Assad army to demobilize conscripted, reserve officers whom over 42

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Syrian regime military said Thursday it will demobilize conscripted and reserve officers whom age over 42, following the regime’s recapture of much of the country from rebels and the dwindling of fighting on many fronts, the state-run news agency reported.

The army general command issued an administrative order ending active service for conscripted officers who are 42-year-old and above except doctors, SANA said.

The army began demobilizing some conscripts who had served long periods in May, shortly after it took back Eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel enclave near the capital Damascus.

In December, the regime army command said it would demobilize who had completed five extra years, beyond their original 18-month term of mandatory military service, in January.

After the conflict erupted in 2011, desertions, defections and deaths drained the Syrian army. It has relied on critical support from Shi’ite militias including Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, though devastating Russian air strikes on rebel areas proved decisive in Assad’s military comeback.

The Alawites-dominated areas are still the main manpower supply for the Assad's regime.

More than 125,000 pro-regime forces have been killed in seven years of brutal war, according to local monitoring groups.

The Assad regime announced an amnesty in October for men who deserted the army or avoided military service, giving them several months to report for duty without facing punishment.

Meanwhile, the military general conscription department has sent new conscription recalls for men in the eastern suburbs of Damascus to perform the reserve service, activists said.

Most of the Syrian young men in the capital's Eastern Ghouta have rejected the regime’s conscription call but the reconciliation deals have imposed a new de-facto. They should join the army or they might face the military intelligence arrest.

So far, about 8,000 men have been ordered to join army in Ghouta, local activists said.

Al-Assad urged all Syrians, including the Druze minority, to send its young men to the army.

Since the Syrian revolution erupted in 2011, more than 560,000 people have been killed, and more than 6 million people have been displaced.

Zaman Al Wasl