HORRIFIC: Syria's cash-money gangs and Trojan ambulances of death

According to a former Syrian Defense official, Assad's regime is paying pro-government gang members $100 per day to attack anti-government protesters. 

CAIRO, EGYPT (Catholic Online) The official, Mahmoud Suleiman al-Hamad, served as an auditor in the Ministry of Defense in Damascus until he defected to Egypt. In an interview done earlier this week, he stated that he directly observed armed gang members leaving the ministry in government busses. 

The revelation demonstrates one way in which the Syrian regime may be violently cracking down on protesters while keeping government troops out of harm's way-and under control. 

Worse, he recounted how the government is also using aid vehicles to get close to the protesters. "What is more horrific," he said, "is the intelligence vans marked with the Syrian Red Crescent insignia that would drive through the protests as ambulances and start firing at protesters."

Ambulances have also been targeted by the gangs for hijacking and citizens are having difficulty trusting that they are not hijacked with government agents when they arrive.

Al-Hamad blames most of the violence not on the Syrian military, but instead on intelligence officials and armed gangs recruited to attack protesters while dressed in plain clothes. 

He added, "Bashar al-Assad is no longer able to control these human monsters. We have reached a phase of genocide, and this can't be tolerated under any circumstances."

If these allegations are true, then they reveal just how low the Syrian regime is willing to go in order to cling to power. The use of ambulances as Trojan horses to attack peaceful demonstrators is as chilling as it is repugnant. 

Al-Hamand explained that the government provided the gang members with room and board as well as "high salaries of about $100 a day."

While the government is paying gangsters, it has had to cut funding to other ministries by as much as 30%, he said.

"We were hoping the killing would stop and the regime would understand that the revolution will win, and maybe find a way to appease the people. But there was no hope" he added.

It is becoming tragically clear that a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Syria is becoming impossible as Al Assad and his regime remain dedicated to the harm of the very people they are supposed to serve. 

. 

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'