| Ba'ath Brigades كتائب البعث | |
|---|---|
 Ba'ath Brigades SSI and Insignia  Ba'ath Brigades Flag | |
| Founder | Hilal Hilal |
| Leaders | |
| Dates of operation | Summer 2012[6] – September 2018[1] |
| Headquarters | Aleppo |
| Active regions | Syria |
| Ideology | Neo-Ba'athism Assadism |
| Political position | Far-left[citation needed] |
| Size | 7,000 claimed(December 2013)[9] |
| Part of | Syrian Ba'ath Party |
| Allies |  Syrian Arab Armed Forces National Defence Forces |
| Opponents |  Free Syrian Army Islamic Front al-Nusra Front Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant |
| Battles and wars | Syrian Civil War |
TheBa'ath Brigades (Arabic:كتائب البعث,romanized: Katā'ib al-Baʿth), also known as theBa'ath Battalions, were a volunteermilitia made up ofSyrian Ba'ath Party members, almost entirely ofSunni Muslims from Syria and many Arab countries, loyal to theSyrian Government ofBashar al-Assad.[11]
They were set up inAleppo under the command ofHilal Hilal, the current Assistant Regional Secretary, after rebels took most of the eastern half of the city in the summer of 2012. Initially, the Ba'ath Brigades were used to guard government buildings and other key installations in Aleppo, but their role expanded as their strength grew from 5,000 members in November 2012 to 7,000 in December 2013.[6][12] Units later formed in Latakia and Tartus. At the end of 2013, the Brigades began deploying in Damascus, tasked with manning checkpoints and conducting "light logistical operations".[9] They spearheaded the assault on theOld City of Aleppo in early 2014.[11]
The Ba'ath Battalions participated in lifting the three-year siege atKuweires military airbase alongside the eliteCheetah Forces, andNational Defence Forces.[13]
The Ba'ath Brigades were previously led by Ra'ed bin 'Ali Ghadban—a high-ranking member of theBa'ath Party'sDeir ez-Zor branch. He resigned as the brigades' commander in 2017 to become a member of thecentral committee of the party, as well as a member of the Syrian government's delegation to the Sochi peace talks in the context of theSyrian peace process.[2]
On 27 February 2017, Col. Salama Mohammed, a high-ranking Ba'ath Brigades commander and leader of the group'sTartus Governorate branch, was reportedly killed in action while fighting in the area aroundHama. Some claimed, however, that Mohammed had instead died of aheart attack.[4]
The Ba'ath Legion of theSyrian Army's5th Corps was formed from Ba'ath Brigades volunteers.[14]
By mid-2018, the Syrian government began to disband the Ba'ath Brigades, as well as other pro-government militias, integrating parts of them into the Syrian Army.[15][16][17]
The Ba'ath Brigades were dissolved following theIdlib demilitarization agreement in September 2018. The group's then-leader, Jihad Barakat, announced on hisFacebook page that "the military operations conducted by Baath forces have completely ended".[1]
Despite the Ba'ath Brigades' end, several of their former commanders continued to play a prominent role in Syria. Bassem Sudan and Isam Nabhan Subai, former commanders of the brigades in Latakia and Hama, respectively, successfully ran as candidates in the2020 Syrian parliamentary election.[5]
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