The Republican Guard Division together with Division 4 were considered the highest quality units in the Syrian army until the start of the civil war that broke out in the country in 2011.

When ISIS was operating in eastern Syria, units of the Republican Guard Division were called in to stop them, but only the intervention of the Iranian forces actually prevented this, but the units were left in eastern Syria mainly for the missions of securing axes.

In the last few days, it became known that the soldiers of the Republic Guard Division of the Syrian Army fled their positions in the Al-Bukhamal desert near the border with Iraq in the east of the country, fearing that they would be the target of airstrikes, according to the Syrian news network "Ain al-Forat".

The network cited private sources who said that the soldiers escaped after being placed at guard points belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards militia in the desert.

According to the sources, the soldiers of the division fled outside the areas under the control of the Syrian army forces, and it is likely that they went to the areas under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which are the Kurdish forces.

The sources explained that the officers of the Republic Guard Division went on patrols throughout the area in order to look for the fleeing fighters, and even distributed their names at all the checkpoints deployed in the area.