While many former soldiers of Bashar al-Assad’s army have taken refuge in the desert or are in hiding since his fall, others have abandoned their uniforms and want to abandon military life for good. So the rebels in power propose to take a census of them and formalize their return to civilian life.
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With our special correspondents in Tartous, Murielle Paradon And Boris Vicith
A long queue stands in front of a building in Tartous. Former soldiers are summoned by the country’s new strongmen who occupy a Baath party building, symbol of the old regime. When we ask them what they are doing there, one of them replies: “ It is reconciliation. We were asked to come and return our military cards and equipment »
Inside the building, men in fatigues, with Kalashnikovs slung over their shoulders, took photos of them and questioned them at length. Abou Soheib is one of them: “ We are taking information on these soldiers to find out where they served. It’s to give them a new identity card, a civilian one, a temporary card, so that we know that they are civilians from now on and that they are protected, that they are safe when they pass through the checkpoints, for example. example. »
A rapid rehabilitation that raises questions. These former soldiers are on file, but they say they are not afraid. Above all, they want to return to civilian life: “ We were fed up with the Syrian army because our life was miserable. We only earned 600,000 Syrian pounds, $60 a month. »
According to the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) groupat the head of the coalition in power in Damascus, the future army will be partly composed of the armed factions which participated in the fall of Bashar al-Assad. HTS military leader Mourhaf Abu Qasra, known by his nom de guerre Abu Hassan al-Hamwi, announced on Tuesday that these armed groups will be dissolved to be “ integrated within the institution » national military.
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