Syrian fighters ready to join next phase of Ukraine war

Syrian fighters ready to join next phase of Ukraine war

BEIRUT (AP) – During a 2017 visit to Syria, Vladimir Putin praised a Syrian general whose division played a crucial role in defeating insurgents in the country’s long-running civil war. The Russian President told him that his cooperation with Russian troops “will lead to great successes in the future”.

Now members of Brig. Gen. Gen. Suheil al-Hassan’s division are among hundreds of Russian-trained Syrian fighters who have reportedly pledged to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, including Syrian soldiers, former rebels and veteran fighters who fought for years against the Islamic State group in the desert of Syria.

So far, only a small number of them seem to have come to Russia for military training before going to the front. Though Kremlin officials boasted more than 16,000 applications from the Middle East early in the war, US officials and operatives monitoring Syria said no significant number of fighters from the region have yet joined the war in Ukraine.

But analysts say that could change as Russia prepares for the next phase of the fight with a full-scale offensive in eastern Ukraine. They believe fighters from Syria are more likely to be deployed in the coming weeks, especially after Putin appointed General Alexander Dvornikov, who commanded the Russian military in Syria, as the new wartime commander in Ukraine.

Although some question how effective Syrian fighters would be in Ukraine, they could be deployed when more forces are needed to besiege cities or to offset mounting casualties. Dvornikov is intimately familiar with the numerous paramilitary forces in Syria trained by Russia, while overseeing the strategy of ruthlessly besieging and bombing opposition-held towns in Syria in a bid to subdue them.

“Russia is preparing for a major battle” in Ukraine, and Syrian fighters are likely to take part, said Ahmad Hamada, a defector from the Syrian army who now works as a military analyst in Turkey.

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Syria observers and activists say the Russians in Syria have been actively recruiting for the Ukraine war, particularly among Russian-trained combatants.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported that about 40,000 people have registered so far – 22,000 with the Russian military and about 18,000 with Russian private contractor Wagner Group.

Around 700 members of al-Hassan’s 25th Special Missions Forces Division, known in Syria as “Tiger Force,” have left Syria in recent weeks to fight alongside Russian forces, Abdurrahman said. The numbers could not be independently confirmed.

Pro-government activists have posted videos on social media over the past two weeks showing Tiger Force members engaged in military exercises, including parachuting from helicopters. Russian officers appeared in one of the videos advising the paratroopers in a helicopter while al-Hassan praised the young men by patting them on the head. It wasn’t immediately clear if the videos were new.

Abdurrahman said there were also volunteers from the Russian-trained 5th Division; the Ba’ath Brigades, the armed wing of Assad’s ruling Ba’ath Party; and the Palestinian Quds Brigade, made up of Palestinian refugees in Syria. All fought alongside the Russian military in the war in Syria.

“The Russians are looking for experienced fighters. They don’t want anyone who wasn’t trained by the Russians,” Abdurrahman said.

Tiger Force has been credited with some of the government’s greatest victories in the 11-year conflict. It was involved in a month-long Russian-backed campaign into the last rebel enclave in northwestern Idlib province that ended with government forces capturing a key north-south highway in March 2020 — though the rebels retained control of the enclave to have .

Al-Hassan “is one of Russia’s men and Russia will rely on him,” said Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who heads DeirEzzor 24, a monitoring group for the war in Syria.

Hundreds of fighters from the 5th Division and the Quds Brigade have registered at Russia’s Hmeimeem base in western Syria, which is leading the recruitment effort, and are awaiting orders, he said.

In late March, a Russian-trained force called the “ISIS Hunters” militia, which had been fighting ISIS for years, published an ad urging men aged 23 to 49 to come forward for an investigation, naming them those who pass the test and are found suitable are called later.

According to Rayan Maarouf of Suwayda24, an activist collective covering ISIS activities in the Syrian desert, about 100 men have registered in southern Sweida province so far. He added that they were promised a monthly income of no less than $600, a huge sum of money given widespread unemployment and the plummeting Syrian pound.

Earlier this month, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the US had indications that the Wagner Group was trying to recruit fighters, mostly from the Middle East, for deployment in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region.

But he said there was “no specific information” about the numbers recruited. “We’re just not there yet where we see anything really demonstrable when it comes to amplification,” he added.

General Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in early March that so far there have been only “very small groups” attempting to cross into Ukraine from Syria, calling it a “very small trickle”. .

Retired Lebanese Army General Naji Malaeb, who is closely following the war in Syria, said there was no evidence of Syrian fighters traveling to Russia, but that this could change if the war continues.

“It all depends on what the Russians plan to do in the near future,” Malaeb said.

Syrian and Palestinian officials in Syria have downplayed reports of militants en route to Ukraine. The Syrian government is likely wary of Syrian fighters pouring into Ukraine in droves to open up frontline opportunities that their many adversaries could exploit.

In a potentially worrying sign for the Syrian government, Russia has significantly scaled back its operations in Syria since the start of the war in Ukraine, with fewer airstrikes targeting IS or opposition positions in Idlib.

“Any change in the stance of Russian armed forces or pro-regime militias creates security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by anti-regime actors such as Turkey, ISIS, al-Qaeda and Syrian opposition groups,” the ISW report said.

Muhannad Haj Ali, a former MP and commander of the armed wing of the ruling Ba’ath Party in Syria, said no Syrians have gone to Ukraine to fight, nor does he expect anyone to go there.

He said he was sure Russia would win in Ukraine without needing the help of the Syrians.

“The way the operations are going is a clear indication that Ukraine will not be another Afghanistan,” he said.