Translation by Yusra Ahmed
(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Syrian regime has resumed relying on the National Defense Forces (NDF) after the failure of other militias in protecting the Gas field in al-Shaer area in Homs province.
Sources reported to Zaman Al Wasl that a new campaign aim to recruit new members within the NDF in Homs to work on protecting the strategic gas field of al-Shaer according to orders by Bashar al-Assad.
The campaign included encouraging bonuses like long holiday for 15 days a month, and high salary reaches to SP 75000.
However, these privileges for NDF members could annoy the soldiers in the national army who receive less than a quarter of that salary and have at most few days holiday each 4-5 months.
Moreover, recruiting the NDF’s members in protecting al-Shaer gas field could provoke other private militias like al-Bustan militias managed by Rami Makhlouf, and others like Sokour al-Sahara and Magaweer al-Baher.
Resuming the rely on NDF militias reflects the failure of other militias to do the needed job of them in protecting al-Shaer field and mistrust in them.
In 2014, a report of Zaman Al Wasl revealed the extraordinary amount of money Rami Makhlouf, basher al-Assad’s cousin received for recruiting al-Bustan militias in protecting al-Shaer gas field , as it reached to SYP 190 million monthly, which gives an indication to the importance of the field and reason behind the keenness of the regime or the Islamic State to keep it under their control.
The Islamic State had attacked the field several times killing hundreds of regime’s forces and militias, the most important was the attack in July 2014 in which 270 of regime’s forces were killed while the State obtained huge amount of arms.
AL-Shaer gas field in not a spot for wasting people's lives, it is also a swamp for corruption, as many reports revealed the amounts of money and resources were stolen by officers were responsible for feeding and supply of militias and the military soldiers.
The corruption memories are still fresh in militias members’ minds, especially when the militias received only salaries for two months, then they were let down and were given nothing after getting committed with the militias to sort their income themselves.
In a relevant content, Mahmood al-Najar, nicknamed Abo Khader, a prominent member of NDF in Homs died affected of wounds after the battle on Masar Hosan front in Homs.
Abo Khader was born in the village of Jib al-Jarah in the countryside of Homs.
According to Zaman Al Wasl information, he was the brother of colonel pilot Yusuf al-Najar, who was captured by the opposition after targeting his helicopter over Idlib.
In the beginning, the identity of the pilot was not known, then later he was identified. He was known of his sectarian acts, which made people dub him as “Sfairoun” as a sign of his hatred to Sunni people.
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