Education
Ali Habib Mahmoud joined the army when he was 20 years old
On the National Television
Miliatary officer Political official
Ali Habib Mahmoud joined the army when he was 20 years old
He became a general in 1986, and was promoted to the rank of major general in 1998. He was the commander of the Sultan Yaqub Battle in Lebanon's Biqa Valley against Israel in 1982.
In 1990, he was deployed to Saudi Arabia to lead the Syrian contingent then serving under the Command of the Joint Forces Commander, General Khalid Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud.
After his return to Damascus, he was appointed Chief of the Private Forces (1994), Deputy Chief of the General Staff (2002), Chief of the General Staff (2004), and, finally to the post of general commander of the army as well as minister of Defence on June 3, 2009.
Mahmud was a respected career military man, with limited or no known connections to Syria's security forces. Moreover, his internationalist outlook may be a rare asset, and he is thought to have nurtured solid ties with Arab leaders
