File image.
Testimonies by two alleged Russian jihadists who were captured while taking part in the battle in the southern Syrian governorate of al-Suwayda in July revealed that more foreign jihadists are pouring into the war-torn country, and are even enlisting in the new military.
The battle in al-Suwayda broke out when an intervention by government forces to end a local conflict involving Bedouins quickly escalated into an sectarian-fueled attack on the Druze. Israel, which vowed to protect the community after the fall of the Assad regime, intervened, and the battle ended with a ceasefire brokered by the United States.
The battle claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people, around a third of them were Druze civilians executed by government troops and Bedouins. Hundreds others – reportedly up to 600 people – were abducted. Druze fighters also captured a number of government troops and Bedouin fighters.
To this day, government forces are still occupying over 30 towns abandoned by their Druze population in the northern and western countryside of al-Suwayda. The rest of the governorate is under siege.
Two alleged Russian jihadists captured during the battle were interviewed by journalists and activists from al-Suwayda in coordination with the National Guard – a coalition of armed groups in the governorate that was formed after the last battle – which is currently holding them as prisoners of war.
The National Guard organized the interviews in response to a committee established by the government to investigate the battle in al-Suwayda, which stated recently that “no foreigners” were involved in the events that took place in the governorate. They were published on November 21 and 22.
The first alleged jihadist identified himself as Murad Huseynov, 30, from the Chechen Republic in Russia. He said that he came to Syria in May, that’s five months after the fall of the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad.
After arriving in Syria he quickly joined al-Qaeda-affiliated Ajnad al-Kavkaz – a hub for jihadists from Chechnya and the wider Caucasus region -, which was integrated into the country’s new military under the command of the Syrian Ministry of Defense.
Huseynov didn’t specify to which formation of the Syrian military Ajnad al-Kavkaz was integrated, but it is publicly known that most such groups were placed within the 84th Division.
In addition to military training, Huseynov was given radical ideological courses in Syrian MoD camps. He was taught there that Druze, along with other minorities like Christians and Alawites, are kuffar who should be “cleansed” from Syria.
The other alleged jihadist identified himself as Murad Urkayev, 30, from the Republic of Dagestan in Russia. He also said that he arrived in Syria earlier in the year, stating that he has been in the country for “more than three months.” He was likely referring to the point in time in which he was captured, meaning he arrived between March and April.
Just like Huseynov, Urkayev acknowledged that he joined the battle in al-Suwayda simply to kill members of the Druze community.
The testimonies are very important, not only because they provide more information about what happened during the battle in al-Suwayda, but also because they reveal that foreign jihadists continue to arrive in Syria even after the regime of Bashar al-Assad was overthrown.
Syria’s new government, which is dominated by radical Islamists, promised to contain these foreigners, but appears to be recruiting more.
It is not too early to suggest that post-Assad Syria is turning into a copy of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan before the September 11 attacks, a safe haven for terrorism.
Foreign Jihadists are pouring into the country, receiving military and ideological training, and enlisting in the new military, all of this under the eyes of the government, which could eventually grant them citizenship, even passports under new identities. It is, at least in this sense, a carbon copy of Afghanistan in the 1990s.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
usil is very efficient in its human resource management they use the same destabilization forces as proxies in many theaters of operations. reusing colombian cartels (which thrived under previous us domination in columbia 95% of south american drugs came from there) in ukraine. or chechen and ingush fighters of the ‘republic of ishkeria’ and uighur destabilization forces in syria.
said who?dr seuss
said someone who knows how to read and how to reply to cheap baseless rhetoric attacks
look i’m not working for standard oil (or writing stories for children) and i’m not condoning what these destabilizations forces and their masters are doing. i wanted to underline how dangerous the proxy forces weapon was and how it became one of their favorite tricks.
it’s all set up from the same source. them at the top organising it all. they’re very well connected with all of the factions needed to maintain divisions and fuel actions
that’s why they’re globalists. it’s common sense, they’ve got agents everywhere, in every community globally. that’s the whole idea. it’s not rocket science
inshallah syria returns to being free of any and all jihadists/terrorists/violence