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العربية
The regime carried out today an arrest campaign targeting a number of civilians in the besieged districts of Al-Qusour and Al-Joura of Deir Ezzor city to forcibly recruit them to its ranks and allied militias operating in Deir Ezzor province.
The Assad’s republican guards, accompanied by several buses, patrolled today the streets of Al-Joura and Al-Qusour and arrested a number of civilians. The arrest campaign was focused on the main streets, shops, bakeries, schools, faculties, and markets, D24 correspondent in the besieged districts of Deir Ezzor said.
He added ‘’ All the arrested civilians are firstly circulated to the regime security branches in Deir Ezzor, and then transferred to Brigade 137 to dig trenches for a while, after that they are split into groups and distributed to the regime security headquarters and military in Deir Ezzor, including Brigade 137, security branches, NDF militia, and Hizboallah militia. Among the forced recruits are civilians whose ages fall within the range of 52 years old.
The number of young male civilians who have been arrested during the forced conscription campaigns in Deir Ezzor since one month is estimated around 1000 civilians, and the number might rise as the arrest campaigns continues in the province.
D24 correspondent indicated that the forced conscription campaigns carried out by the Assad regime in Deir Ezzor have caused life to stop in both Al-Joura and Al-Qusour districts, as the youth are afraid of coming out of their homes and getting arrested, then forcibly conscripted by the regime. Schools and universities have been closed for a long while now, as students are scared of the arrest campaigns. Most of the shops in the regime-held areas in Deir Ezzor have been closed. Teachers and employees refuse to work for the regime-run schools and municipalities for fear of being arrested as well.
It should be noted that some civilians have been released by the regime after they had to pay around 200000 Syrian lira to some regime commanders for their release. The arrest campaigns have become a lucrative business for the Assad-regime commanders in Deir Ezzor. They have gained millions of Syrian lira at the expense of civilians in Deir Ezzor who are being besieged and killed by ISIS from the outside, while the reigme forces blackmail them and forcibly recruit them to the regime ranks in the province.
