Suheil Al Hassan

Suheil Hassan Al Hassan
Nickname(s)	"The Tiger"
Born	1970 (age 44–45) Bait Ana, Latakia Governorate, Syria
Allegiance	Syria
Service/branch	Syrian Special force
Rank	Colonel
Battles/wars	Syrian civil war

Suheil al Hassan (born in 1970) is a Syrian Army colonel. He graduated from the Syrian Arab Air Force academy in 1991, and served in many units of the Syrian Arab Air Forces and Air Defence Command, completing several training courses. After serving in the Syrian Arab Air Force and Syrian Arab Air Defence units, he joined the Air Forces Intelligence Service, where he was responsible for the training of the elements of the Special Operations Section. During the Syrian Civil War the Colonel Suheil Al Hassan has served and commanded his troops during several major engagements, including Operation Canopus Star and the battle for the Shaer gas field. He is part of the new generation of field Syrian army commanders who emerged during the civil war.^[1] He has been viewed by some Alawites as their preferred choice to lead Syria over the current President, Bashar al-Assad.^[2]

Military Education

The Colonel Suheil Al Hassan attended different courses and a higher military education:

• Bachelor in Military Sciences, Air Forces Officer, Syrian Arab Air Forces Academy, Aleppo,
• Company Commander Course,
• Batailion Commander Course,
• Staff Course.

he attend several training and was qualified as:

• Commando,
• Paratrooper,
• Instructor of paratroopers.

Life and personality

He is believed to be around 40–50 years old, he has a son that he has not seen since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War. He is known for liking poetry, even broadcasting his own poems over to the loudspeaker at his enemies, as a warning of what will come if they do not surrender. He says that he always try to give a chance to his enemies to give up and surrender, but has no pity if they do not or if they betray him.^[3]

Al Hassan refused a promotion to become brigadier general in order to continue to lead his troops directly on the battlefield.^[4] His fighting style has been described as offensive, usually attacking enemy territories with heavy weaponry, before scoring important victories. A Syrian military source claimed Hassan had "never lost any battles" with Syrian opposition forces,^[5] yet the Second Siege of Wadi Deif was seen as a personal defeat for Hassan,^[6] while the Tiger forces under Hassan's command failed to break opposition forces lines when dispatched to Idlib to counter opposition offensives in 2015.^[7]

During the Syrian Civil War

Ariha Battle

In August 2013, the strategically important city of Ariha in Idlib governorate fell to the rebels. Suheil Al Hassan led the counterattack on the town. The battle lasted 10 days, and the Syrian army, backed up by heavy airstrikes, managed to retake control of the town, exepelling the rebels.^[8][9][10]

Aleppo campaign

On 26 August 2013, rebels captured the strategic town of Khanasir, cutting the government's last land supply route, passing through the desert, to the contested city of Aleppo.^[11] Suheil al Hassan was tasked to reopen the road, and left from Hama leading a big military convoy, in order to achieve this goal. On October 3, after a week-long battle, the Syrian army took back the control of Khanasser.^[12] One week later and after more than 40 villages captured,^[13] the siege of Aleppo by the rebels was broken.^[14] By this point, Suheil al-Hassan forces had advanced 250 km into rebel lines to lift the siege of the city.^[15]

After, solidifying control around Aleppo airport by taking Base 80 and Naqqarin at the end of 2013, al-Hassan and his troops pushed north toward the industrial city.

The Aleppo industrial city, named Sheikh Najjar, is a huge industrial complex located north of Aleppo. It was the most heavily fortified position of the rebels during the war, with miles of underground tunnels and rebels weapons factories.^[16] The battle lasted from January 2014 and ended the 4 July with the complete takeover of the industrial city by the Syrian Army.^[17][18]

On 22 May 2014, the Syrian troops led by al-Hassan, successfully rescued the Aleppo central prison, which was besieged and attacked relentlessly by rebels and jihadists fighters for more than one year. It was a symbolic victory for the Syrian army, and allowed the Syrian troops to close another supply road used by the rebels in Aleppo, who were besieging Aleppo in the summer of 2013, and were in positiong to be besieged in eastern Aleppo at the end of 2014.^[19][20]

Hama campaign

In July 2014, Al-Qaeda Syrian branch, al-Nusra Front, launched a big offensive, personnally led by their supreme leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, in the north of Hama Governorate, threatening both Hama city and the Hama military airport, as well as the Christian city of Mhardeh. The situation was difficult for the Syrian army ^[21] and colonel Al Hassan was assigned the task of leading all the military operations in the governorate to counter the al-Nusra threat. Observers were judging the mission to be very difficult, given the high numbers of Al Nusra and rebels forces committed to the battle and the fact that a lot of Hassan forces were still on the Aleppo front. Hassan arrived in Hama governorate at the end of August with some of his elite troops who made an immediate impact.^[22] The Syrian troops quickly took control of Arzh, Khittab and its base, and ended the jihadist attack on Mhardeh. The counterattack gained momentum and eventually reversed all rebels gains, including Helfaya in less than one month.^[23]

The army continued its offensive, entering previously held rebel territory, putting under heavy pressure rebel strongholds of Lataminah and Kfar Zita, and retaking the strategic towns of Morek, where Syrian army had failed to dislodge rebels during 10 months.^[24]

Homs desert and Shaer gas field

In early November 2014, he took part in the operation to retakes the gasfield seized at the end of the previous months by the jihadists of the Islamic State.

Idlib

In late April, he was at the front lines in Idlib Governorate fighting against a massive rebel assault on Jisr al-Shughur.^[25] A video surfaced of him making a dire call to Bashar Al-Assad for supplies saying that he has 800 men and they need ammunition immediately, he says they can return (to the fight, presumably) but they need ammunition.^[26]

References