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Deir Ezzor24 exclusive report:
The Baath battalions were formed in Deir Ezzor in 2013, consisting of members working for the party as agents against the opponents of al-Assad, who were led by Raed al-Ghadhban. Later they were transformed into a military militia tasked with guarding the installations of the Baath Party and defending the vicinity of Deir Ezzor military airport with its first line of defense in the town of Jufra, the birthplace of the al-Ghadban family.
In 2017, Al-Ghadban resigned from the command of the militia, against the background of his being named a member of the youth office in the province and a member of the Sochi talks, to take command of the militia, Salem Al-Matras until his daughter, Maryam Al-Matras was delivered to the parliament from the Baath list in Deir Ezzor, so that the command would be transferred to “Abu Ayed”. Ghadhban’s uncle, while the militia’s command in Syria is led by “a member of the Central Committee of the Baath Party at its headquarters in Damascus, “Bassem Sudan,” named by the Baath Party’s assistant regional secretary, Hilal Hilal.
The Baath Brigades militia consists of 120 members, all of whom are assigned to the workers of the Furat Spinning Company, where the facility is under the control of the “SDF” at the roundabout of the factories north of Deir Ezzor. They are equipped with automatic rifles and pistols, wearing military or civilian uniforms. They carry military cards that authorize them to steal and blackmail civilians, as is the case of the National Defense Militia members, while they guard the Peasants’ Union building, which is based in the Baath Party.
Four of the elements along with Ghadban are guarding his place of residence in the Hrabesh neighborhood, and the rest are distributed among the guards of the party preparation building, the city division, the second countryside division building, the Mayadin division building and Al-Bukamal.