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inside the hts-israeli campaign to eliminate syria’s military engineers and scientists
israel and hts are systematically assassinating syria’s military engineers and scientists, ensuring the country remains defenseless and strategically crippled against future aggression.
the cradle’s syria correspondent
on 27 november 2024, militants from hayat tahrir al-sham (hts), the former al-qaeda affiliate in syria, launched a lighting assault on aleppo, syria’s second largest city.

amid the chaos, armenian born professor yervant arslanian was assassinated by a suspected hts sniper while attempting to flee the assault.
arslanian had previously worked in italy on weapons systems and was chief of the syrian advanced weapons research design team at the arab school of science and technology in aleppo at the time of his death.

hts targeted its scientists, systematically eroding the country’s ability to defend itself against israeli aggression and expansion.syria’s scientific research centers

the roots of syria’s chemical, biological, and advanced weapons programs trace back to the 1970s, when then-president hafez al-assad established scientific research centers, most notably the scientific studies and research center (ssrc), with its headquarters in the town of jamraya in the damascus countryside.

after its establishment in 1971, the ssrc immediately became the “principal engine” for the local development of advanced weapons for the syrian army, wrote dany shoham of the begin-sadat center for strategic studies in israel.
public statements made by hafez al-assad and other syrian military officials over the years left “little room for doubt about the syrian motive: syria sees its [chemical and biological] arsenal as a counter to israel’s nuclear arsenal,” shoham observed.

opening the door for israel
on 8 september 2024, israel carried out multiple airstrikes on an ssrc facility near the city of masyaf in the hama countryside. the strikes killed 14 people and injured 53, syrian state media reported.
two regional intelligence sources alleged to reuters that the strikes targeted a major military research center for chemical arms production believed to house a team of iranian military experts involved in weapons production.

after a similar strike in 2022, israeli defense minister benny gantz claimed that iran was using the ssrc in masyaf to produce advanced missiles and weapons for its military and for lebanon’s resistance movement, hezbollah – israel’s primary regional adversary. 480 strikes in 48 hour after capturing aleppo with little resistance on 30 november 2024, hts militants swiftly advanced toward hama and homs. on 8 december, hts leader ahmad al-sharaa – former al-qaeda in iraq

commander who went by the nom de guerre abu mohammad al-julani – entered damascus triumphantly, ending over 50 years of assad family rule with the collapse of the syrian army and former president bashar al-assad’s flight to russia, israel wasted no time in dismantling syria’s military capabilities. over 48 hours, the israeli air force launched 480 airstrikes, obliterating syrian airfields, air defenses, missile stockpiles, drones, fighter jets, tanks, and weapon production sites –

destroying 70 to 80 percent of syria’s strategic arsenal. the fahel massacre as hts consolidated control and israel intensified airstrikes, the targeted killing of syrian scientists and engineers continued. on 26 january, hts militants massacred 13 military engineers in fahel, a village in homs province.
“the bodies were brought to the entrance of the village, and we labelled them, photographed them. most of the bodies were killed by a gunshot wound to the head at near point-blank

range,” a source speaking with the national said. the engineers were killed even though they had not served in combat roles and had already followed the reconciliation process with the new hts-led government, rami abdulrahman of the syrian observatory for human rights (sohr) told bbc arabic.
two other residents of fahel were pulled off the bus and massacred after militants identified them as shia muslims.

the fact that most of the victims were military engineers was largely overlooked in media reports, given that the killings were carried out amid a flurry of additional sectarian killings of alawites in the hama and homs countryside, which hts leader sharaa acknowledged were “normal and may continue for two or three years.” on the day of the massacre in fahel, renowned syrian scientist dr hasan ibrahim was summoned to damascus by officials in the hts-led government.

contact with him was soon lost, and his lifeless body was found five days later nearmaraba in the damascus countryside. dr ibrahim, from brisin village in the sheikh badr region of tartous, had worked in the energy field at syria’s higher institute for scientific research (hisr) in damascus.
the following day, military engineer afif abboud was assassinated while traveling home on the highway near the qadmus bridge at the entrance to the city of banias in tartous province.

abboud had been contacted by authorities in the new syrian government, who assured him he could return to his position at the scientific studies and research center (ssrc) in damascus.
as a local source tells the cradle: “afif abboud is an alawite from an alawite village, but i’m sure he’s not involved in any military actions. the hts militants get orders, information, and weapons and are ready to kill, kidnap, or do anything. in fact it’s a chaotic situation and we have many operators.

each has his own agenda, like iran, turkiye, and israel. it’s difficult to know exactly who is doing what.” additionally, oday dahi, a disabled young man (he was mute and deaf), was killed alongside abboud. dahi owned a small coffee kiosk on the road outside banias and happened to be in the same place at the time abboud was assassinated.investigated by masked men several more scientists from syria’s research centers vanished after being summoned by hts’s military operations department.

on 6 february, the sohr reported that dr tayseer issa, ali ibrahim, and mustafa abu tarab had been arrested days earlier, their fate unknown. several others were summoned by the military operations department, but were allowed to return home. the academics told the sohr they were being “investigated by a committee of three masked men carrying weapons.” on 13 february, reports emerged of the brutal murder of military engineer

shawkat al-ahmed and his wife, nijah suleiman, in basirat al-jared, tartous.hts-aligned militants executed ahmed with a gunshot to the head, then strangled his wife with a belt, leaving her to suffocate. their bodies were found in a chicken coop. a knowledgeable source speaking with the cradle states that other scientists and military engineers are now in hiding. some have survived assassination attempts in the past, including before assad fell.

the source adds that israel is believed to be behind the killings. without these engineers and scientists, syria will be dependent for years to come for its weapons and defense on regional states, all of which are clients and close allies of the us, and by extension, israel. destroying syria’s chemical weapons israel’s current campaign follows its previous success in dismantling syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.

this was achieved after the august 2013 false-flag chemical attacks in ghouta, damascus.with help from saudi intelligence, the militant group jaish al-islam, led by zahran alloush, fired several rockets with small amounts of sarin at multiple locations in ghouta. the group then filmed the bodies of hostages it had massacred (likely using carbon monoxide or cyanide) and posted the videos online, while blaming the deaths on assad and the syrian army.

the western and arab press quickly disseminated the videos worldwide, while a team of un investigators had conveniently arrived in damascus two days before the attack, allowing them to confirm – despite clear signs of crime scene manipulation – that sarin was used in the rockets, but not confirm that sarin had caused the victims’ deaths. both the grisly videos and reports from un investigators cemented the claim in the public mind that

assad had carried out a chemical attack against his own people, killing some 1,400, including many children.crucially, the ghouta false flag attack provided the justification to claim that assad had crossed former us president barack obama’s “red line.” a year before, obama had stated that if chemical weapons were used in the increasingly bloody conflict, the us military and its european allies would have no choice but to intervene on the side of the opposition,

including the al-qaeda-affiliated nusra front, led by sharaa (julani) at the time. following the ghouta attack, journalist seymour hersh, who enjoys close ties with us and israeli intelligence, reported that the initial scale of the planned western intervention was massive. he explained that the target list was meant to completely “eradicate any military capabilities assad had.” however, western intervention was evaded after obama proved reluctant to order a bombing campaign that he knew

would be illegal, unpopular domestically, and could possibly lead to his impeachment by republican lawmakers. a ray of light for israel significantly, obama insisted on calling off the bombing campaign despite intense pressure from israel. israeli military intelligence had provided the “bulk of evidence” falsely claiming assad’s guilt, while senior israeli security officials visited the white house just days after the ghouta false flag to pressure

obama to order the intervention, according to the guardian.further, “obama’s red line” was not the president’s at all. it was introduced to the white house by israeli officials in july 2012, and only repeated by obama after secretary of state hillary clinton, a close ally of israel, also began promoting it, the wall street journal reported. obama’s decision to call off the bombing campaign in support of julani’s nusra front was cemented

after assad agreed to a proposal presented by russian foreign minister sergei lavrov to the next us secretary of state john kerry: western intervention would be taken off the table if syria would give up its chemical weapons. because western intervention was averted, many viewed this as a victory for assad and the syrian state, who were trying to prevent the black flag of al-qaeda from flying over damascus. however, the us and russian deal to have the syrian government destroy

1,300 metric tons of chemical warfare agents was a clear win for israel. journalist jeffrey goldberg wrote in the atlantic that the agreement won president obama “praise from, of all people, benjamin netanyahu, the israeli prime minister,” and that syria’s loss of its chemical weapons cache represented “the one ray of light in a very dark region.” reference the cradle dot co

ht tp s :/ /th ecr adl e .c o/a rticl e s /ins ide- the- hts- is rae li-cam p aig n-to- eli min ate- syri as-mi litary-engin eers -and -sc i en t i sts
i’d rather see the country devoured by israel than al qaeda.

such a treacherous, corrupt wahhabi state deserves to be it as a state of prostitutes and mercenaries, whose main client is the israeli army.