"So far there is Assad, there will be IG*"

Why did Latakia become a headache of Damascus and Moscow, and is it possible to defeat the Islamic State with Russian military help* - The New Times was explained by the leader of the Syrian opposition movement Syria Peace Movement Muhammad Adnan

Around mid -August, the Syrian Free Army units (SAS) intercepted the tactical initiative from the government forces in the province of Latakia, and just a week ago they managed to take control of several settlements near the city of Latakia - the administrative center of the province. It must be borne in mind that in the province a 20,000th grouping of government troops plus about 8-10 thousand volunteers from the National Brigade-Propermal Alawit Militia. Even in Damascus, Assad has fewer soldiers.

Why does Latakia give such a value of Assad? You know that Syria is controlled by the Alawite minority. In Latakia, Alavites are occupied by almost all leading, managerial positions. The regime considers this region as one of its supports. Latakia will fall - the Assad clan will fall.

* Alavites - a thin thing * There is a version that Russia is building up a military presence in Latakia with a long -range sight - to help Assad create an autonomous Alawit enclave there in case of Damascus’s control under the control of Islamists. This is nonsense. Alavites represent only 35 % of the population of Latakia, and more than 50 % of this number - against the creation of a certain Alawit state, we repeatedly carried out measurements of public opinion. In addition, it is naive to think that all Alavites are for Assad. I myself am a native of Latakia, although Sunnit, and I personally know many Alavites who are against the regime.

Then what is the task of the Russian military? Additional supplies of weapons to help Assad stop the offensive of the Free Army of Syria - this time. To strengthen the protection of its naval base in Tartus is two. Take control the main air harbors in Latakia - three. Assad himself has neither strength nor funds for this. The airport in Latakia is already under Russian security. My friends called me the other day and told me: SAS bombed the airport, as a result, several Russian military were killed.

How many people do Assad have under a gun now? About 30 thousand soldiers of regular troops plus 50 thousand militias. Recruits are gaining with difficulty, there are few hunters. Lure money - pay all for 20 thousand Syrian pounds (

$ 10. - NT ) per month. Do not be surprised, in today's Syria this is decent money.

Those who created the scarecrow Bashar Assad just in an interview with the Russian media said: "We are the only force that fights with IG* on Earth." Assad is lying. It is now profitable for him to create such an image in the eyes of the West: either I or IG* (

Adan uses the Daesh abbreviation. ). In fact, his army did not fight the IG*. Not a minute! All the cities captured by the fighters of IG*,-Rakka, Dire-Ez-Zaur, Palmieri-Assad’s army gave without a fight. The day before the Islamists captured the airport to Dire-Ez-Zaur, the Alavites officers from the garrison there were evacuated on helicopters, only Sunni soldiers remained, whom the militants killed everyone. Palmyra was left two days before the fighters of IG*entered there. There, the largest prison in Syria with political prisoners was - all of them were also evacuated, so as not to leave traces of the retreat. At the same time, all military warehouses left. And in other cities the same thing - all the weapons left the Islamists.

For what? And then, that it was originally the idea of ​​security forces in Damascus: to create such a super -coding organization, frightened, against the background of which the Assad regime in the eyes of the whole world would seem like a light of civilization.

Can you name the names of these security forces? Certainly. This is Asef Shavkat, the former deputy chief of the Syrian General Staff, the son -in -law of Assad - he died during the attack in Damascus in 2012, and Ali Mamluk, the head of the Syrian intelligence. In 2011, when a civil war was just beginning in Syria, they freed several thousand Islamist militants from prisons arrested after returning from Iraq, where they fought with the Americans. Then everyone was gathered at two military bases and told them: the crusaders will come here soon and kill everyone - both you and us. Therefore, in your interests to kill those who prepare the arrival of the crusaders. Alavit Assad was constantly in touch with the former Iraqi Prime Minister Shiite al-Maliki-he supported the idea of ​​using jihadists for political purposes. Behind the backs of both stood their main ally - Iran. In June 2014, 200 IG fighters* took without a fight the second largest city of Iraq - Mosul, which was defended by three Iraqi divisions. Do you believe in this?

Do you want to say that Iraqi troops deliberately departed, leaving half a billion dollars in the banks there, which migrated into the pockets of the Islamists? Well, why in Syria are the Islamists leave military warehouses? So that they have something to shoot. So that they exist further - while it is necessary for those who created them. Therefore, while there is Bashar Assad, there will be IG*. Just few in the world understand this.

Now Moscow sees that Assad’s forces are weakening, and it fears that Assad will disappear earlier than IG*. But instead of helping us to get rid of Assad and thereby solve the problem of IG*, Russia, on the contrary, builds up the support of Damascus. And thereby making a big mistake.

* The Islamic State group, or IS, is prohibited in Russia as a terrorist organization.

Photo: AFP Photo/Delil Souleiman