Intelligence heart of Syria is attacked by army defectors

SYRIAN army defectors have attacked a major military intelligence complex near Damascus, in the first of what they said would be a string of high-profile armed attacks against the regime of president Bashar al-Assad.

“This is the first of a series of attacks we are planning around the country,” said a member of armed opposition group the Free Syrian Army, speaking to The Scotsman.

Early on Wednesday, fighters from the FSA hit the notorious Air Force Intelligence complex in Harasta on the northern edge of the capital. A group of fewer than 20 men attacked from three sides, firing rocket propelled grenades and peppering the walls with machine gun fire, said an FSA fighter.

It is unclear how much damage was done to the fortified compound, or how many were hurt. Gun battles ensued, and helicopters circled the area. Witnesses said ambulances were seen speeding from the scene.

The attack came as members of the Arab League and Turkey called for “urgent measures” to protect Syria’s people from violent repression by Mr Assad’s regime. International pressure has been building on the Syrian regime to stop the bloodshed, which the United Nations says has cost more than 3,500 lives since protests erupted in March. In a move that commentators and academics have described as surprisingly strong, the Arab League has suspended Syria’s membership, but stopped short of calling for Mr Assad’s departure or proposing any Libya-style military intervention.

As diplomats scramble to find a political solution, there are signs the protests inside the country are becoming increasingly militarised.

Wednesday’s attack came just two days after 34 government soldiers were reported killed by the opposition. In an ambush in which 13 rebels also died, videos showed an armoured vehicle on fire, and cars in flames. Reports of attacks on the military have come from across the country, particularly Deraa, Homs and the surrounding villages, and near Damascus.

“The national Syrian Free Army aims to be the military wing of the Syrian people’s opposition to the regime,” its leader Colonel Riad al-Asaad, recently told The Scotsman, speaking from a refugee camp in Turkey guarded by the Turkish military. Claiming to be 15,000 strong, the group which formed last June says it is made up of Syrian defectors. The FSA leadership yesterday announced the creation of a temporary military council.

Yesterday’s attack was symbolically significant, targeting the core of the regime’s operations against the opposition. “This is the centre from which they track down defected soldiers, and they spy on serving officers. It has the most power of all the other security departments,” said the FSA source. “Captured colleagues have been tortured in there.”

“Across the country, they want to hit at the intelligence core of the military. They don’t want to kill foot soldiers who may not even support the regime but be too scared to defect,” said a Syrian analyst in Beirut.

But he warned not to overplay the role of the FSA. “The term ‘Army’ is misleading, this is an unco-ordinated mix of defected soldiers and armed militants, fighting in their own cities. There is scant overall leadership.”

Meanwhile, France recalled its ambassador to Damascus, Eric Chevallier, in the wake of recent attacks against diplomatic missions and increasing violence stemming from Syria’s eight-month-old uprising. Pro-regime demonstrators have stormed offices belonging to France, the US and other nations critical of Mr Assad. Syrian forces fired tear gas yesterday to disperse protesters outside the Qatari and United Arab Emirates embassies.

French foreign minister Alain Juppe said “the vice is tightening” around the Syrian regime.

Warning from an uncle in exile

Bashar al-Assad’s uncle, a former henchman for the president’s father, Hafez, has said his nephew should leave power so he can take over.

Rifaat al-Assad, speaking from self-imposed exile in his Paris mansion, said: “We are going to bring him down. Even if it takes time and is difficult, I am going to work to topple the regime and give power to the people.”

However, as leader of an elite military corps under Hafez, Rifaat al-Assad allegedly had a role in the 1982 massacre of thousands in the central city of Hama and even tried to oust his brother in the mid-1980s.

He claimed there was support for him to take over, claiming he had “heard many voices in Syria, the Arab world and even beyond that the crisis can only be resolved by Rifaat al-Assad”.