Coastal Shield Brigade

Coastal Shield Brigade (Arabic: لواء درع الساحل, romanized: Liwāʼ Dirʻ al-Sāḥil) is a Syrian Assadist militant organization formed in January 2015. It announced its operations in February 2025, after the fall of the Assad regime.

Coastal Shield Brigade
لواء درع الساحل
Emblems they used
Founding leader	Muqdad Fatiha
Foundation	1 January 2015 (within the SAA);[1] 6 February 2025 (as an insurgent cell)[2]
Country	Syria
Allegiance	Ba'athist Syria
Motives	To overthrow the Syrian Transitional Government.
Headquarters	Tartus governorate or Latakia Governorate (suspected)
Active regions	Latakia Governorate
Ideology	Neo-Ba'athism Assadism[3]
Allies	Syrian Popular Resistance
Opponents	Syrian transitional government Military Operations Command
Battles and wars	Syrian civil war Western Syria clashes March 2025 Western Syria clashes[4]

History

The group was officially founded on 1 January 2015, in Latakia province as a local miltia for Republican Guard. The group started recruitment of soldiers in late May of the same year.^[1]

In 2025, after the fall of the Assad regime, the group published a video showing the its establishment against the Military Operations Command and the Syrian Transitional Government^{[clarification needed]} which was spread by the Syrian Popular Resistance.^[5][6] They established the Coastal Brigade near the Latakia Mountains in the Latakia Governorate to fight against Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in their original stronghold. He also called for Alawites and previous supporters of Bashar al-Assad to "take arms" against HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.^[7] Fatiha stated in the video about the Coastal Shield Brigade's establishment to the escalation of violations by Ahmad al-Sharaa’s authority^{[clarification needed]} after the attacks on the Alawites in the cities of the Syrian coast, stressing the brigade’s responsibility for any targeting of al-Sharaa’s authority on the coast and outside the Syrian coast.^[8][9]

Fatiha stated the Coastal Shield Brigade would take responsibility for any operations done against Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham in the Latakia Governorate.^[10] According to Turkish media, Fatiha was notorious for his alleged involvement in drug trafficking, bribery, kidnapping and extrajudicial killings during the Assad regime.^[11] Fatiha likely used resources and human networks developed under the Assad regime to establish the Coastal Shield Brigade.^[2]