared. In particular, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) was dominated exclusively by heavy armoured and mechanized infantry divisions. There was an overabundance ... ... defending so-called “Useful Syria”. It is unlikely that the SAA numbers more than about 70,000 – 80,000 troops at present. Shabiha and the National Defence Forces The regime has not been able to restore full combat-readiness to the SAA due to the fact ...