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Foreign Armies in Syria and How They Came to Be There

FILE PHOTO: Cars drive past a poster depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Damascus, Syria, March 7, 2022. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Cars drive past a poster depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Damascus, Syria, March 7, 2022. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi/File Photo
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Foreign Armies in Syria and How They Came to Be There

FILE PHOTO: Cars drive past a poster depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Damascus, Syria, March 7, 2022. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Cars drive past a poster depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Damascus, Syria, March 7, 2022. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi/File Photo

The resurgence of fighting in Syria has brought into focus the role of foreign powers in the country. Türkiye, Iran, Russia and the United States have all deployed troops in Syria since 2011, while Israel mounts frequent airstrikes in Syrian territory.
Here is some background on the foreign armies in Syria.
TURKIYE
Türkiye has deployed troops across northwestern Syria - territory held by Syrian opposition groups which rose up against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011. Türkiye, which firmly supported the 2011 uprising, backs some of these groups.
One of Türkiye’s main goals has been to weaken Syrian Kurdish armed groups which carved out autonomous enclaves along the Turkish border during the civil war. Ankara views the Syrian Kurdish groups an extension of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency in Türkiye since 1984.
Ankara deems the PKK a terrorist group.
Another pressing Turkish concern is securing a return home for some of 3 million Syrians who have fled to Türkiye during the war, many of whom came from the Aleppo region.
Türkiye has mounted four operations in Syria since 2016.
Its first targeted both the ISIS group and the Syrian Kurdish YPG, a Syrian Kurdish faction and the spearhead of another military grouping, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Türkiye’s presence expanded in 2017 when it struck a deal with Russia and Iran that resulted in Turkish forces deploying at 12 positions in the opposition-held northwestern Idlib region.
This was followed in 2018 by an offensive targeting SDF-controlled Afrin, and another incursion in 2019 into SDF territory between the border towns of Ras al Ain and Tel Abyad.
The following year Türkiye poured thousands of troops into the Idlib region to stem an offensive by Russia-backed Syrian government forces targeting opposition factions.
Damascus views Türkiye as an occupying power.
RUSSIA
Russia intervened militarily on Assad's side in 2015, in its biggest foray in the Middle East since the Soviet Union's collapse. Operating from an airbase in Latakia province, Russian air power decisively tilted the conflict Assad's way.
Coordinated with Iran, the deployment expanded a Russian military presence dating to the Cold War, when the Soviet Union established a naval base at the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartus.
Russian forces have also had a presence on the ground in government-held areas, with Russian military police deploying during attempts to de-escalate fighting.
Russia is continuing to support Assad, the Kremlin has said.
IRAN AND ALLIES
Iran deployed its Revolutionary Guards to Syria as early as 2012 to help Assad. Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, played a big part.
For Iran, Assad is a crucial ally, part of its "Axis of Resistance" to Israel and US influence in the Middle East.
Tehran's ties to Damascus have allowed Iran to spread its influence through a land corridor from its western border via Iraq all the way to Lebanon.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in an Arabic-language interview on Dec. 3 that Tehran would consider sending troops to Syria if Damascus asked.
Tehran has always described Iranian forces as playing an advisory role at the Damascus government's invitation.
Alongside Iranians and Lebanon's Hezbollah, other Shi'ite groups backed by Tehran have played a vital combat role. They have included groups from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Hezbollah pulled fighters from Syria back to Lebanon as its war with Israel intensified from mid-October, Reuters has reported. While a ceasefire was reached last week, Hezbollah does not currently intend to send fighters to northern Syria to support the Syrian army, Reuters reported.
The presence of Iranian and Iran-backed forces in Syria has been a big point of concern for Israel, prompting it to carry out frequent airstrikes in Syria.
THE UNITED STATES
The US military intervention in Syria began in 2014 with air strikes against the ISIS group that had declared its rule over a third of Syria and Iraq.
An initially small contingent of US special forces deployed to Syria, working with the SDF, fighting to drive ISIS from areas it had captured in Syria's north and east.
Declaring the battle with ISIS almost won, Trump announced in 2018 he wanted to pull out US troops.
But the plan was softened within a year after facing criticism for leaving a void that Iran and Russia would fill.
US forces remain in Syria and continue to support the SDF.
US military positions and personnel in northeastern Syria remain essential to ensuring ISIS can never resurge, US Ambassador Robert Wood told the Security Council on Dec. 3.
US troops are also stationed at Syria's Tanf garrison near the intersection of the borders of Jordan and Iraq, where they support a Syrian opposition force to counter ISIS in the area.
Assad's government views the US forces as occupiers.
About 900 US troops are currently in the country, mostly in the northeast.

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From India-Pakistan to Iran and Ukraine, a New Era of Escalation

The Iron Dome, the Israeli air defense system, intercepts missiles fired from Iran, over Tel Aviv, Israel, 17 June 2025. (EPA)
The Iron Dome, the Israeli air defense system, intercepts missiles fired from Iran, over Tel Aviv, Israel, 17 June 2025. (EPA)
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From India-Pakistan to Iran and Ukraine, a New Era of Escalation

The Iron Dome, the Israeli air defense system, intercepts missiles fired from Iran, over Tel Aviv, Israel, 17 June 2025. (EPA)
The Iron Dome, the Israeli air defense system, intercepts missiles fired from Iran, over Tel Aviv, Israel, 17 June 2025. (EPA)

By Peter Apps

As India’s defense chief attended an international security conference in Singapore in May, soon after India and Pakistan fought what many in South Asia now dub “the four-day war”, he had a simple message: Both sides expect to do it all again.

It was a stark and perhaps counterintuitive conclusion: the four-day military exchange, primarily through missiles and drones, appears to have been among the most serious in history between nuclear-armed nations.

Indeed, reports from both sides suggest it took a direct intervention from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to halt an escalating exchange of drones and rockets.

Speaking to a Reuters colleague in Singapore, however, Indian Chief of Defense Staff General Anil Chauhan denied either nation had come close to the “nuclear threshold”, describing a “lot of messaging” from both sides.

“A new space for conventional operations has been created and I think that is the new norm,” he said, vowing that New Delhi would continue to respond militarily to any militant attacks on India suspected to have originated from Pakistan.

How stable that "space" might be and how great the risk of escalation for now remains unclear. However, there have been several dramatic examples of escalation in several already volatile global stand-offs over the past two months.

As well as the “four-day” war between India and Pakistan last month, recent weeks have witnessed what is now referred to in Israel and Iran as their “12-day war”. It ended this week with a US-brokered ceasefire after Washington joined the fray with massive air strikes on Tehran’s underground nuclear sites.

Despite years of confrontation, Israel and Iran had not struck each other’s territory directly until last year, while successive US administrations have held back from similar steps.

As events in Ukraine have shown, conflict between major nations can become normalized at speed – whether that means “just” an exchange of drones and missiles, or a more existential battle.

More concerning still, such conflicts appear to have become more serious throughout the current decade, with plenty of room for further escalation.

This month, that included an audacious set of Ukrainian-organized drone strikes on long-range bomber bases deep inside Russian territory, destroying multiple aircraft which, as well as striking Ukraine, have also been responsible for carrying the Kremlin’s nuclear deterrent.

All of that is a far cry from the original Cold War, in which it was often assumed that any serious military clash – particularly involving nuclear forces or the nations that possessed them – might rapidly escalate beyond the point of no return. But it does bring with it new risks of escalation.

Simmering in the background, meanwhile, is the largest and most dangerous confrontation of them all - that between the US and China, with US officials saying Beijing has instructed its military to be prepared to move against Taiwan from 2027, potentially sparking a hugely wider conflict.

As US President Donald Trump headed to Europe this week for the annual NATO summit, just after bombing Iran, it was clear his administration hopes such a potent show of force might be enough to deter Beijing in particular from pushing its luck.

“American deterrence is back,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Pentagon press briefing the morning after the air strikes took place.

Iran’s initial response of drones and missiles fired at a US air base in Qatar – with forewarning to the US that the fusillade was coming – appeared deliberately moderate to avoid further escalation.

Addressing senators at their confirmation hearing on Tuesday, America’s next top commanders in Europe and the Middle East were unanimous in their comments that the US strikes against Iran would strengthen Washington's hand when it came to handling Moscow and Beijing.

Chinese media commentary was more mixed. Han Peng, head of state-run China Media Group's North American operations, said the US had shown weakness to the world by not wanting to get dragged into the Iran conflict due to its “strategic contraction”.

Other social media posts talked of how vulnerable Iran looked, with nationalist commentator Hu Xijn warning: "If one day we have to get involved in a war, we must be the best at it."

LONG ARM OF AMERICA

On that front, the spectacle of multiple US B-2 bombers battering Iran’s deepest-buried nuclear bunkers - having flown all the way from the US mainland apparently undetected - will not have gone unnoticed in Moscow or Beijing.

Nor will Trump’s not so subtle implications that unless Iran backed down, similar weapons might be used to kill its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei or other senior figures, wherever they might hide.

None of America’s adversaries have the ability to strike without warning in that way against hardened, deepened targets, and the B-2 – now being replaced by the more advanced B-21 – has no foreign equal.

Both are designed to penetrate highly sophisticated air defenses, although how well they would perform against cutting-edge Russian or Chinese systems would only be revealed in an actual conflict.

China’s effort at building something similar, the H-2, has been trailed in Chinese media for years – and US officials say Beijing is striving hard to make it work.

Both China and Russia have fifth-generation fighters with some stealth abilities, but none have the range or carrying capacity to target the deepest Western leadership or weapons bunkers with conventional munitions.

As a result, any Chinese or Russian long-range strikes – whether conventional or nuclear – would have to be launched with missiles that could be detected in advance.

Even without launching such weapons, however, nuclear powers have their own tools to deliver threats.

An analysis of the India-Pakistan “four-day war” in May done by the Stimson Center suggested that as Indian strikes became more serious on the third day of the war, Pakistan might have taken similar, deliberately visible steps to ready its nuclear arsenal to grab US attention and help conclude the conflict.

Indian newspapers have reported that a desperate Pakistan did indeed put pressure on the US to encourage India to stop, as damage to its forces was becoming increasingly serious, and threatening the government.

Pakistan denies that – but one of its most senior officers was keen to stress that any repeat of India’s strikes would bring atomic risk.

"Nothing happened this time," said the chairman of the Pakistani joint chiefs, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, also speaking to Reuters at the Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore. "But you can't rule out any strategic miscalculation at any time."

For now, both sides have pulled back troops from the border – while India appears determined to use longer term strategies to undermine its neighbor, including withdrawing from a treaty controlling the water supplies of the Indus River, which Indian Prime Minister Modi said he now intends to dam. Pakistani officials have warned that could be another act of war.

DRONES AND DETERRENCE

Making sure Iran never obtains the leverage of a working atomic bomb, of course, was a key point of the US and Israeli air strikes. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed that the dangers of a government so hostile to Israel obtaining such a weapon would always be intolerable.

For years, government and private sector analysts had predicted Iran might respond to an assault on its nuclear facilities with attacks by its proxies across the Middle East, including on Israel from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, as well as using thousands of missiles, drones and attack craft to block international oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz.

In reality, the threat of an overwhelming US military response – and hints of an accompanying switch of US policy to outright regime change or decapitation in Iran, coupled with the Israeli military success against Hezbollah and Hamas, appear to have forced Tehran to largely stand down.

What that means longer term is another question.

Flying to the Netherlands on Tuesday for the NATO summit, Trump appeared to be offering Iran under its current Shi'ite Muslim clerical rulers a future as a “major trading nation” providing they abandoned their atomic program.

The Trump administration is also talking up the success of its Operation ROUGH RIDER against the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen.

Vice Admiral Bradley Cooper, selected as the new head of US Central Command, told senators the US military had bombed the Houthis for 50 days before a deal was struck in which the Houthis agreed to stop attacking US and other international shipping in the Red Sea.

But Cooper also noted that like other militant groups in the Middle East, the Houthis were becoming increasingly successful in building underground bases out of the reach of smaller US weapons, as well as using unmanned systems to sometimes overwhelm their enemies.

“The nature and character of warfare is changing before our very eyes,” he said.

Behind the scenes and sometimes in public, US and allied officials say they are still assessing the implications of the success of Ukraine and Israel in infiltrating large numbers of short-range drones into Russia and Iran respectively for two spectacular attacks in recent weeks.

According to Ukrainian officials, the drones were smuggled into Russia hidden inside prefabricated buildings on the back of trucks, with the Russian drivers unaware of what they were carrying until the drones were launched.

Israel’s use of drones on the first day of its campaign against Iran is even more unsettling for Western nations wondering what such an attack might look like.

Its drones were smuggled into Iran and in some cases assembled in secret there to strike multiple senior Iranian leaders and officials in their homes as they slept in the small hours of the morning on the first day of the campaign.

As they met in The Hague this week for their annual summit, NATO officials and commanders will have considered what they must do to build their own defenses to ensure they do not prove vulnerable to a similar attack.

Judging by reports in the Chinese press, military officials there are now working on the same.