Into the brigadier’s general’s office, a sergeant carried a heavy, black-painted grenade launcher and placed it on the floor. A big brute of a thing, it could fire grenade cartridges on automatic and bore not a scratch on its surface. Brand new and with the coding “RBG-6 40-46mm grenade” stamped on to the butt, it made a nice piece of kit for a guerrilla army. “Israeli!” proclaimed General Ali Ahmad Asa’ad, scrutinising the gun as if for the first time.
Captured in a recent battle for the village of Atman – three Syrian soldiers dead, an unknown number of what the Syrian army call “terrorists” killed in the operation – it was clearly a prize possession. But the gun’s coding showed clearly that it was made in Croatia. And just how it reached the suburbs of Dera’a remains a bit of a mystery. According to Gen Asa’ad – no relation to the president and besides, his name is pronounced differently – these weapons come either from a rebel military operation centre on the Jordanian side of the border or are given to the Jabhat al-Nusra fighters by Israelis on the Syrian-Israeli border to the north-west.
More ominously, perhaps, is the coordination centre across the Jordanian frontier. Gen Asa’ad protests about what he calls an “open border” and says he destroyed two radio posts for the Jordanian-based rebel coordinators. “We killed 40 per cent of the terrorists – because they were too frightened to fight without their leaders. During the battle, our army killed Zaher Aboud, leader of the Fallujet Houran terrorists and Emile Aboud who called himself Emile Rahme, who lived in the region of Dera’a itself.”
Gen Asa’ad maintains contact via Syrian army intelligence with the Jordanian military, although just how much this achieves is unclear. Yet the general blossoms with optimism of the 90 per cent variety. “We had two Russian experts came here to see us last week and I told them that all the terrorists in the world should come to Dera’a and it will be a graveyard for them. When their leaders tried to meet here, we said, ‘Dera’a is not [rebel] Idlib’. That’s how after ‘Operation Southern Storm’, we control 90 per cent of the city.”
The map of Dera’a, which the general holds in his hand, suggests the figure may be nearer 70 per cent. The pink squares indicating Syrian military control clearly outnumber the blue for the opposition and the government holds all the major civic institutions, the governor’s office and the vast sports stadium, which just happens to be 58-year old General Asa’ad’s brigade headquarters. The north of the city is divided from the rebel south by the Zaidiyah valley and in that loop of land that veers south towards the Jordanian border are remnants of the old Free Syrian Army (FSA) – the original government army defectors in whom the West once placed such faith in overthrowing the Assad regime – and the Shebab al-Sunna Brigade and even the 17th March Brigade, a name which the general mentions without explanation.
--continued--
Welcome to Dera'a, Syria's 'Graveyard of terrorists'
Captured in a recent battle for the village of Atman – three Syrian soldiers dead, an unknown number of what the Syrian army call “terrorists” killed in the operation – it was clearly a prize possession. But the gun’s coding showed clearly that it was made in Croatia. And just how it reached the suburbs of Dera’a remains a bit of a mystery. According to Gen Asa’ad – no relation to the president and besides, his name is pronounced differently – these weapons come either from a rebel military operation centre on the Jordanian side of the border or are given to the Jabhat al-Nusra fighters by Israelis on the Syrian-Israeli border to the north-west.
More ominously, perhaps, is the coordination centre across the Jordanian frontier. Gen Asa’ad protests about what he calls an “open border” and says he destroyed two radio posts for the Jordanian-based rebel coordinators. “We killed 40 per cent of the terrorists – because they were too frightened to fight without their leaders. During the battle, our army killed Zaher Aboud, leader of the Fallujet Houran terrorists and Emile Aboud who called himself Emile Rahme, who lived in the region of Dera’a itself.”
Gen Asa’ad maintains contact via Syrian army intelligence with the Jordanian military, although just how much this achieves is unclear. Yet the general blossoms with optimism of the 90 per cent variety. “We had two Russian experts came here to see us last week and I told them that all the terrorists in the world should come to Dera’a and it will be a graveyard for them. When their leaders tried to meet here, we said, ‘Dera’a is not [rebel] Idlib’. That’s how after ‘Operation Southern Storm’, we control 90 per cent of the city.”
The map of Dera’a, which the general holds in his hand, suggests the figure may be nearer 70 per cent. The pink squares indicating Syrian military control clearly outnumber the blue for the opposition and the government holds all the major civic institutions, the governor’s office and the vast sports stadium, which just happens to be 58-year old General Asa’ad’s brigade headquarters. The north of the city is divided from the rebel south by the Zaidiyah valley and in that loop of land that veers south towards the Jordanian border are remnants of the old Free Syrian Army (FSA) – the original government army defectors in whom the West once placed such faith in overthrowing the Assad regime – and the Shebab al-Sunna Brigade and even the 17th March Brigade, a name which the general mentions without explanation.
--continued--
Welcome to Dera'a, Syria's 'Graveyard of terrorists'
