On May 23, more than 300 former fighters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the newly liberated northern Homs countryside surrendered their personal weapons and signed a reconciliation agreement with the Damascus government, according to Syrian state TV. The source said that some of these fighters will join the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) while others will return to civilian life.
Meanwhile, the Syrian al-Watan newspaper revealed that the Damascus government had rejected to grant a similar reconciliation agreement to 500 militants in the northern Homs countryside due to several crimes they had committed over the past seven years. These 500 radical militants will be evacuated with their families to the northern city of Jarabulus in the upcoming days, according to al-Watan.
Under the reconciliation agreement which was reached on May 2, the Damascus government is supposed to pardon the former militants there within six months. The government is also supposed to allow those who can’t be pardoned to withdraw to the opposition-held areas in northern Syria during the same period.
Syrian pro-government activists believe that thousands of former FSA fighters in the northern Homs countryside will reconcile with the Damascus government in the upcoming months. More militants are also expected to leave the region.
300 SMART LUCKY or WISE MILITANTS SURRENDER TO GOVERNMENT
Good to sort them out and send the criminal types north. :)
I mean.. assad lets them join the SAA, but can the regular troops really trust these guys to watch their backs? Or to not let the enemy know about the weak points in the SAA defenses?
Maybe not 100%, but these rehabilitative moves are the way forward.
And how can they inform them on “weak points” if they are not really part of battle tested regular troops in the important places? There are PLENTY of CRAP duty jobs for them that nobody wants to do in SAA like in every other army!! They will be mixed up with and controlled by regular SAA guys. They will do just some routine stuff of not much importance and not turn into James Bonds spying on everybody…
Many of these guys were forced, tricked or lured into fighting for the Al-Qaeda groups so I think if they are of Syrian origin it would go much better than if they were foreigners, because those are the most dangerous ones.
These guys are very lucky, in the US everyone of them would be executed, in a painful manner.
Use them to form an understrength battalion for Daraa operations.