WarSclerotic

The Syrian army captain, who reached the Turkish border on Tuesday, described yesterday how the Assad regime was struggling to retain the loyalty of its forces, with the exception of a core of elite units.

“It is a matter of time for the fighting units,” said the officer, who can only be named as Captain Abu Mohammad (a pseudonym) because members of his family remain in regime-controlled areas of Syria.

The officer, thick-set and in his mid-30s, travelled for more than a week through dangerous country to the Turkish border.

He was a Sunni Muslim career officer serving in the west of the country and listed the many problems that his unit had faced.

“There is a fuel crisis. Non-essential units are now denied fuel. There are also problems with food and drinking water because the supply vehicles are often being hit by rebels,” he said.

Wages had shifted without explanation from monthly to three-monthly payments.

“The soldiers have been refused any leave for the past nine months,” he said, adding that he believed this was because of the risk they would not return. “They are only allowed to see state television. If they discovered you had seen al-Jazeera you would be arrested immediately.”

However, the defector said that ammunition was not a problem. “We still have some factories making it.”

It has also been reported that Russia is continuing to supply arms to the regime.

Syria’s 300,000-strong armed forces include a core of elite units dominated by the loyalist Alawite sect of President Bashar al-Assad. By some estimates, Alawites make up about 40 per cent of the total military, including conscript units, but are a majority in the regular army.

Captain Abu Mohammad said that 10 per cent of his own unit had so far defected – and the numbers had accelerated since a bomb attack in Damascus on July 18 killed four top security officials.

The defections included 17 officers from the unit of about 1500 men. “Often the families claim they have been kidnapped by the rebels, but I know that they have defected,” he added.

His own escape was well planned and co-ordinated with family members. He walked north into Turkey, staying in areas dominated by the loyalist Alawite sect and carrying his army officer’s pass to avoid suspicion.

Fed a diet of state-controlled media, many ordinary soldiers had little understanding of the situation unfolding, he said.

But government control of information was beginning to wane, particularly among officers.

For those wishing to escape, fear remains the greatest hurdle. “You do not even dare to think about defecting,” he said. Few would discuss it even with close colleagues. It was not a situation that could continue indefinitely.

He said that his comments applied broadly to ordinary units in the army, but not to Alawite-dominated elite units such as the Presidential Guard, the Republican Guard and the 4th Armoured Division. “They will last months or years.”

The elite forces were well rewarded with money and cars and conducted most of the attack operations, he said.

“It was the Presidential Guard that led the attack in Homs,” he said, noting the unit was easily identified by the red cord on their tunic shoulders.

Asked about the widespread allegations of human rights abuses by government forces, the officer pinned most blame on Shabiha militia units. “The soldier only fires to defend himself. The Shabiha do the killing,” he said.

The captain had held a position as chemical warfare officer for his unit, but said that he had no knowledge of any circumstances in which such weapons might be used. He added he now wished to serve the Syrian rebels as a fighter against his former colleagues.

“Do you think that I am a bad person?” he asked, uncertainly, as he left.