On February 9, the Syrian Free Army (SFA) said in a post on social media that it provided medical services to more than 60 Bedouin patients in southern Syria as part of a mobile clinic. The Syrian Free Army is a US-backed and trained unit of several hundred men that has been active in southern Syria at a site known as the Tanf Garrison. For many years, the unit was cut off from most of Syria because it was only able to patrol a small area around the garrison where US soldiers were present. With the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime on December 8, the group has been pushed into the spotlight as Syria undergoes a rapid transition.
On January 29, the group’s leader, Colonel Salem Turki al Antri, attended a meeting in Damascus where a number of armed factions discussed folding into a unified security apparatus and the appointment of Ahmed al Sharaa as Syria’s interim president was announced.
Since the fall of the Assad regime, Antri has attempted to form ties with the new leaders in Damascus while also making the unit relevant to communities near Tanf. Some members of the Syrian Free Army come from areas near Palmyra, around 75 miles north of Tanf. When the Assad regime fell, some of the unit’s members, including Antri, journeyed to Palmyra to meet with locals and operate in the security vacuum left by Assad’s rapidly disappearing army.
Since late December, Syria’s political and security situations have changed dramatically. The vacuum left by the Assad regime has largely been filled by a Syrian government in Damascus that is anxious to unify armed factions and assert its control. For example, the government sent forces into Afrin on February 6 and has been cracking down on smuggling along the Lebanese border. The evolving situation leaves the Syrian Free Army in a delicate position because it still has an independent command. SFA leaders have met with the new security forces in Damascus in at least two high-profile meetings in January. The group has also continued patrolling near Palmyra, dealing with unexploded ordnance and meeting with local Bedouin tribes.
Antri has spoken with international media about what he sees as key issues. He spoke with NPR soon after the Assad regime fell and, in late January, told The National, a UAE state-owned newspaper, that a US withdrawal from Syria would be “devastating” and could lead to an Islamic State resurgence.
The Syrian Free Army grew out of the expanding US role in Syria dating back to 2015. The US significantly backed the primarily Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in eastern Syria. However, at Tanf, where the US built a post near an old agricultural school, the US partnered with the Maghawir al Thawra (MAT), made up of Syrian Arabs who opposed the Assad regime.
MAT, which eventually became the Syrian Free Army, had around 300 men in 2018 when General Joseph Votel, head of US Central Command, visited Tanf. The group’s role was intended to be fighting the Islamic State as part of the US’s larger anti-IS mission in Syria. However, the Syrian regime pushed IS back from areas near Tanf, and local American forces and MAT had an unclear future. The area still held significant importance, however. A large displaced-persons camp near Tanf named Rukban housed up to 100,000 people. Since 2017, the US has maintained a 55-kilometer “exclusion zone” around the garrison in Tanf, basically forming a large semi-circle inside Syria that provided security along the Iraqi and Jordanian borders.
Tanf’s position near the Jordanian and Iraqi borders is of strategic importance. “The base is […] located on a vital road linking Iranian-backed forces from Tehran all the way to southern Lebanon—and Israel’s doorstep,” the AP reported in 2018 during Votel’s visit. Over time, the US trained the Syrian Free Army in marksmanship, small-unit tactics, and using light vehicles to conduct patrols. Tanf was threatened several times by pro-Iranian militias in Syria. However, the militias are now gone, along with the Assad regime.
The Syrian Free Army forces continue to focus on local tasks, such as the mobile medical clinic and supporting the remaining displaced people at Rukban. They have also conducted de-mining operations.
According to a recent post at the X account for Operation Inherent Resolve, the US’s anti-IS mission, an element of the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division is currently working with the Syrian Free Army. These troops appear to be with the 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which deployed from Fort Drum to replace the 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team that operated at Tanf. US Combined Special Operations Joint Task Force-Levant has also posted about the importance of the Syrian Free Army mission, further spotlighting the continued role of deployed US forces and the SFA in recent weeks.
