On April 13, a spokesman for Syria’s 8th Brigade announced that the unit would be dissolved and its forces and equipment would be handed over to the Syrian Ministry of Defense. On the face of it, the announcement was confusing because one would assume that the unit was already under the control of Damascus.
However, the reality was that the so-called 8th Brigade was one of the units that had survived the era of the Assad regime and actually had origins in the era of the Syrian rebellion in southern Syria. Its commander is Ahmed al-Awda, who rose to prominence over the last decade in southern Syria. He combines aspects of being a pragmatic rebel leader with being a regional warlord who sought to preserve his fief after the fall of Assad.
Awda was born in 1981 in the town of Busra al-Sham in southern Syria. The town is around 20 kilometers east of Dara’a, the regional capital. It is around fifty kilometers from the Israeli border. It is also very close to the Jordanian border. As such it is strategically located to dominate part of southern Syria. It sits astride access to Suweida and the Druze areas of southern Syria.
Awda rose to prominence during the Syrian rebellion. He was a key rebel leader in southern Syria between 2015 and 2018. This was an era where the southern Syria rebels controlled a swath of territory in Dara’a governorate. They also included areas close to the Golan.
However, they didn’t control everything. Other groups, such as Nusra, also had cells, and so did an ISIS affiliate called Jaish Khalid. The regime also controlled areas as well. Most of this frontline was relatively static. Although the Syrian rebellion had begun in Dara’a in 2011, the Syrian regime didn’t focus on southern Syria. The rebels here were backed by Jordan and Western powers and were part of the Southern Operations Room or southern front. The rebels here were also moderate in contrast to what, as the time was, the more extreme Nusra group and ISIS. Nusra eventually became Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and ended up in Idlib.
‘Power broker’ Awda
In 2018, the Syrian regime swept south after having defeated rebels in Homa, Hama, and Aleppo. The southern Syrian rebels gave up quickly, and many of the factions agreed to “reconcile” with the regime and even become part of its security forces. Ahmed al-Awda was a key figure in this transformation of the southern Syria rebels into collaborators with the regime. However, he kept his independence by forming the 8th Brigade under the Russian-backed 5th Corps.
Awda was seen as a “power broker” in southern Syria. However, his role was always more tenuous than it appeared. He had managed to maneuver amidst the power struggles in Damascus, mostly because Damascus didn’t care that much about southern Syria and was happy to outsource it to a feckless feudal warlord.
For instance, the Assad regime lacked manpower and didn’t mind leaving Awda in place because the Iranians and Russians were vying for influence in southern Syria. Iran wanted Hezbollah to move closer to the Golan to threaten Israel. There were also the Druze to consider, and Awda was able to sit on land between Suweida and the Golan. In this vacuum, Awda maneuvered. Iranian-backed gangs smuggled drugs to Jordan and destabilized the border, but Awda stayed on, doing little to help the situation.
When the Assad regime collapsed on December 8, 2024, Awda seized the opportunity and mobilized his forces to take control of the same area he had operated in for a decade. Now, his forces were once again backing the revolution and the rebellion. He met with the new HTS leaders in Damascus, and once again, power was outsourced to him in southern Syria. It took time for the new authorities in Damascus to organize themselves. They wanted all armed groups to become part of the new security forces. Ahmed al-Shara’a became the transition president in late January, and by late February, there was a new group of ministers in Syria’s transition government. By early March, Shara’a had agreed to a deal with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria.
As Shara’a consolidated power, he also sent forces to run the border crossings with Jordan. He made a deal with the Druze. However, he was challenged by Israeli airstrikes against former regime sites in southern Syria. Israeli forces also clashed with Syrians near the border. Southern Syria was still at risk of falling back into chaos.
This is the background of the announcement by Akram al-Hawrani, spokesman for the 8th Brigade, regarding the “final dissolution of the brigade and the handover of all its military and human resources to the Ministry of Defense.” He added that direct coordination to complete the operation would be led by commander Mohammed al-Qadri and that the move was made “in the interest of national unity and the promotion of security and stability.” The news has been greeted positively in Syria. One article now says Awda is “out of the Syrian scene.” Considering how Awda has frequently found a way back into things in southern Syria, this might be an optimistic take.
Awda and his men may have gone too far this time. The New Arab noted on April 13 that “military leader in Syria’s Daraa province, Bilal al-Droubi [also known as Bilal al-Maqdad and Abu Yazan], died on Saturday, succumbing to wounds he sustained two days earlier after being shot by members formerly affiliated with the Eighth Brigade militia.”
It noted that Droubi was from Busra al-Sham and “was one of the most prominent leaders of local armed groups before the 2018 Russian-brokered reconciliation agreement with the Assad regime.” He had recently joined the Ministry of Defense of the new Syrian government. This apparently angered Awda. “Al-Awda’s forces reportedly detained Al-Droubi after opening fire on him and wounding him with multiple gunshots while he was in his private car with his wife and children. This happened during clashes which happened when Syrian security forces were sent into Daraa to disarm members of the Eighth Brigade.”
This kind of warlord-like behavior was the way Awda had behaved in the area from 2015 to 2024. However, the new authorities in Damascus want things to be more civil. Al-Akhbar news in Lebanon, which is close to Hezbollah, noted that “the incident [the killing]was exploited by Damascus to eliminate the most important factions in Daraa, which had refused to integrate into the Ministry of Defense structure. It’s worth noting that al-Maqdad had contributed to the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad’s regime through his leadership of the Southern Operations Room.”
An-Nahr news noted that Syria’s Defense Minister Merhaf Abu Qasra “had previously appointed Brigadier General Binyan al-Hariri as commander of the Daraa Division. Five brigades were supposed to be formed from factions in Daraa and Suwayda to form this division. However, the Israeli threat to impose a demilitarized zone in southern Syria delayed this implementation, especially given the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the factions joining the Ministry of Defense, given Israel’s threat to target any Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham force deployed in the south.”
The 8th Brigade had not joined the new security forces or agreed to serve under the ministry, the report said. “Dozens of factions remain outside the Ministry of Defense, either because they were not invited to join or because they refused. This reflects the importance of the Eighth Brigade and the defense minister’s sense of the seriousness of its refusal to integrate into the new army.”
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