List of wars involving Syria

This is a list of wars involving Syria since independence, including periods of the Arab Kingdom of Syria (1920), Mandatory Syrian Republic (1930–1946), Second Syrian Republic (1946–1958, 1961–1963), United Arab Republic (1958–1961), Ba'athist Syria (1963–2024), and Syria (2024–present).

Conflict Syria
and allies		 Opponents Outcome Head of State
Franco-Syrian War
(1920)		 Arab Kingdom of Syria
  • Kingdom of Hejaz Arab militias

France

 French victory
Great Syrian Revolt
(1925–1927)		 Syrian rebels France France French victory
  • Revolt crushed
None
Syria–Lebanon Campaign
(1941)		 France Vichy France United Kingdom Free France Allied Victory
  • Defeat of Vichy France in Syria
  • Syria and Lebanon taken over by Free France
Khalid al-Azm (Acting)
Levant Crisis
(1945)		 France Victory
  • British-enforced ceasefire
  • French withdrawal from the Levant
  • Syria and Lebanon gain full independence
First Arab–Israeli War
(1948–1949)
Defeat
First Iraqi–Kurdish War
(1963–1970)		 Before 1968:
Iraq
Syria Syria (1963)
Supported by:
United States (from 1963)
After 1968:
Ba'athist Iraq		 KDP
Supported by:
Iran Iran
Israel
United States (alleged)		 Military stalemate
Six-Day War
(1967)		 Egypt
Syria
Jordan
Iraq
Minor involvement:
Lebanon		 Israel Israeli victory
Syrian invasion of Jordan
(1970)		  Syria
PLO		 Jordan Jordanian victory
October War
(1973)		 Israel Defeat
  • At the final ceasefire:
    • Egyptian forces held 1,200 km2 (460 sq mi) on the eastern bank of the canal.
    • Israeli forces held 1,600 km2 (620 sq mi) on the western bank of the canal.
    • Israeli forces held 500 km2 (193 sq mi) of the Syrian Bashan region of the Golan Heights.
Lebanese Civil War
(1975–1990)		 Syria (1976, 1983–1991)
Amal Movement
PNSF
Marada Brigades (left LF in 1978; aligned with Syria)
Army of Free Lebanon (until 1977)
SLA (from 1976)
Israel (from 1978)

Tigers Militia (until 1980)

Lebanese National Movement (1975–1982)

PLO (1975–1983)
ASALA

Hezbollah (1985–1990)
Iran (from 1980, mainly IRGC and Army paramilitary units)

Islamic Unification Movement (from 1982)

Lebanese Armed Forces

UNIFIL (from 1978)
Multinational Force in Lebanon (1982–1984)

Arab Deterrent Force (1976–1982)

List
 Victory
Islamist uprising in Syria
(1979–1982)		  Syria
Supported by:
Soviet Union		 Fighting Vanguard
Muslim Brotherhood (after mid-1979)
Pro-Iraqi Ba'athists
Supported by:
Iraq (1980–1982)
Jordan
West Germany		 Syrian government victory
Gulf War
(1990–1991)
 Iraq Coalition victory
Syrian civil war
(2011–2024)		 Syria
Iraq (2017–19)
Russia
Hezbollah
Iran		 Syrian Opposition
Turkey
Ahrar al-Sham
Tahrir al-Sham
ISIL
Northern Syria
CJTF–OIR 		Syrian opposition and allied victory
Aftermath of the Syrian civil war (2024–present) Syria
Northern Syria		 Ba'athist Syria Assad loyalists and Neo-Ba'athist insurgents
Hezbollah
Israel
Druze militias
ISIL		 Ongoing

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 After 22 September 1948
  2. ↑ Lebanon had decided to not participate in the war and only took part in the battle of al-Malikiya on 5–6 June 1948.
  1. ↑ The last battle took place from 2–6 July 1991 between the Lebanese government and the Palestine Liberation Organization due to the latter's refusal to accept the Taif Agreement.

References

  1. ↑ The revolt was effectively led by Sultan al-Atrash
  2. 1 2 Oren 2003, p. 5.
  3. ↑ Morris (2008), p. 260.
  4. ↑ Gelber, pp. 55, 200, 239
  5. ↑ Morris, Benny (2008), 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War, Yale University Press, p. 205, New Haven, ISBN 978-0-300-12696-9.
  6. ↑ Palestine Post, "Israel's Bedouin Warriors", Gene Dison, August 12, 1948
  7. ↑ AFP (24 April 2013). "Bedouin army trackers scale Israel social ladder". Al Arabiya English. Al Arabiya. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  8. ↑ Wolfe-Hunnicutt, B. (2015). "Embracing Regime Change in Iraq: American Foreign Policy and the 1963 Coup d'etat in Baghdad". Diplomatic History. 39 (1): 98–125. doi:10.1093/dh/dht121. ISSN 0145-2096. Despite massive political, economic, and military aid to the fledgling Ba'thist government—including the provision of napalm weapons to assist the regime in what the Embassy regarded as a 'genocidal' counterinsurgency campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan—the first Ba'thist regime in Iraq proved 'not long for this world,' in the words of a rather gleeful British Ambassador. The Ba'th presided over a nine-month reign of terror, and the scale of the party's brutality shocked Iraqi sensibilities. Moreover, the Ba'th's association—in the public mind—with the American CIA only hastened its demise. In mid-November 1963, less than nine months after taking power, the Ba'th's rivals in the Iraqi Army deposed the Ba'th and rejoined Qasim's challenge to the IPC.
  9. ↑ Wolfe-Hunnicutt, Brandon (2021). The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq. Stanford University Press. pp. 126–127. ISBN 978-1-5036-1382-9.
  10. ↑ Wolfe-Hunnicutt, Brandon (2021). The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq. Stanford University Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-5036-1382-9. As the IPC moved in opposition to Qasim, Israeli and Iranian covert assistance began to pour into Iraqi Kurdistan... Kurdish representatives reached out to the US embassy for the same... Available documentation does not prove conclusively that the United States provided covert assistance to the Kurds in the fall of 1962, but the documents that have been declassified are certainly suggestive—especially in light of the general US policy orientation toward Iraq during this period.
  11. ↑ O'Ballance, Edgar (1973). The Kurdish Revolt, 1961–1970. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-09905-X.
  12. ↑ Pollack, Kenneth M. (2002). Arabs at War. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-3733-2.
  13. ↑ Krauthammer, Charles (18 May 2007). "Prelude to the Six Days". The Washington Post. p. A23. ISSN 0740-5421. Archived from the original on 24 July 2019. Retrieved 20 June 2008.
  14. ↑ Oren (2002), p. 237.
  15. ↑ Arnold, Guy (2016). Wars in the Third World Since 1945. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 299. ISBN 9781474291019.
  16. ↑ "Milestones: 1961–1968". Office of the Historian. Archived from the original on 23 October 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2018. Between June 5 and June 10, Israel defeated Egypt, Jordan, and Syria and occupied the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights
  17. ↑ Weill, Sharon (2007). "The judicial arm of the occupation: the Israeli military courts in the occupied territories". International Review of the Red Cross. 89 (866): 401. doi:10.1017/s1816383107001142. ISSN 1816-3831. S2CID 55988443. On 7 June 1967, the day the occupation started, Military Proclamation No. 2 was issued, endowing the area commander with full legislative, executive, and judicial authorities over the West Bank and declaring that the law in force prior to the occupation remained in force as long as it did not contradict new military orders.
  18. ↑ O'Ballance (1979), pp. 201.
  19. ↑ Shazly (2003), p. 278.
  20. ↑ Rabinovich (2004), pp. 464–465.
  21. ↑ Mahjoub Tobji (2006). Les officiers de Sa Majesté: Les dérives des généraux marocains 1956–2006 (in French). Fayard. p. 107. ISBN 978-2-213-63015-1.
  22. ↑ Shazly (2003), pp. 83–84.
  23. ↑ Cenciotti, David. "Israeli F-4s Actually Fought North Korean MiGs During the Yom Kippur War". Business Insider.
  24. ↑ References:
  25. ↑ Rabinovich (2004), p. 467.
  26. ↑ Morris (2011), p. 437.
  27. ↑ Mays, Terry M. Historical Dictionary of Multinational Peacekeeping. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996, pp. 9–10
  28. ↑ "The Taif Agreement" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 April 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  29. ↑ Ranstorp, Magnus, Hizb'allah in Lebanon: The Politics of the Western Hostage Crisis, New York, St. Martins Press, 1997, p. 105
  30. ↑ Nina Wiedl, Kathrin (2006). The Hama Massacre – reasons, supporters of the rebellion, consequences. GRIN Verlag. pp. 3–34. ISBN 978-3-638-56770-1.
  31. ↑ "Like Father, Like Son – Tyranny in Syria, A Massacre in Hama". Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. 11 June 2015. Archived from the original on 16 May 2016.
  32. ↑ Lefèvre 2013, pp. 100–101.
  33. ↑ Conduit 2019, p. 34.
  34. ↑ Conduit 2019, p. 35.
  35. ↑ Lefèvre 2013, p. 110.
  36. ↑ "The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood". Cablegate. 26 February 1985. Archived from the original on 8 May 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  37. ↑ Milton Edwards, Beverly; Hinchcliffe, Peter (2001). "4: International Relations". Jordan: A Hashemite Legacy. New York, USA: Routledge. p. 97. ISBN 0-415-26726-9.
  38. ↑ Conduit 2019, pp. 138–141.
  39. ↑ Nina Wiedl, Kathrin (2006). The Hama Massacre – reasons, supporters of the rebellion, consequences. GRIN Verlag. pp. 26–31. ISBN 978-3-638-56770-1. Another reason for West Germany to oppose Asad [sic] was his involvement in international terrorism, such as the RAF (Baader Meinhof Gang) clique and the "Movement 2nd of June – Tupamaros West Berlin"... West Germany, as an ally in the anti-Soviet camp, had a reason to support the Brotherhood in Syria and to provide them a safe exile in Germany as a place from where they could continue their attempts to overthrow Asad [sic], in order to weaken the Soviet bloc... Three ways how West Germany supported the Syrian Brotherhood.. It provided asylum and a save haven from where the exile-brotherhood could organise its struggle against Asad [sic], it protected them against attacks of Syrian intelligence, and West German newspapers reported about the Hama incident in a way that supported the aims of the Brotherhood.
  40. ↑ "Desert Shield And Desert Storm: A Chronology And Troop List for the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf Crisis" (PDF). apps.dtic.mil. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 2018-12-18.

Sources