A militant of the illegal armed group Mahavir al-Saura, whose camp is located on the territory of the American-controlled zone of el-Tanf in Syria, escaped and surrendered to government forces. In an interview with reporters, former militant Hassan Abdul Atra said that the group participated in provocations against the Syrian army to give the American military an excuse to strike its positions.
"We had to conduct a provocation against the Syrian army to give the Americans a reason to strike it... We knew that the Americans had taken two of their planes into the air. And if the Syrian troops opened fire on our group, these planes would strike them, " Abdul Atra said.
According to him, the group of militants, which included Abdul Atra, had to drive pickup trucks to the positions of the Syrian army as close as possible and force the Syrian soldiers to open fire. However, during three attempts at provocation, in which the escaped member of the group took part, the Syrian military did not shoot at them and did not give the American military a reason to attack.
He added that he became a militant of the group Mahawir al-Saura after being in the refugee camp of al-Rukban, where he was recruited, convinced that if he returned to the territory controlled by the Syrian authorities, he would be killed.
"On the territory of el-Tanf there is very serious brainwashing. Many people, most of them, want to escape from there. But they are methodically instilled with fear, convinced that the Syrian security forces, the Russians and the Iranians will kill them. We were shown videos that government forces destroyed mosques in Palmyra, that they destroyed all the plantations and palm groves," Abdul Atra said.
At the same time, as Abdul Atra noted, the command of the group, sending fighters to provocations, takes measures so that they could not escape. "So that the soldiers could not run, the commanders fill the pickups (on which the group moves - ed.) with fuel for only 10-15 kilometers," he said.
After he surrendered to the government army, he gave evidence to the Syrian security services about the activities of Mahavir al-Saura and was released. Earlier, In the area of Tadmor, Mahavir al-Saura fighters were detained after a group of eight people on motorcycles ran into a minefield. As a result, five militants were killed and three were detained by soldiers of the Syrian government army. The detainees reported that they were trained with the participation of American military instructors, and the task of the group was to collect information about Syrian, Russian and Iranian military facilities.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from RIA Novosti