Rebels Say Syrian Army near Collapse
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The Syrian army is slowly disintegrating as troop morale plummets and more soldiers defect to join rebels fighting a regime crackdown against dissent, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army said Friday.
"The regular army is in a pitiful state and getting close to collapsing," said Major Maher Nuaimi, who is based with the FSA in Turkey, in a telephone interview with Agence France Presse.
"Even though the army has huge military capabilities, soldiers no longer have the will to fight or are ready to do so."
Nuaimi said there was also growing discontent among officers and the rank and file against army commanders, who are largely drawn from President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite community, an off-shoot of Shiite Islam.
Most of the conscripts in the military are from Syria's majority Sunni Muslim community.
A growing number have been defecting and joining the Free Syrian Army (FSA) as the 11-month government crackdown on a popular revolt continues.
An estimated 6,000 people have died in the bloodshed, according to rights groups.
"In the last 24 hours many defections have taken place in all of the provinces where there is unrest," Nuaimi said. "Some involve one soldier and others a whole group."
Nuaimi said several soldiers defected on Friday in the southern province of Daraa where nine regime troops were killed in clashes with the FSA.
He said in many instances dissident soldiers have literally had to fight their way out, braving checkpoints by security forces to escape.
Nuaimi added that young men over the age of 18 were also no longer reporting for their compulsory military service.
"This is a sign of defeat for the army," he said.
Although heavily outnumbered and outgunned, the Free Syrian Army has increasingly launched bold attacks against regime forces and managed to seize control of some neighborhoods of the central flashpoint town of Homs.
The FSA claims to have some 40,000 members, including defectors and sympathizers.
03 February 2012, 22:56
13
The end is near for Assad...Leave before they put a noose around your neck
04 February 2012, 01:00
10
Yalla fight on FSA!!!! The end is near for Bashar. Soon whole divisions of the army will go over to the side of the FSA.
04 February 2012, 05:47
01
Just look at this firqat 7asaballa lil fa2sh wal ta2sh!!! The only thing that they will cause the collapse of will be the ear drums of those who listen to their dissonance. How familiar and so similar to their bros here at home, Hariri Bwejee2 & March Zenkheen. te3teer
04 February 2012, 08:58
01
if its true that these pictured are from the army, why is it they are wearing running shoes? Did they not defect wearing their regular army issued boots?
04 February 2012, 10:07
12
It will take a long time for the FSA to free Syria from the regime. Trainning.. arming..etc. It will happen, but it will be long and bloody unless they get turkish support and safe zones, when everything is said and done Syria might lose 100 - 200 thousand people. The worse is yet to come. We just hope that rational Alawi officers defect and spare the country the reprisals of a suni-alawi revenge war.
04 February 2012, 13:31
01
realist, your friend (and mine, too) had spoken sometime ago about providing the FSA with anti-tank missiles and for imposing a no-fly zone. Are these still needed now that the game seems to be over and the FSA are wrapping up their struggle and getting ready to rule democratically? And when you write: 100 - 200 thousand people, shall I subtract 200 from 100, which results in a negative number or you meant |100 - 200| which is the absolute value and results in a positive number, realistically?
04 February 2012, 14:07
11
The FSA should have a an open recruitment policy I'm sure there will plenty of volunteers, just open up a safe passage for arms, and Assad supporter will diminish by the day.
04 February 2012, 15:22
11
I guess no need for UN intervention, since the leader of opposition can fight from his chair in Turkey.
05 February 2012, 00:52
00
The one standing to the bottom left looks like Wi2am Wahhab.Any news about him joining the Syrian Free Army?y
