Since the collapse of the Assad regime, previously senior members of the regime’s military and security apparatus formed new groups and networks to fight the transitional government.181 By February 2025, their operations against government troops showed a growing degree of coordination.182 Groups formed in the months after the former regime’s downfall included the Coastal Shield Brigade,183 led by former Republican Guards commander Miqdad Fatiha,184 and several outfits that emerged amid the escalation of violence in coastal Syria in March 2025.185 Groups active during the reference period include the Coastal Shield Brigade186 and a new group called Men of Light—Saraya Al-Jawad that emerged in August 2025.187 Men of Light—Saraya Al-Jawad is associated with Suhail Al Hassan,188 a former regime commander who amongst others led the former SAA’s 25th Special Tasks Division/‘Tiger Forces’.189 On the ground, the group was led by Bashar Abdullah Abu Raqiya before he was killed in an ISC security operation in February 2026.190 During the reference period, ISW and CTP mapped that Assad-aligned militias did not control any territory in Syria.191 While several exiled high-ranking former regime officials were planning to build an armed insurgency from abroad to retake territory in the coastal areas, the degree to which these former officials posed a threat to the government was unclear.192 Inside Syria, after March 2025, the Coastal Shield Brigade shifted its focus towards targeting Alawite civilians it suspected of collaborating with the transitional government.193
- 181
Zelin, A., Syria’s Transitional Honeymoon Is Over After Massacres and Disinformation, TWI, 10 March 2025, url
- 182
International Crisis Group, Restoring Security in Post-Assad Syria: Lessons from the Coast and Suweida, 26 November 2025, url, p. 4
- 183
International Crisis Group, Restoring Security in Post-Assad Syria: Lessons from the Coast and Suweida, 26 November 2025, url, p. 18; Zelin, A., Syria’s Transitional Honeymoon Is Over After Massacres and Disinformation, TWI, 10 March 2025, url
- 184
Zelin, A., Syria’s Transitional Honeymoon Is Over After Massacres and Disinformation, TWI, 10 March 2025, url
- 185
Arab Center Washington DC, Timeline of the Recent Sectarian Strife on Syria’s Coast, 19 March 2025, url
- 186
ISW and CTP, Iran Update, December 30, 2025, 30 December 2025, url
- 187
Media Line (The), Is New Syrian Faction Saraya al-Jawad Local, Proxy or Propaganda? Experts Weigh In, 9 October 2025, url
- 188
Enab Baladi, Leader of “Saraya al-Jawad” killed in clashes with Internal Security, 24 February 2026, url
- 189
New Arab (The), Syria regime appoints notorious Suheil Hassan as head of special forces, 10 April 2024, url
- 190
Enab Baladi, Leader of “Saraya al-Jawad” killed in clashes with Internal Security, 24 February 2026, url
- 191
ISW and CTP, Assessed Control of Terrain in Syria, February 16, 2026 at 2:00 PM ET [Map], 16 February 2026, url; ISW and CTP, Assessed Control of Terrain in Syria November 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM ET [Map], 10 November 2025, url
- 192
New York Times (The), Ousted and in Exile, Generals Secretly Plot Insurgency in Syria, 24 December 2025
- 193
ISW and CTP, Iran Update, December 30, 2025, 30 December 2025, url