Syria using Iranian snipers as violent crackdown continues

IRANIAN snipers are being used in Syria to put down the growing tide of demonstrations against president Bashar al-Assad, claims a member of the regime’s secret police who has fled to Turkey.

The 25-year-old officer offered a detailed account of increasingly brutal tactics used by security forces to end the five-month uprising, including parading women naked through the streets and shoot-to-kill orders against unarmed protesters.

He said he had beaten prisoners and shot at protesters in Dasmascus. At times during the past two months he was aware of Iranian troops operating alongside his team in the Syrian capital.

Speaking in Yayladagi, the nearest town to the refugee camp where he now lives, he said: “We knew they were from Iran because we were not allowed to speak to them and they were kept well away from us. When we had operated with the Syrian army we would always mix with them and chat.”

His account confirms other reports that Syria has turned to its closest ally for help – including training and military hardware – in putting down the protests directed at the Assad family’s four decades in power.

August has seen an escalation in government operations. Tanks and snipers have been deployed to quell protests in several areas during Ramadan, even as America and the European Union have increased pressure on Mr Assad to end the violence.

Last night, Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he had told Mr Assad that military operations against civilians must end immediately, warning the Syrian president that this was Ankara’s “final word”.

“If these operations do not stop, there will be nothing left to say about the steps that would be taken,” he said, though he did not elaborate.

Until the latest unrest, Turkey was a close ally of Syria. Iran is now its lone regional friend.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, this week said ending support for Syria would spell disaster.

He said: “The interests of the Muslim people command that we mobilise to support Syria as a centre of Palestinian resistance.”

So far more than 1,700 people have reportedly been killed since pro-democracy activists took to the streets in March.

Yesterday, Syrian forces continued to shell residential districts in the Mediterranean port city of Latakia for a third day.

Latakia is the latest city to be stormed after Hama, Deir al-Zor, capital of a tribal province bordering Iraq’s Sunni Muslim heartland, and several towns in the north-western Idlib province, which borders Turkey.

Unlike most other Syrian cities, which are predominantly Sunni, Latakia has a large Alawite population – the Shiite Muslim sect to which Assad belongs – because of its proximity to the Alawite Mountains. Mr Assad and his father have encouraged Alawites to move from their traditional mountain region, offering them cheap land and jobs in the public sector.

The continuing bloodshed has forced thousands of people to cross the border into Turkey.

Among them last week was the young Mukhabarat secret police officer, who described how officers were increasingly unhappy at being ordered to kill unarmed protesters.

He said: “They were all afraid like me but knew they would be killed if they left or if they refused orders.”

He also described bringing protesters – some as young as 13 – into police stations where they were beaten for the entertainment of senior officers.

The worst episode, he said, came in July when the secret police snatched nine women believed to be married to opposition leaders.

“The Mukhabarat stripped them and then made them walk through the streets,” he said. “It was just to make their husbands turn themselves in. Two days later they did.”

Now he faces an uncertain future. No-one else in the refugee camp knows that he was once one of the men ordered to fire on protesters, but he also knows that he faces death as a deserter if he were to return to Syria.

“I try not to think of the terrible things I have done,” he said.