The Aleppo offensive (NovemberDecember 2016), code named Operation Dawn of Victory by government forces, was a successful military offensive launched by the Syrian Armed Forces and allied groups against rebel-held districts in Aleppo. The offensive came after the end of the moratorium on air strikes by Russia, and the Russian Armed Forces again conducted heavy air and cruise missile strikes against rebel positions throughout northwestern Syria. The offensive resulted in government forces taking control of all rebel-controlled parts of eastern and southern Aleppo, and the evacuation of the remaining rebel forces.The offensive was described as a potential turning point in the Syrian Civil War.Almost 1,200 people were killed during the operation, including more than 600 civilians, most of whom died in the rebel-held part of the city where the offensive took place, but at least 149 were also killed by rebel shelling of government-held parts of Aleppo and some died in rebel strikes on the enclave held by the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The Syrian Army, officially the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) (Arabic: الْجَيْشُ الْعَرَبيُّ السُّورِيُّ, romanized: al-Jayš al-ʿArabī as-Sūrī), is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It is the dominant military service of the four uniformed services, controlling the most senior posts in the armed forces, and has the greatest manpower, approximately 80 percent of the combined services. The Syrian Army originated in local military forces formed by the French after World War I, after France obtained a mandate over the region. It officially came into being in 1945, before Syria obtained full independence the following year.

Since 1946, it has played a major role in Syria's governance, mounting six military coups: two in 1949, including the March 1949 Syrian coup d'état and the August 1949 coup by Colonel Sami al-Hinnawi, and one each in 1954, 1963, 1966, and 1970. It has fought four wars with Israel (1948, the Six-Day War in 1967, the October War of 1973, and 1982 in Lebanon) and one with Jordan (Black September in Jordan, 1970). An armored division was also deployed to Saudi Arabia in 1990–91 during the Persian Gulf War, but saw little action. From 1976 to 2005 it was the major pillar of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Internally, it played a major part in suppressing the 1979–82 Islamist uprising in Syria, and since early 2011 has been heavily engaged in fighting the Syrian Civil War, the most violent and prolonged war the Syrian Army has taken part in since its establishment in the 1940s.