Military Intelligence Directorate (Syria)


The Military Intelligence Directorate was the military intelligence agency of Ba'athist Syria until 2024. Although its roots go back to the French mandate period, the organization was established in 1969. Its predecessor organization was called the Second Bureau. It was headquartered at the Defense Ministry building in Damascus. The military intelligence agency was very influential in the politics of Ba'athist Syria.

Organization

The Military Intelligence Directorate was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense. The MID was also controlled by the former President Bashar al-Assad through the National Security Bureau of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party Central Command. It was divided into eleven branches:
  • Technical Branch
  • Raids and Storming Branch
  • Patrols Branch
  • Front Intelligence Branch
  • Internal and External Communications Branch
  • Palestine Branch
  • Wireless Branch
  • Political Guidance Branch
  • External Security Branch
  • Officers Affairs Branch
  • Armed Forces Security Branch

    Responsibility

The MID was responsible for providing clandestine and covert operations, counterinsurgency, counterintelligence, counter-revolutionary, counterterrorism, executive protection, military intelligence gathering on foreign and internal threats to the deposed Government of Syria, the former Syrian Armed Forces or the national security of Syria, irregular warfare, and political warfare. The service also monitored opponents of the former government inside/outside Ba'athist Syria.
MID was both a foreign intelligence gathering and a military security service. During the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, the Mukhabarat exercised political authority in Lebanon. After Cedar Revolution and Syrian withdrawal in 2005, it ended. It was suspected of providing logistic and material support to different Palestinian or Lebanese radical groups.

Directors