In Damascus, Syria, a poster shows President Bashar al-Assad and President Vladimir Putin shaking hands. March 7, 2022 YAMAM AL SHAAR / REUTERS
Syrian mercenaries will be enrolled along with the Russian army in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin officially announced this on Friday, March 11, saying that he was going to allow “volunteers from the Middle East” to go to fight as auxiliary forces of the Russian forces. According to testimony gathered by Syrian observers, the recruitment campaign has already begun in the provinces under the control of President Bashar al-Assad. The information was confirmed on Monday, March 7, by the Pentagon. “We believe there is some truth to reports that the Russians are looking for Syrian fighters to bolster their ranks in Ukraine,” spokesman John Kirby said.
The mobilization of Syrian mercenaries in foreign theaters of war is not unprecedented. Syrians have been deployed by Russia and Turkey to Libya and Turkey to Nagorno-Karabakh. On the Russian side, enrollments were made through private security companies such as Wagner, close to President Vladimir Putin, who has been present in Syria since the Russian military intervention in support of President Assad in late 2015 and in Libya since 2018.
Read also archive (2018): Article reserved for our subscribers Russia: an army honed by wars
In 2017, they recruited Syrians to secure oil fields and infrastructure in Syria and to hunt down Islamic State fighters. “Then the Syrians were sent to the front in Libya. During the year, some of them were recruited for military service in the Donbass, for the construction of trenches and structures,” explains Suheil Al-Ghazi, a researcher at the Orsam Center for Middle East Studies, who estimates the salary ranges from 800 to 1800 dollars (from 727 up to 1637 euros).
Money, the main driving force
On February 28, Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ), a human rights organization, collected testimonies confirming an ongoing recruitment campaign in the province of Damascus. “Recruitment is done by private security groups such as Wagner and the Syrian security services. This is done through branches of the Ba’ath Party, the National Defense Forces and other local militias. But there will definitely be an order from Russia,” explains Bassam Al-Ahmad, director of STJ. The recruits, he said, are former Syrian army soldiers or former rebels who were granted amnesty by the regime through reconciliation committees, as are members of the Deraa (South) 5th Assault Corps set up by the local militias. former rebels and Russian-backed already present on the Libyan front.
You have 54.44% of this article left to read. Further only for subscribers.