Names of 'Shabiha' fighters who control checkpoints of Latakia

(Translation by Dani Murad)

As Syria descends into its fourth year of gruesome war, the Syrian regime is still heavily depending on its group of feared Shabiha, a paid gang that viciously fights for Bashar al-Assad, and has been responsible for some of the worst brutality against the Syrian opposition.

Therefore, Zaman Alwasl continues to expose Assad’s security system, especially in the Syrian coast and its mountains, where the highest concentration of regime’s loyalists exist, a bastion of Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority, and one of the most important sources of the of the so-called “National Defense Army" which backs up regime's army in the coast and other rebellious areas such as Homs, Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Damascus and its countryside.

In this context, Zaman Alwasl has obtained 5 documents containing the names of soldiers in the "national defense" or "Shabiha" at several checkpoints in Latakia’s suburbs, where they form the nucleus of al-Assad's army, especially in coastal areas.

Moreover, these documents included personal information such as, Shabiha’s full name, mothers’ name, national number, identification card (ID), and the name of the checkpoint in which the solider serves his duty.

The first document contained a documentation of the names of 21 soldiers in addition to their head at “Bahlolia” checkpoint, a village administratively belongs to the city of Latakia.

While the second document revealed the names of 14 soldiers at the village’s checkpoint of “Zobar”, including the head of the checkpoint.

And the third one showed names of soldiers who have been taking alternate 24-hour shifts at “al- Sonubar” checkpoint, located on the main Highway of (Latakia – Jableh) ,and in each of these shifts, 10 soldier are put on watch .

In addition to that, the fourth document revealed soldiers’ names at the “Dafeel” checkpoint, where 16 Shabiha have been taking two shifts.

lastly, The fifth document was especially for the administrative orders that transferred soldiers from a military service in a certain place to another, mostly transferring them to checkpoints, which is an indicator of the declining number of soldiers at the checkpoints, either as a result of being killed, injured or fled the service .