page_title: 23rd Division (Syrian rebel group)
section_title: 16th Division
hierarchical_section_title: 23rd Division (Syrian rebel group) / History / 16th Division
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Le colonel Hassan Rajoub, chef de la 23e division de l'Armée syrienne libre, en mars 2018, lors de la bataille d'Afrine.
context_page_description: The 23rd Division or 16th Infantry Division was a Syrian rebel group affiliated with the Free Syrian Army. Formed in September 2013, the group was active mainly in the city Aleppo and its surroundings. After rebel lines in Aleppo collapsed due to advances by the Syrian Army during the Battle of Aleppo in mid-2016, the 16th Division suffered heavy casualties and was dissolved. Remnants of the group then formed the 23rd Division. The group was disbanded after its leadership was attacked by the Levant Front in August 2020, with its other members were transferred to other groups under the 3rd Legion of the Syrian National Army.
context_section_description: The 16th Division was formed on 19 September 2013 as a merger of 10 rebel groups in the city of Aleppo. One of its subgroups, the Badr Martyrs' Brigade, was infamous for robbery, kidnapping, extortion, and most notably mass looting of factories in Aleppo districts and shipping truckloads of looted items to Turkey. 
  In October 2013, the 16th Division's territory in northern Aleppo was overran by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. During the ISIL offensive, ISIL fighters captured a 16th Division base and found a large quantity of gold, cash in the form of United States dollars, hashish, and gas cylinders used in the production of hell cannons used by the group. In November 2013, in response to the "aggression" on their "brothers" of ISIL by the 16th Division, the al-Aqsa Brigade defected from the 16th Division. 
  In January 2015, the al-Nusra Front captured 11 fighters from the 16th Division in Aleppo during the former's conflict with the Hazzm Movement. In response, the 16th Division called for the unconditional release of its fighters.
  On 7 December 2015, the 16th Division and the Knights of Justice Brigade conducted a joint bombing of the Syrian government defence laboratory in the central Khalidiya district of Aleppo.
  Since November 2015, the group took part in the indiscriminate shelling of Sheikh Maqsoud, which killed dozens of civilians and sparked a retaliation from the People's Protection Units (YPG), which killed several of its members in April 2016.
  During the northern Aleppo offensive (June-July 2016), the 16th Division suffered heavy casualties, including 29 killed, more than 54 wounded, and 7 missing, its headquarter overran, and its commanders, including the top leader, Abdul Khaliq Lahyani, resigned and was relieved of all duties. A new commander, former Syrian Air Force Colonel Hassan Rajoub, was appointed. Subsequently, the group went defunct.
caption: Col. Hassan Rajoub, leader of 23rd Division, during the Turkish military operation in Afrin in March 2018.
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