The Tiger Forces: A Syrian Militia Used Chemical Weapons and Participated in Ukrainian War

Among the famous parties involved in chemical attacks on civilians is The Tiger Forces militia led by Brigadier General Suheil al-Hassan, the first Russian man in Syria, who founded the group in 2012.

The Tiger Forces is a Syrian Air Intelligence-affiliated militia fighting for the Syrian government and backed by Russia.

A report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons concluded with “reasonable grounds to believe” that the Syrian regime was behind a chlorine attack that targeted the city of Douma, in the countryside of Damascus, on April 7, 2018, killing 43 people and injuring dozens.

On January 27, 2023, the organization said that at least one Mi-8/17 helicopter of the Syrian Arab Air Force took off from Dumayr Air Base and was operating under the control of the Tiger Forces. It dropped “two yellow canisters” on two residential buildings in the center of Douma.”

The OPCW report stated that the first cylinder “disintegrated and rapidly released a toxic gas, chlorine, in very high concentrations.”

 

Scorched Earth

At that time, Brigadier General Suheil al-Hassan, who graduated from the Syrian Air Force Academy in 1991, led a military campaign in 2018 against Eastern Ghouta, which included cities and towns in the countryside of Damascus, most of which were in the hands of the opposition.

This “bloody general,” born in 1970 in the village of Beit Gana in the countryside of Latakia, from an Alawite family, followed the scorched earth policy that he uses as a military tactic to restore cities outside the control of the Syrian regime.

Al-Hassan is the only Syrian officer for whom Russian intelligence has sorted out special protection. He led the Tiger Forces militia (currently the 25th Special Mission Forces Division) before Russia won him over in its favor, and he became Russia’s subordinate in terms of financing and arming his forces with advanced and effective combat equipment.

At that time, the campaign against Eastern Ghouta resulted in the killing of 1,500 civilians, and it fell into the hands of the forces of the President of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, and tens of thousands of its residents were displaced after several sorts of prohibited weapons were used against them.

Chief among them was the use of chemical weapons on April 7, 2018, which, according to the opposition, resulted in 80 deaths, most of them women and children.

Prior to the attack on Ghouta, Suheil al-Hassan, nicknamed al-Nimr (The Tiger), appeared among the supporters of al-Assad in early March 2018, claiming that his forces would fight until the appearance of the “awaited Mahdi”—a man said to appear at the end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice according to Islamic etymology.

He said, “There is no return for me neither to a son, nor to a house, or a father or a mother…until everyone opposing Bashar al-Assad in this world will be humiliated.”

 

How Was It Founded?

The Tiger Forces was special since its establishment with the support of the Iranian Air Force at the beginning. Its groups grew to become one of the largest combat elements in the Syrian battlefields, with approximately 24 groups, all of which, according to estimates, constitute about 4,000 elements, and each of them has armored units and integrated artillery.

The Tiger Forces militia practiced killing, displacement, and destruction against the Syrian people and was formed mainly to suppress peaceful demonstrations against the regime in Hama.

Then, when it began to attract combat groups from the Alawite sect, it led incursions into the rebellious cities and committed heinous massacres, including the massacre of the town of al-Tamanah in rural Idlib in 2012, in which about 500 civilians were killed.

Since its military intervention on September 31, 2015, to prevent the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Russia has been supervising the Tiger Forces, which no longer move in the field in the battles against the Syrian opposition and ISIS, except at the behest of Moscow, which has assigned its officers to supervise it so far.

That is why, in an attempt by Russia to demilitarize the Tiger Forces, it launched the so-called 25th Special Mission Forces Division within the formations of the Syrian regime forces in late August 2019.

With this step, it canceled the designation of the Tiger Forces while maintaining Russian support and military dependence on the Russian Khmeimim air base in the countryside of Latakia, which leads operations in Syria.

Russia is permanently promoting al-Hassan (al-Nimr) as “the unbeatable leader” through its media.

Al-Hassan was the only officer who accompanied the head of the regime, Bashar al-Assad, to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Hmeimim base in Latakia in December 2017.

Al-Nimr has always threatened the people of northern Syria outside the control of Assad with death, including when he spoke to the leaders of his militias over the radio, addressing the people of northern Syria, saying: “I swear we will make your death an answer to those who wait and a lesson to those who consider.”

 

Abuse of Corpses

On March 17, 2020, Human Rights Watch held the 25th Special Mission Forces Division responsible for taking revenge on civilians in Idlib Governorate during a military campaign to recover areas taken by the opposition.

In its statement, the organization revealed that it had obtained pictures showing the members of the 25th Special Mission Forces Division shooting at civilians and mutilating their bodies in the towns that the regime had recaptured in the governorates of Idlib and Aleppo.

According to the Pro Justice organization, seeking to achieve the principle of accountability and prevent impunity for war criminals and human rights violations in the Middle East and Syria, Brigadier General Suheil al-Hassan enjoys hateful sectarianism and was tasked with dispersing peaceful demonstrations in some neighborhoods of the capital, Damascus, and its countryside.

In addition, in an attempt by Moscow to inoculate the Tiger Forces with elements from other than the Alawite sect, it resorted to investing in the security settlement processes between the Syrian opposition elements who accepted reconciliation with the Syrian regime and integrating some of these into its groups.

This Russian tactic allowed the support of the fighting axes that Russia assigned to al-Nimr, such as combing the Syrian desert to eliminate some cells of ISIS.

In 2020, the US Departments of State and Treasury imposed a new package of sanctions on the Syrian regime by including several figures supporting it in its war against the Syrians, including Suheil al-Hassan.

 

Call to Ukraine

After the Tiger Forces became aware of their bloodshed towards the Syrian people, Russia decided to summon groups of its elements to fight in Ukraine after its invasion on February 24, 2022.

A secret document leaked by the Syrian regime forces, dated January 3, 2023, showed confirmation of the participation of the 25th Special Mission Forces Division, led by Major General Suheil al-Hassan, in an external mission for Russia.

The 25th Special Mission Forces Division was the first to raise combat readiness on Syrian soil for pro-Russian forces after the invasion of Ukraine.

Al-Nimr, in turn, participated with Russian officers in training more than 100 parachuting personnel in the Syrian desert in June 2022.

This was the first time that Russian officers trained the members of that division to parachute jump, which military experts linked to the preparations for the battles of Ukraine.

According to an Associated Press report published on April 19, 2022, members of the Tiger Forces have registered to go and fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, and they are experienced soldiers and fighters who have fought for years against ISIS in the Syrian desert.

The report indicated that only a small number arrived in Russia for military training before being deployed on the front lines.