Activists say tens of people in Palmyra join Assad's National Defence

Translation by Yusra Ahmed

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Youth are being deceived in Palmyra “Tadmor” city by convincing them to join the National Defence Forces NDF in order to be exempted from the subsidiary military service.

Activist in Palmyra reported that middlemen from the national Reconciliation Committees in the city tempt youth to join the NDF to sort out recruiting them in the subsidiary military service, almost 100 young men, 15-30 years, joined the NDF till last Wednesday.

Khalid Omran, an activist, confirmed that he had seen dozens of young men were moved from the Military recruitment centres in buses of regime’s militias to unknown destinations, most likely to be hot battlefields.

The activist revealed that families of those young men were surprised to be demanded to hand all identification documents and mobile phones of their sons. “it is most like that regime wants to get rid of all evidence identifying those young men” activist explained.

Mohammed Tadmori, the activist, mentioned that Abdullah Khattab Karkokli is the main facilitator for recruiting men, who are kept isolated from news and do not know anything from the progress of battles and the revolution.