Shabiha
As Shabiha ( Arabic شبّيحة, DMG šabbīḥa ) or Shabiha militias are the irregular, armed groups led by the cousins of the Syrian President Baschar al-Assad Fawaz al-Assad and Mundhir al-Assad . Its name is derived from the Arabic word "shabh" ( Arabic شَبْح shabh , DMG šabḥ 'ghost').
origin
The Shabiha formed in the 1970s as a smuggling gang in the port city of Latakia and its surrounding area from poor Alawis . Because of their ethnic connection with the largely Alawite elite in Syria, they enjoyed the protection of the regime. Today the Shabiha include around 10,000 mostly younger Alawite men who come from the mountainous regions of north-west Syria, the traditional settlement area of the Alawites.
Role in the Syrian civil war
As the demonstrations spread from peripheral Dar'a to northern and central Syria in the run-up to the Syrian civil war , the Shabiha began to participate in the violence against the demonstrators. They first appeared on a larger scale when mass protests took place in early April 2011 in Baniyas , a town that is located in the traditional core area of the Shabiha.
As the conflict intensified, the Shabiha became more and more a tool of the Assad regime to suppress the uprising. The militia are said to be involved in the arrest of demonstrators and responsible for the execution of deserted soldiers .
Web links
- The Syrian Shabiha and Their State , article by Yassin al-Haj Salih on the Heinrich Böll Foundation website , April 2012
- Death squads in Syria: Assad's militia , article by Gabriela M. Keller in the taz , June 12, 2012
- Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (Word document, 9.16 MB, 102 pages), report of the United Nations independent commission of inquiry into Syria of August 15, 2012, with numerous references to murders committed by Shabiha and human rights violations
- Joshua Landis: "The Original Shabiha," by Mohammad D. , in the Syria Comment blog from August 17, 2012 (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Shabiha Militia: Syria's Armed Gangs . In: Courier . June 14, 2012
- ↑ Syria: Human rights activist reports of mass execution against Sunnis . In: Spiegel Online . December 6, 2011
- ↑ a b c Steffen Richter: Syria War: First smuggler, then thug for the Assad regime. In: The time . June 7, 2012, Retrieved June 14, 2012 .
- ↑ a b Rudolph Chimelli: Syria - In the clutches of the Assad clan . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . April 15, 2011
- ↑ Silke Lode: Assad lets strike back. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . April 13, 2011, p. 7