Sayf Balud

Sayf al-Din Bulad (; ; born 1988), better known as Sayf Bulad and also known by his nom de guerre Sayf Abu Bakr, is a Syrian military officer and former rebel leader who rose to prominence fighting for several armed opposition factions in the Syrian civil war.

Having served with the Free Syrian Army during the conflict's early stages, he reportedly joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in 2013, possibly as a spy for the Turkish intelligence. Bulad defected from ISIL in 2014, and consequently became a commander of the CIA-supported Hazzm Movement and later the Hamza Division.

In September 2021, he became the deputy leader of the Syrian Front for Liberation. As part of these groups, Bulad has become an important ally of Turkey within the armed Syrian opposition, and has served as the de facto military governor of al-Bab since 2017 as well.

Biography Early role in the civil war Sayf Bulad is an ethnic Syrian Turkmen from Bizaah, Aleppo Governorate. According to the news site El-Dorar, he was originally a First Lieutenant in the Syrian Army and defected to the opposition when the Syrian civil war erupted. Turkish government-owned TRT World reported that he was an officer in the Air Force Intelligence Directorate for 7 years until he defected in 2011. Later in 2012, he had become a "gunman" serving in the Islamist al-Tawhid Brigade, taking part in the Battle of Aleppo. By spring 2013, he fought as part of the Free Syrian Army in operations around Kuweires Military Aviation Institute.

By late 2014, Sayf Bulad was back in Syria and had risen to sub-commander in the Hazzm Movement, a rebel group vetted and supported by the CIA. At the time, he fought at al-Ma'amal. As overall commander, Sayf Bulad organized a "special forces" elite unit within the Hamza Division.

He was also promoted to brigadier general, The affair surrounding his brother caused considerable local opposition against the Hamza Division and Sayf Bulad, as he had personally appointed Hamad to run al-Bab's administration. In spite of the scandal, Sayf was able to maintain his position thanks to Turkish support.

Sayf Bulad later fought against the SDF in Operation Olive Branch, assisting in the conquest of the PYD-governed Afrin Canton.

In 2020, he helped to recruit 500 Hamza Division fighters who allegedly served in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, fighting for Azerbaijan against Armenia.

Bulad and the Hamza Division were sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control in August 2023 over human rights violations.

Post-Assad era In March 2025, the Syrian Defense Ministry, under the new government of Ahmed al-Sharaa, made Sayf Bulad the commander of the newly established 76th Division of the Syrian Armed Forces. On 19 December 2025, he was sanctioned by the United Kingdom for his involvement in the March 2025 clashes and "historic violence committed during the Syrian Civil War".