The Struggle to Pacify Syria’s Foreign Legions

(Crisis Group) Some 5,000 foreign fighters who helped topple former President Bashar al-Assad’s regime are still under arms in Syria, presenting a lurking problem for the interim government led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa. In the heady days following Assad’s ouster in late 2024, Hei’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the rebel group that had led the victorious charge into Damascus, had a matter of weeks to fill the security vacuum left by the regime’s collapse. Part of its solution was to integrate the foreign fighters into its new armed forces. Most of these foreigners had first been drawn to Syria to join jihadist factions that were fighting the Assad regime alongside other rebels. Roughly two thirds of them are Uighurs from China, while the rest are non-Syrian Arabs, Central Asians or Europeans. The choice made sense at the time. HTS was, in effect, employing non-Syrian militants to consolidate its rule and bring stability to the country, while placating them with respected positions in the post-Assad order. Yet for many Syrians and outsiders alike, it was unclear whether the foreign fighters were being leashed or unleashed. The government’s approach has generated a host of anxieties, whether among Syrians who fear a fundamentalist regime in the making or international partners who worry that some within the foreign fighters’ ranks have transnational designs. Many of the government’s detractors view the decision to find useful employment for the fighters as indicating intent to transform Syria into an authoritarian Islamist state. Events on the ground have deepened those concerns. During the spate of violence against Alawite civilians on the coast and Druze in Suweida in 2025, foreign fighters were implicated in incidents such as killings, looting, destruction of property and other acts intended to humiliate local people, though it should be said that Syrians perpetrated the bulk of the abuses. – The Struggle to Pacify Syria’s Foreign Legions | International Crisis Group