National Defence Forces (Syria)

The National Defence Forces (NDF; قوات الدفاع الوطني Quwat ad-Difāʿ al-Watanī) is a branch of Syrian Armed Forces, formed after summer 2012 as a part-time volunteer reserve component of the Syrian military, organized by the Syrian government during the Syrian Civil War.

Formation
By the beginning of 2013, Assad took steps to formalize and professionalize hundreds of Popular Committee militias under 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, receives salaries and military equipment from the government, while Shabiha members have been incorporated into the NDF.

Young and unemployed men join the NDF, which some see 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 the National Defence Force.

Unlike the Syrian Army, NDF soldiers are allowed to take loot from civilians homes and battlefields, which can then be sold on for extra money.

Iranian role
The creation of the NDF was personally overseen by Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Suleimani. Syrian security officials admitted 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", with the NDF recruits receiving training in urban guerilla warfare from Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (IRGC) and Hezbollah instructors at facilities inside Syria, Lebanon, and Iran, with this partnership remaining the same as of April 2015. Iran has contributed to gathering together existing neighborhood militias into 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, with some members reportedly being sent for training in Iran.

Role
The force acts in an infantry role, directly fighting against rebels on the ground and running counter-insurgency operations in coordination with the army which provides them logistical and artillery support.

The NDF is projected as a secular force. For that reason, many of their members are drawn from Syrian minorities, such as Alawites, Christians, Druzes, and Armenians. According to the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, the creation of the group has been successful, as it had played a crucial role in improving the military situation for the government forces in Syria from the 2012 summer, when many analysts predicted the downfall of Assad and his government.

The force is reported to be 60,000-strong as of June 2013 and is set to grow to 100,000 (reached in August 2013).

Units mostly operate in their local areas, although members can also choose to take part in army operations. Others have claimed that the NDF does most of the fighting because NDF members, as locals, have a strong knowledge of the region.

Women's section
The force has a 500-strong women's wing called "Lionesses of National Defence", which operates checkpoints. They are mainly deployed in the Homs area. The women are trained to use Kalashnikovs, heavy machine guns and grenades, and taught to storm and control checkpoints.

Expanding role
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. Recently they've been used as support infantry to advancing armored units. An officer in Homs, who asked not to be identified, said the army was increasingly playing a logistical and directive role, while NDF fighters act as combatants on the ground.

Infighting with Syrian regime
On 30 April 2015, infighting broke out in the Zahraa area of Homs between the local NDF and regime security forces attempting to arrest NDF members after complaints of lawlessness from the local population, resulting in several deaths.

Training
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.

Looting
The Institute for the Study of War has stated that "Local NDF commanders often engage in war profiteering through protection rackets, looting, and organized crime. NDF members have been implicated in waves of murders, robberies, thefts, kidnappings, and extortions throughout regime-held parts of Syria since the formation of the organization in 2013." A member of the NDF has stated that "We have direct orders to collect whatever we want ... Our commanders tell us: 'The properties of your enemies are lawfully yours.' And then they take whatever they want as well." Civilians in government held parts of Syria have complained of such abuses, with one stating "In areas under government control, there is no unified central command. They are ruled by a cluster of mafia-style gangs," which include the NDF. The NDF has looted both pro-government and opposition areas, referring to the latter type of looting as the "Sunni market", as Sunnis are the common target in pro-opposition territory that the Assad government has recaptured.

In early 2015, NDF members looted Ismaili religious minority homes in the wake of an ISIS attack in central Syria. In May 2015, the NDF were told to leave the Ismaili town of Aqarib al-Safia in Hama after the NDF committed numerous acts of theft against the local population, and the Ismaili community's militas refused to be associated with the Assad regime.