| Fahd Jassem al-Freij | |
| Native Name Lang: | ar |
| Office1: | Member of the Central Command of the Ba'ath Party |
| Term Start1: | 22 April 2017 |
| Term End1: | 4 May 2024 |
| Office2: | 16th Minister of Defense |
| Primeminister2: | Riyad Farid Hijab Wael Nader al-Halqi Imad Khamis |
| Term Start2: | 18 July 2012 |
| Term End2: | 1 January 2018 |
| Predecessor2: | Dawoud Rajiha |
| Successor2: | Ali Abdullah Ayyoub |
| Office3: | Chief of the General Staff of the Army and the Armed Forces |
| President3: | Bashar al-Assad |
| Term Start3: | 8 August 2011 |
| Term End3: | 18 July 2012 |
| 1Blankname3: | Defense Minister |
| 1Namedata3: | Dawoud Rajiha |
| Predecessor3: | Dawoud Rajiha |
| Successor3: | Ali Abdullah Ayyoub |
| Serviceyears: | 1971–2018 |
| Rank: | Colonel General |
| Unit: | Armoured Corps |
| Commands: | Special Forces Operations Staff |
| Birth Date: | 1950 1, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Rahjan, Syria |
| Party: | Ba'ath Party |
Fahd Jassem al-Freij (Arabic: فهد جاسم الفريج;[1] born 17 January 1950) is the former Minister of Defense of Syria, took office on 18 July 2012 and left office on 1 January 2018.[2]
Freij was born in Rahjan in a Sunni Arab tribe on 17 January 1950. He joined the Syrian Arab Army in 1968, and graduated as an armoured corps lieutenant from the Homs Military Academy in 1971.
Freij attended different courses and a higher military education:
On 8 August 2011, Freij was appointed Chief of Staff of the Syrian Arab Army during the Syrian civil war. In December 2011, defected Syrian Army officers reported that prior to his appointment of Chief of Staff, al-Freij commanded the Syrian Army Special Forces in the regions of Daraa, Idlib and Hama during the Syrian uprising.
However, on 18 July 2012, after Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha was assassinated in the 2012 Damascus bombing, Freij was appointed by Bashar al-Assad to succeed Rajiha.[1] He was also named as Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the Armed Forces.[3]
On 1 January 2018, Lieutenant General Ali Abdullah Ayyoub was the successor of al-Freij as Minister of Defense.
In October 2023, French prosecutors at the Judicial Court of Paris charged Fahd Jassem Al-Freij and his successor Ali Ayyoub for their culpability in a barrel bomb in southwestern Syrian city of Daraa that killed French-Syrian national Salah Abou Nabout at his home in 2017.[4]