Dateline Damascus: fighting on all fronts
Via Open Democracy:
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For 12 days, two Dutch journalists travelled all over Assad’s Syria. They spoke with high-ranking officials in government and generals at the front lines. A unique look behind the scenes.
Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/opense...-on-all-fronts
Citing an un-named 'general-in-the-field:
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Did he have prisoners of war? “We don’t keep prisoners. We kill them immediately. Either they flee or we kill them. We shoot them on the spot and shovel them with a bulldozer under the ground. They are not men. I don’t consider them as human beings. They are less than animals to me. Down the road from where you came, 19 are buried in a mass grave. Do go to have a look on your way back—terrorists from Egypt, Sudan, Algeria and Saudi Arabia.” He threw a few IDs on the table. And how about the destroyed villages along the road—had he blown them up? “The villagers collaborated with the Free Syrian Army. Some villagers were used as human shields. We had no other option.”
On the NDF and Syrian Army, with my emphasis:
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The regime increasingly relies on the National Defence Force established in 2013, a pot-pourri of 100,000 locally organised and highly motivated volunteers. In 12 days travelling some 1,200km, except for special forces in Aleppo we hardly saw any anything of the regular army. The bands of Assad’s soldiers at the roadblocks in Homs and Damascus were for the most part members of that force, obviously rooted in the local community.
Syria in 2015 (new thread)
Temporary separate thread for maximum visibility.
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In northern Syria, is the US running out of rebel allies?
Harakat Hazzm, a US-armed group vetted by the CIA for training, has fallen to an Al Qaeda affiliate that is targeting moderate rebels.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middl...f-rebel-allies
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The U.S. backed “moderate” rebel militia “Harakat Hazzm” (Movement of Steadfastness) has faced an abrupt end to their one year old existence after a war broke0ut between their forces and the Syrian Al-Qaeda branch “Jabhat Al-Nusra” in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo.
While U.S. State Officials attempted to depict Harakat Hazzm as a moderate rebel force combatting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Syrian President, Dr. Bashar Al-Assad, they failed to garner much support from the Syrian populous, as their alleged 4,000 strong organization folded in the same province they found their genesis in this Syrian conflict.
Oddly enough, Harakat Hazzm was one of the first “moderate” rebel forces to receive the much anticipated TOW (anti-tank) missiles to combat the SAA’s armored divisions in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo; however, these weapons were irrelevant against the swarming Jabhat Al-Nusra contingents at Regiment 46 Base in southwest Aleppo – their forces disbanded one week after the latter declared war against them.
http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/...oin-islamists/