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23-739: The mountain extends from east to west and has a length of 85 km, a width of 15 km, and an area of 84,050 hectares. Jabal Abdulaziz consists of a series of hills and valleys with heights between 300 and 932 meters. It is the sole topographic elevation in Northeast Syria. The nearest topographic elevation are the Bishri mountains to the south-west. To the east, the Sinjar mountain range begins in Iraq. The surroundings of Mount Abdulaziz have been surveyed in view of establishing an oil industry several times. In 1949

46-460: A functioning hierarchy and provided them with better equipment and training. The United States government has also stated that Iran is helping build the group on the model of its own Basij militia, and that some members are being sent for training in Iran. The force acts in an infantry role, directly fighting against rebels on the ground and running counter-insurgency operations in coordination with

69-620: A new group dubbed the National Defence Forces. The goal was to form an effective, locally based, highly motivated force out of pro-government militias. The NDF, in contrast with the Shabiha forces, received salaries and military equipment from the government. Since the formation of the NDF, Shabiha members have been incorporated into its structure. The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces has defined Shabiha as

92-485: A senior officer each. The period of training can vary from 2 weeks to a month depending on whether an individual is being trained for basic combat, sniping, or intelligence. According to a 2022 analysis by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said "they are not experienced..., poorly equipped and have never excelled on the battlefield." Since January 2013, the NDF had a 500-strong women's wing called "Lionesses of National Defence", which operates checkpoints in

115-526: Is a highland region in northeastern Syria . It is located on the border between Deir ez-Zor , Raqqa and Homs governorates. Jebel Bishri is a broad ridge of mountains extending immediately west of the Euphrates river, northwest of the city of Deir ez-Zor , southwestwards toward Palmyra . It forms part of the Palmyrene mountain belt in central Syria. Its eastern piedmont reaches Deir ez-Zor. The region

138-766: Is abundant with natural Asphalt which was discovered in 2007. Gas and oil facilities are around the Bishri mountains. Jebel Bishri is associated with the Amorites and was known as the "mountain of the Amorites" ( ba-sa-ar šá-dú-ì MAR.TU ) in Akkadian sources. The Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands, Syria (ACSAD) , headquartered in Damascus , developed a plan to be implemented from 1994 to 2006 to stop desertification in

161-688: The Syrian Army , which provides them with logistical and artillery support. The force was reported to be 60,000-strong as of June 2013 and grew to 100,000 by August. The NDF is composed mainly of members of the Alawite and Shia sects of Islam and are loyal to the Syrian Government and the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad . Units mostly operate in their local areas, although members can also choose to take part in army operations. Others have claimed that

184-634: The 1950s. As of 2007, there are around twenty villages and thirty smaller farming settlements scattered around the foot of the ridge with a total population of between 13,000 and 15,000 individuals. All of the inhabitants of the area are Arabs of the Baqqarat al-Jabal tribe, save for one village of the Sayyad tribe (which has integrated with the former). It is one of the poorest areas in Syria, largely due to arid conditions and exacerbated by land use restrictions in place around

207-481: The Homs area. The women are trained to use Kalashnikovs , heavy machine guns and grenades, and taught to storm and control checkpoints. The largest female group belong to Homs NDF. In January 2024, Lionesses of the NDF have officially disbanded. Female recruits will fight with regular units. French extreme right non-governmental organization SOS Chrétiens d'Orient  [ fr ] (SOSCO) has conducted fundraising for

230-699: The Iraqi Oil Company conducted drillings to the west of the mountain. Through the International Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation of 1958 between the Soviet Union and the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR), high ranking soviet geologists mapped the area. Rompetrol of Romania conducted several drillings to collect seismic data in the south of Mount in the 1970s. In the Ottoman era, the area

253-473: The NDF does most of the fighting because NDF members, as locals, have a strong knowledge of the region. Struggling with reliability and issues with defections, officers of the Syrian Army increasingly prefer the part-time volunteer reserves of the NDF, who they regard as more motivated and loyal, over regular army conscripts to conduct infantry operations. An officer in Homs, who asked not to be identified, said

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276-630: The National Defence Force. Others, like the Druze people of Al-Suwayda Governorate , join to protect their land from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In late June 2015, the Syrian government began arming citizens of this governorate against ISIL, who were harassing the local population with abductions, executions, and plundering. The locals became a large and powerful NDF contingent in

299-479: The National Defense Forces are organized under provincial commanders, and loosely overseen by a national coordinator who is reported to be Brigadier-General Ghassan Nassour, although later sources report the name of Hawash Mohammed. Local branches are deemed to act with autonomy and to be not cohesive on the provincial level, although there is little uniformity. Provincial branches seem to be commanded by

322-479: The Syrian National Defence Forces. Young and unemployed men join the NDF, which some view as more attractive than the Syrian Army , considered by many of them to be infiltrated by rebels, overstretched and underfunded. A number of recruits say they joined the group because members of their families had been killed by rebel groups. In some Alawite villages almost every military-age male has joined

345-644: The army was increasingly playing a logistical and directive role, while NDF fighters act as combatants on the ground. On 20 February 2018, NDF battalions volunteered to support the Afrin canton against the Turkish-led operation against Afrin . More recently the NDF has been criticized for escalation and aggressiveness with the YPG and SDF in the cities of Qamishli and across the ANES Al-Hasakah , but mediation later ended

368-735: The governorate, including the prominent Golan Regiment . The creation of the NDF was personally overseen by Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani . Syrian security officials stated that they received assistance from Iran and Hezbollah , who both "played a key role in the formalization of the NDF along the model of the Iranian 'Basij' militia". The NDF recruits received training in urban guerilla warfare from Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah instructors at facilities inside Syria, Lebanon, and Iran, with this partnership remaining in place as of April 2015. Iran has contributed to gathering together existing neighborhood militias into

391-619: The nature reserve established on the mountain. Many inhabitants have migrated to Hasakah city and the nearby town of Tall Tamer to seek better conditions. This article about a location in Al-Hasakah Governorate , Syria is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Jebel Bishri Jebel Bishri or Mount Bishri ( Arabic : جبل البِشْرِي Jabal al-Bišrī , in Akkadian : ba-sa-ar or bi-si-ir , in Amorite : Biśri )

414-399: The nearby deserts, causing an unknown number of casualties. On 20 June 2022, clashes erupted in the area between Islamic State militants and forces of the Syrian military. Over the course of three days, at least 26 Syrian soldiers and 7 IS fighters were killed. On 3 March 2024, during SAA combing operations, eight NDF militiamen were found shot dead after being executed by ISIS militants on

437-490: The outskirts of the area. The group had been missing since 21 February. This article about a location in Deir ez-Zor Governorate , Syria is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . National Defence Forces Non-state allies Non-state opponents The National Defence Forces ( NDF ; Arabic : قوات الدفاع الوطني Quwāt ad-Difāʿ al-Watanī ) is a Syrian pro-government paramilitary volunteer militia , that

460-426: The region of Jebel Bishri. The scheme included planting certain kinds of trees such as Pistacia atlantica and Prunus . On 25 April 2022, as part of Islamic State 's 'Vengeance for two Sheikhs' campaign, three Pro-Assad soldiers were killed in clashes with Islamic State fighters in the area. Following the clashes, Russian warplanes reportedly carried out at least 20 airstrikes against Islamic State targets in

483-609: The skirmishes. An NDF militia from Mhardeh , led by Sami Al-Wakil , has been accused of war crimes , for instance massacres in Halfaya in December 2012 and Kfar Hod in March 2013, and in Al-Lataminah where it has been reported to be responsible for 200 civilian deaths in artillery fire from a hill it occupied, and of recruiting child soldiers . According to a report, as of February 2015

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506-590: Was formed on 1 November 2012 and organized by the Syrian government during the Syrian Civil War as a part-time volunteer reserve component of the Syrian Armed Forces . The NDF is made of units across various Syrian provinces, each of them consists of local volunteers willing to fight against rebels for various reasons. By the beginning of 2013, the Syrian government took steps to formalize and professionalize hundreds of Popular Committee militias under

529-585: Was transiently populated by nomadic Arab herders who wandered the arid plains between the ridge and the area of Mardin (now in Turkey ). With the post-Ottoman establishment of the Syro-Turkish border and the increasing promotion of sedentary agriculture by colonial and state authorities, these tribes began to be forced to permanently settle during the French Mandate , with the first permanent settlement established in

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