Free Syrian Army halts operations pending Arab monitors’ report

Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat – Free Syrian Army [FSA] Commander, Colonel Riad al-Assad, informed Asharq Al-Awsat that he had ordered a complete halt of all “defensive operations”, since the delegation of Arab League monitors first entered Syria.  He revealed that “this decision includes a halt to all the military operations that we were undertaking to protect the demonstrators” adding “this is why the death toll has doubled.”  However al-Assad stressed that “we reserve the right to defend ourselves and the FSA in the event that we are subject to any attack from the regime’s forces who are pursuing us and attempting to kill us” adding “this is our legitimate right.”

Colonel al-Assad also revealed that “this decision will remain in effect over the next few days pending the issuance of the Arab monitors report, which we hope will be professional, clear, and true to the facts…if it is not, we will not stand idly by, but will resume and indeed intensify our defensive military operations.”

As for the delegation of Arab League monitors, the FSA commander said “we did not understand the nature of the statement that was issued by the head of the delegation, or his background, or his differentiating between the situation in Syria in general and the situation in Homs in particular.”

He also confirmed that the FSA has not met with any Arab League monitor so far, and he called the Arab monitors to contact the FSA “because we have a lot of information about all the crimes that the regime is carrying out, particularly in relation to the emptying of the prisons and the transfer of detainees to the military barrack, where the [Arab League] monitors are prohibited from going.”

He added “more than 1,500 Syrian army officers have been detained, whilst there is a total of more than 100,000 prisoners, and around 50,000 people have completely disappeared, and we do not know their fate, and so we are asking the monitors to give this issue the necessary attention.”

Head of the Arab League’s team of observers is Mohamed al-Dabi, a former Lieutenant General in the Sudanese army who has a long history in military intelligence.  A number of human rights organizations denounced his appointment because of the belief that he may have been involved in the crimes that were committed in the Darfur region, where he worked for an extended time as a representative of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Dabi was subject to further criticism when he said that he saw “nothing frightening” during his visit to Homs this week.  This statement was met with widespread disbelief, with director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman, later saying “70,000 people were shot with tear gas as they approached Clock Square.  How can you not see anything?”

FSA commander Colonel al-Assad also stressed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the FSA remains present in all regions of Syria, including Damascus, Idlib, Hama, Deir az-Zour, and elsewhere.  He added that “big question marks remain about the implementation of the protocol which is still incomplete, including the withdrawal of military vehicles from the street and the return of the military to their barracks.”

He also revealed that “the regime has resorted to changing the color of its military vehicles, painting them blue and writing ‘counter-terrorism’ on the side, in an attempt to portray them as being police or national security vehicles, not military.”