Syria: Bashar al-Assad’s ‘ghost gangs’ that haunt Damascus

“Most are recruited by the intelligences services. They are given a free
hand to do what they want. If they kill for job no questions are asked,”
added Khani. “It is the policy of the Free Syrian Army to kill the
Shabiha,”

Faced with a nationwide uprising it has failed to quash, the regime is
unrestrained in its attacks on the civilians who seek to cast off its
control. Yesterday it was reported that victims of unrelenting shelling on
the Baba Amr district of beseiged Homs were being treated by a vetinary
surgeon. The only medical professional administering life saving treatment
to the wounded was relying on his knowledge of sheep anatomy to those
brought to his makeshift field hospital.

In the capital the battle lines are not yet drawn in such stark definition.
For the most part the Shabiha lounge in Damascene streets, monitoring
passers-by and keeping a tally of local movements.

But their patrols frequently take a sinister turn, especially in the capital’s
hostile suburbs.

A group of Moaddemiya women recounted a litany of terrors the Shabiha has
inflicted on the community.

“They imprisoned Nasser Serir, a peace activist for six months. Five days
after he was released, a gang broke into his home and shot him in front of
his children and his mother. They pushed his body from the balcony of the
second floor apartment,” said ‘Obeida’, a middle aged women.

“Two weeks ago they entered into a family friend’s home. They held the
men at gunpoint and trampled on them,” interjected ‘Hala’. “They
punched the handicapped son in the stomach. Really, you cannot imagines
these things!” The day before, a group had arrested her 60 year old
father said Bola, a student in the group. Insisting that he had never before
been to an anti-government protest, she said she could not fathom why he was
taken.

“He was leaving the mosque after praying. He is a peaceful man, he is
frightened of the security forces,” she said. “I cannot go to him.
If I did they might take me too,” added Bola.

The Shabiha, which the international community has long condemned as
outsourcing oppression, are not always easy to discern, said Damascus
residents. “They give them military uniforms so that people cannot
differentiate between them and the army. Some of the soldiers are very kind,
but if you want to speak one in the street you should know if they are
Shabeha or military,” warned Obeida.

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