A Syrian army tank on a street in Dera'a
Taleb Ibrahim, a regime propagandist, claimed there was near 500 army and security personnel killed in the siege and assault on Dera’a. Of course, he blamed ‘armed extremists’ for this, to maintain the government propaganda of an armed uprising across Syria. Seemingly this is an outrageous claim of government propaganda, however, there might something to this story. After all, the regime sieged other cities but this was to provide cover for intelligence personnel to carry out raids, arresting suspected protesters. In the case of Dera’a, there was video footage of soldiers shot and laying on hospital floors and sounds of gunshots and artillery across the city, in another video.
Firstly, the number provided by Taleb Ibrahim shows that he is in contact with the Syrian intelligence, that provide him with a framework for his media interventions. Secondly, the following is an account provided by a Lebanese man, substantiated by three individuals from Dera’a and its surrounding area (published on As’ad Abu-Khalil’s blog):
I spent the day…first the road to there was normal, nothing special, on the way back there were two checkpoints before Damascus. Intelligence guys, young with their dirty looks and clothes, you would think the regime is smarter than that even in PR. I mainly spoke to 3 colleagues who are from Dar3a and surroundings. They know me so they are comfortable to talk and share details. The main point the 3 confirmed separately is Aljazeera coverage is not even 10 % of the truth !! they confirmed the story of the mass grave found, the media spoke of 1 but they are 4-5 so far. People even saw when the bodies were being disposed.
All these stories about confessions is bullshit, they know some of the guys who appeared on TV. They were put in prison and forced to say what they said Even the images of people throwing rice on the army as it left Dar3a were staged, they can confirm from the people’s accent (not from Dar3a) and even the location of these images, close to govt headquarters.
The 4th division (Maher Asad) is in Dar3a as it was reported. The big and somehow strange story is the 4 and 5 division fought each other ! but not cause of dissent but because how the 4 division treats the other army divisions. Apparently they bombed each other with tanks !! and literally hundreds of them were killed. People saw how they came with trucks and bulldozers to take the bodies. The stories about army being killed is either army killing army or security killing army.
One guy said, the point of no return was crossed like 2 weeks ago. They are hopeful that it will pick up soon in Allepo where students on campus there are the ones who are trying at the moment. Two of them criticized a bit the people in Damascus and Allepo (one called them cowards) Three of the arrested in Da3ra in the mosque were christian doctors. The Sunni families fleeing Dar3a were taking cover at christian families around the city, so the stories of Salafis and religious fantaticism is so untrue in that region.
The regime is playing this card in Homs and Banias where they are arming the A3lawee areas surrounding the Sunni centers. There are thousands of prisoners in Dar3a, and a security officer at each door, that is why it has calmed down a bit lately.The events at the Golan border last Sunday… Initially they wanted the Palestinians (7000-8000) to carry Bashar pics and Syrian flags but they refused and only carried Syrian flags.
One of the guys had to take out his family ouf of Dar3a because they were literally eating old stale bread at the end after 2 weeks of heavy curfew. They all confirmed that there was no party leading the events, no muslim brotherhood, no Khadam, nothing. They are all weak. it is just a popular revolt where in each area, people are calling the shots. We drove back yesterday night, all seemed fine on the surface but I had the feeling that it is all brewing and there is much more to come soon. it cannot go on like this. that is all I remember now, but they will be giving me more info from now on
More importantly, in the account above, is a narration of an armed confrontation between Maher al-Assad’s fourth division and the fifth division of the Syrian army. If this true, then there is some discontent simmering in the army’s ranks but it is not clear where this will lead.
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