2.11.2. Territorial control and main armed actors

Table of contents

Rural Damascus governorate is primarily under the control of the transitional government.1074 As of November 2025, the 44th Special Forces Division was active in the governorate’s west, the 52nd Special Forces Division (formerly the 103rd Division) along the Syrian-Lebanese border region – both HTS-led, and the 70th Division, formed of Jaysh Al-Islam and the Syrian Free Army (Maghawhir Al-Thawra), in the eastern parts of the governorate and into the Badia desert.1075

Israeli forces occupied southern parts of the governorate1076 and attacked residents.1077 Furthermore, they had instructions ‘to defend local Druze neighbourhoods’.1078 IDF intercepted presumably Iranian missiles in the airspace of Rural Damascus.1079

ISIL cells reportedly existed in Al-Dhumayr1080 (Duma district) and Muaddamiyah (Darayya district).1081

  • 1074

    ISW and CTP, Assessed Control of Terrain in Syria, February 16, 2026 at 2:00 PM ET [Map], 16 February 2026, url

  • 1075

    ISW and CTP, The New Syrian Army: Order of Battle, 14 November 2025, url, pp. 28, 43-45

  • 1076

    ISW and CTP, Interactive Map: Assessed Control of Terrain in Syria [Map], 27 February 2026, url; Al Jazeera, كيف تحول توغل إسرائيلي في بيت جن السورية إلى مواجهة مباشرة؟, [How did an Israeli incursion into Beit Jinn, Syria, turn into a direct confrontation?], 28 November 2025, url; ACAPS, Humanitarian Access Overview - Spotlight on fragmented contexts: Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen, December 2025, url, p. 14; MEE, Israel establishes 'sterile defence zone' inside Syrian territory as it continues air strikes, 10 December 2024, url

  • 1077

    SNHR, The Fifteenth Annual Report on Human Rights Situation in Syria 2025, 26 March 2026, url, p. 12; Shtuni, A., From Insurgency to Statecraft: Al-Sharaa and Syria’s Foreign Fighters Test, 19 February 2026, url, p. 7; Al Jazeera, Syria calls Israeli incursion, strikes that killed 13 a ‘war crime’, 28 November 2025, url

  • 1078

    Hazran, Y., The Syrian Druze: Between the Hammer of Integration and the Anvil of Separation, 2 September 2025, url, p. 14

  • 1079

    SOHR, Believed to be Iranian: Missile remnants fall in Rif Dimashq, 23 March 2026, url

  • 1080

    Al-Ahmad, S. and Franjieh, S., Will Syria join the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS?, MEI, 27 October 2025, url

  • 1081

    Hürriyet Daily News, Syria says ISIL leader captured in Damascus countryside, 25 December 2025, url