[ISRAEL-ALMA.ORG] At the end of June 2026, several Syrian media and Telegram channels reported that the Syrian Ministry of Defense is advancing a comprehensive reform of the structure of the new Syrian Army. According to these reports, the army is expected to transition from a structure based on separate divisions to one organized into five regional corps, with each corps serving as a regional command responsible for a defined geographic sector and overseeing several divisions.
At first glance, this appears to be an organizational reform intended to improve command and control within the military. However, an examination of the identities of the new corps commanders suggests that the reform is not accompanied by a significant change in the senior command structure. Four of the five corps commanders are former senior commanders in Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the organization that evolved from Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s former affiliate in Syria. The fifth commander, Ahmad Mohammad al-Jassem, comes from the ranks of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA).
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In July 2025, the Alma Research and Education Center published a special report on the new Syrian Army, mapping its structure, order of battle, divisions, commanders, and their organizational and ideological backgrounds. The recent reports regarding the reorganization into five regional corps represent another stage in the army’s force-building process and provide an opportunity to examine whether the organizational changes are accompanied by changes in the command echelon.
The apparent objective of establishing regional corps is to reorganize the chain of command, unify the various military formations established since the creation of the new army, and build a regular military with a clearer command structure capable of deploying forces rapidly and efficiently across the country’s various fronts.
It is important to emphasize that, as of the time of writing, the Syrian Ministry of Defense has not issued an official statement confirming the reform, nor has a presidential decree or government document been published formally establishing the new structure. The information is based on reports published on June 29, 2026, by several Syrian media outlets and Telegram channels, which described the move as a decision that emerged from internal discussions within the Ministry of Defense.
Nevertheless, the existence of a broad military reorganization is consistent with the ongoing force-building process within the Syrian Army, which has continued under Turkish patronage since early 2025. From its first days in office, the transitional government began working to unify dozens of rebel factions under a single military framework, rebuild the command hierarchy, and establish regular military formations. Therefore, even if the details of the five-corps structure have not yet been officially confirmed, they fit logically within the broader process of building the new Syrian military.
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