Although the initial invasion was successful, with PLA forces capturing Irbid and declaring it a "liberated" city, the Jordanian military eventually managed to stall the attack in course of heavy fighting. After international pressure, and threats of intervention from both Israel and the United States, the combined PLA-Syrian forces were forced to turn back; an embarrassment which would contribute greatly to the overthrow of the government of Salah Jadid by Hafez al-Assad. The failure of the invasion has also attributed to the fact that the Syrian Air Force under al-Assad had refused to enter the fighting in the first place. During the Lebanese Civil War, Syria likewise made extensive use of the PLA as a proxy force, including against the PLO (the PLA however proved unreliable when ordered to fight other Palestinians, and suffered from mass defections). The PLA was largely destroyed as a fighting force during the 1982 Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon that started the 1982 Lebanon War. Its fighters in Lebanon left for Tunis when the PLO evacuated Beirut that year, in a US-sponsored cease fire agreement. The Egyptian PLA was also deployed in Lebanon in 1976, after Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat had approached the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, to mend relations damaged by Sadat's peacemaking attempts with Israel. Still, the Egyptian units never proved as important as the fully deployed Syrian PLA. Many PLA soldiers in Egypt and Jordan later became the core of the Palestinian Authority's (PNA) National Guard, after the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords, when they were allowed to enter the Palestinian Territories to take up positions in the PNA security services. The Syrian PLA remains active, closely coordinated with the Syrian-controlled as-Sa'iqa faction of the PLO, although the importance of both had diminished over the years. The PLA has been rebuilt and Palestinians in Syria are still drafted to perform their military service in its ranks. Though completely staffed by Palestinians, it remains outside of the PLO's control, and is in effect integrated into the Syrian Army. Nevertheless, it poses as an independent entity, and occasionally organizes pro-government rallies celebrating Syrian commitment to the Palestinian cause. With the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, the PLA sided with the government and began to fight against the Syrian opposition. Led by Major General Muhammad Tariq al-Khadra, the PLA has taken part in campaigns in the Rif Dimashq, Daraa, and Quneitra Governorates. In early 2015, several PLA officers and fighters were reportedly executed for refusing to fight against rebels in Daraa.