General Ahmad Rahal — last high-ranking Syrian officer, the former Vice-Minister of defense of Syria, and commander of the fleet. In 2012, he publicly refused to perform criminal orders of the regime of Bashar al-Assad and defected to the Syrian rebels.

General Rahal was in command of the Western front, where he distinguished himself as a courageous, brave and responsible person, currently he is active in analytical work, speaks to the media on the war in Syria, making efforts for the formation of the Free Syrian army. He believes in the victory of the ideals of the Syrian revolution of dignity. 13th February 2016 General Ahmad Rahal gave an exclusive interview to the volunteers of the international community InformNapalm which revealed the details of the participation of Russian troops in the war against the Syrian people, and told many other interesting details...

General Rahal, we know that You do much for the formation of the Free Syrian army. Now, many Syrians have fled their homes because of hunger and bombing. Some of them have military experience, do You think of these people, you can create a full-fledged army?

I note that many soldiers and officers left the ranks of Assad's army on moral and ideological grounds. They had deserted because of hunger or financial needs, and broke away from the troops of the regime of injustice, of murder and destruction committed against the Syrian people. These officers took an oath to protect the people, not to kill him, so they kept their oath and sided with the Syrian revolution.

When Assad's army began to collapse, he had to organize teams of shabiha (similar to “aunts” — approx.ed) that were not military — it's just armed thugs who began to kill Syrians. And when they are unable to stand against the Syrian revolution, the Assad regime was to import mercenaries from abroad. They started with the Lebanese Hezbollah, then brought the Iraqi "squads", and then came Qasim Soleimani of the IRGC (Islamic revolutionary Guards Corps) and the corps "Faylaq al-Quds".They pulled the criminals out of the prisons of Tehran, held them training and sent them as mercenaries to Syria, to serve the Iranian flag. Thus the military power in Syria conditionally passed from the hands of Bashar al-Assad in the hands of Iran. And Касем Сулеймани the military ruler of Syria.

(According to “Times of Israel”, Qassem Soleimani was the organizer and leader of the search and rescue operation on evacuation of the Russian pilot of su-24M, 24 was shot down November 2015 — approx.the wording IN)

Qasem Soleimani, the commander of "al-Quds" as part of the IRGC. The Nickname "Shadow"

And yet, even after the invasion of Hezbollah and the Iranian-Iraqi forces, Bashar al-Assad continued to take their positions, so they had to ask the help of the Russian air force to destroy the Syrian people.

Today we see Russian aircraft bombed the civilian population of Syria under the slogan of fight against the ISIL. More than 95 % of Russian air strikes are attacks against the Syrian people and Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Now, instead of shabiha for the Assad regime are fighting foreign mercenaries: Hezbollah, the Abul Fadl Abbas, Asaib of AHL al-Haq, Iraqi crews, paid for by Tehran, Afghan troops, and now Russian soldiers. What is the approximate number of militants fighting for Assad?

Regular Assad army is almost not exist. Let's count foreign mercenaries. Hezbollah – from 15 to 20 thousand fighters in Syria they are from Lebanon.

Iraqi mercenaries – militia "EN Nujaba", "Abul Fadl Abbas", "Fatimids", "Zinaida", etc. (about 36 Iraqi brigades) – from 20 thousand to 30 – all, who are Shiites.

Iran has sent "Faylaq al-Quds", the group of consultants of the IRGC – they form what is called the "army of volunteers" who allegedly volunteered to fight in Syria. The Iranians also brought criminals and drug addicts from among the Afghans.Just 20 to 30 thousand.

Also there are mercenaries from Chechnya, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan. 3 more recently, thousands were brought from Nigeria.

Just fighting for Assad foreigners can count about 100 thousands. That's not counting the Russian troops.

General Rahal, which today is a real military-political situation in Syria?

The result of Russia's military action in Eastern Ukraine and activities aimed at the annexation of Crimea became the Western sanctions, whose effectiveness is already evident. The fall in oil prices below 30$ led to the collapse of the ruble.They say that losses of the Russian economy reached the level of 400 to 600 billion U.S. dollars. Economic mafia, which led to power of Vladimir Putin, sees that he has ceased to ensure that its interests in maintaining the status quo in the Western world.To overcome this situation and distract Russians from economic collapse was played "new peacekeeping map" that is intended to distract attention of Russians from the failure of their tactics in Ukraine. Putin has resorted to the next external aggression, this time in Syria. The interests of Putin and Assad coincided, helped by the assurances of General Qasem Soleimani, commander of militants "Faylaq al-Quds" in Iran.He convinced them that under the cover of Russian aviation Assad can regain control over the entire territory of Syria, which, in turn, will strengthen Putin's position in the negotiations, will allow him to blackmail the West and divert attention from Ukraine.

However, developments in valley al Gab with on 1.10.15 8.10.15 failed these plans: FSA and the army of Fatah in the fighting with militants from Iran and the remnants of Assad's army inflicted a significant loss. Only in one village of morica were destroyed 46 tanks.

In these battles involved the Russian aircraft, Russian helicopters and artillery and, nevertheless, to stop the advance of the rebels has failed. The result of this major defeat of the regime was the attempt to open a new front in HOMS and the coast, but these plans also proved to be disastrous for Assad. This forced the Russian Federation to reconsider their approach, Putin made an emergency trip to Tehran, where he accused the Iranians that they misinformed the Russian side about their capabilities and involved Russia in the war.

Putin turned to other tactics, initiating a conflict with Turkey amid the downed SU-24. Russia itself has provoked this incident to create new rules for the confrontation. Putin "tough" was the reaction of the media and announced its sanctions against Turkey, thereby punishing the Russians by sharply rising prices for food.

Thus, Russia and Iran have been forced to revert to plan “B” in Syria. The plan is to divide Syria into several cantons, as both Putin and Soleimani realized that neither Russia nor Iran will not be able to return all Syrian territory under the control of the Assad regime. For this, they strengthened the fighting North of Aleppo and the coast in the airfield area of Homim, where he died in battle more than 120 Russian military. Putin banned Russian mass media distribute information about the losses of Russian troops in Ukraine and Syria, except that which is formally published in sources of the Ministry of defense of the Russian Federation.Today all what could be achieved Putin is to expand the territory of "useful Syria," as he calls it, having moved for 10 km on the Western front. Further fighting North of Aleppo to enforce the boundaries of the Kurdish enclave, thus, it is clear the plan for the partition of Syria.

The Russian Federation plans to divide Syria by partial, local and step-by-step "victories", arresting young men and sending them to the front because of the lack of fighters in Assad. Most of those killed on the side is the Iraqis and Hezbollah operatives.

With Syrian fronts often come conflicting reports about who moves forward, who wins a local victory. Russian propagandists are information war, disorienting the international community. Tell us what is the real situation at the front.

True, we have a lying propaganda machine, the media often greatly distort the events. For example: we have captured an Iraqi militant on the coast, the next day the RT channel showed the alleged recognition of this Thriller, where he says he was taken prisoner by the army of Assad, and that it is part of the IG, which "promoted under the guise of "Apache" by NATO jets". When we began to analyze these videos, we saw that the events of 2014 in Libya, during operation "Fazer" the Libyan side went to the side ports for their liberation from the terrorists, and these "Apache" was covered by the Libyan military.And in Syria the victory of all the remnants of Assad account for 5% of the country, on the coast and in the region of Aleppo. In the media, they inflate their achievements. The capture of Rabia by fighters of the regime is presented as a great victory, meanwhile, is a small village with 50 houses. In the media it was presented as "the capital" of the rebels and a strategic point. When regime troops are in a town, with them also is a group of TV people who are stirring this operation, at the same time, when we defended this town back, their TV is silent.

Another example: on 12 February we took the 3 town in the mountains of the Turkmen, last week (interview from February 13 — approx.ed) we got 7 villages in the district of Aleppo, all this is silenced in the media. About Russian fighters destroyed you in the media will not say a word, and Hezbollah does not speak of its presence in Aleppo. Thus, the Russian media are engaged in a methodical and systematic disinformation of their citizens and the world community.

Once the Russian air raids, we will refund all occupied by fighters of the regime of the territory captured thanks to the support of Russian aviation. Undercover VKS RF advance armed mercenaries of the Assad regime, they will not be able to hold the territory by definition.

What do You think, how long can hold their positions advanced mode power? They rely on the support of aviation VKS RF?

I'll tell you words of the commander of the Russian forces in Syria on the basis of Homim. He was sent to Moscow in the General staff a telegram: “We can't stay in the air 24 hours a day, as soon as we leave the airfield, the SAA returns back the territory, Assad and his forces, there is no desire and the will to fight, they are afraid of clashes with the rebels, called terrorists”. It says their commander in Homim. We argue that once the Russian aircraft would stop his attacks, we'll put them by their position and go on the offensive on the coast. The regime is nothing left.Here is an example: captured in the Aleppo area, 10 ' wide and 15 km long, 150 square km of Russian aviation to ensure the capture of this territory was forced to make 305 sorties and bombing. Russia in Syria is repeating the scenario of their actions in Grozny, that is the total destruction of people, rocks and trees — just. Under the cover of Russian aviation moving fighters from Iran and Hezbollah, which announce their victories.

Only Russian aviation provides the military balance, but the Russian military realize that they cannot be long enough to be in the air. They had to bring in additional forces, 1 because the plane can't do more than 4-6 sorties a day, pilots may not carry more than 4 sorties per day, because they lose concentration and get tired. They used 20 planes in the last 7-10 days. And what is the result? All their ships are doing just that transporting ammunition.

Recently the EU announced that sanctions against Russia will not be removed until until it is returned to the Crimea and that Putin's attempts to link the war in Syria, war in Ukraine with his useless hand, the West does not recognize any side agreements of the Kremlin in relation to Ukraine and Syria.

How do You assess Russia's role in the Syrian war?

Russia participated in the destruction of the Syrian people since the beginning of the Syrian revolution. First, in all contracts about deliveries of arms there is a paragraph prohibiting the use of weapons against civilians. Russia knows that the Syrian people destroyed the Russian weapons, although it could prohibit Assad to use the weapons against civilians. Here's an example: in 2005 we went to Japan for a contract on the supply of equipment to Syria. One of the points of the Treaty was the prohibition of the use of this technique against civilians, becauseJapan doesn't want its cars were used in any military action against the people, and she refuses such transactions, where there are target military purposes, and does not sign such contracts. And Russia began to destroy the people of Syria as its bombs and missiles, planes and military personnel from the beginning of the war.

The Russian Federation also participated in the murder of the Syrian people by using the veto, using it 4 times on the Syrian issues in the UN Security Council, even for humanitarian Affairs, was last veto against humanitarian corridors, which is also an aggression against the people of Syria. Today in Syria is 12000 Russian troops, military experts and fighters that contribute to the genocide of the Syrian people. About 80% of cases the death of civilians in war are the result of Russian actions and the bombing.70 000 people have fled their homes and became refugees due to the Russian raids, they are now on the border with Turkey and 350,000 in the Eastern areas of Aleppo are going to flee because of the Russian bombing. Russia is using against the civilian population all kinds of banned weapons: the Russians phosphoric were used, cluster, vacuum bombs, missiles “Caliber” and missiles “TOW22”, “TOW95”. Many pilots who serve on the basis of Homim, mainly from the occupied Crimea. Putin is afraid to use pilots from Russia, for fear of their falling into captivity.

The InformNapalm volunary use the methods of analysis and exploration of public sources. Now social media contain a lot of useful information: photo and video materials from the event on the basis of which you can identify and OSINT-an investigation. On the community site InformNapalm were published investigations on the use of and supplying ammunition to Syria a large degree of destruction — thermobaric shells and others.Internet scouts find data on staff VKS RF, open supply routes and locations of land Russian troops in Syria.We know that You used some data InformNapalm. As far as they were useful to you?

InformNapalm extremely useful: I take many information from your site and analyze it as a military-strategic analyst. I was the commander of southwestern front and Deputy defence Minister, so I know exactly what is happening on the front.Now I am a military analyst, speaking on satellite channels and write articles, and InformNapalm helps in obtaining additional information. A few times I even printed your article, and they had strong resonance among Syrians.

On the website IN repeatedly published information that in Syria there are Russian ground units that participated in the fighting in Eastern Ukraine. What additional data You can share on Russian ground forces in Syria?

Russian military in Syria are on the Western front, near the coast, in the port of Tartus and Latakia, on the basis of Hamim and in the command post Slepa. In Hama, in the equestrian club, at the airport and Swarat at the airport Dabaa, in Damascus, in the area of Kabun, in Aleppo and in kamishli, on the airfield. Putin is afraid of Russian soldiers getting captured and great losses among his soldiers, recently killed 4 Russian soldiers, but the website of the Ministry of defense reported only one killed, Skriv additional information. The Russians are fighting in the second tier, staying behind the fighters, providing logistics, and aviation activities.On land they tend to be far from direct clashes, however, there is a video with the Russian military, governing operations on land.

As is the case with the air defense of the Free Syrian army? Are there other Arabic or friendly countries, which can supply air defense system to counter Russian aircraft or is it just rumors?

We do not have anti-aircraft missiles, as there was before. The Assad regime since the beginning of the war removed all settings AA at the main base because of SSA no aircraft, and to install do not fall into the hands of the rebels.

Information on supplies to the rebels defense not true, we won't deliver, because the US imposed a ban on such shipments in the beginning of the revolution. Since the beginning of the uprising all know the "3 no" American Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford: "no deliveries of weapons, no no-fly zone and no military intervention" and all 3 "no" are valid to this day. Lethal weapon is defense. This will not help the Syrian revolution.

You fought on the Western front, in the mountains, and there are very important the support of the local population. How did the people of the Free Syrian army, what support was provided? When acidity entered Salma, Russian journalists have presented the event as the liberation of the city and a holiday for its residents.That was actually?

On the territories under control of the regime, the civilian population. Also in the Turkmen and Kurdish highlands, where the Western front, there are no civilians. People are moving away from Russian airstrikes to the border with Turkey. And those who showed the Russian media, these are people who led a regime of Latakia. In Salme with 2012 no civilians, because there infrastructure is in shambles. Daily to these areas by regime helicopters dropped bombs-barrels, planes bombed without a break, and artillery. Salma for the past 3 years — vacant town.Now, with the advent of the Russians and the Iranians, the inhabitants of the mountains of the Kurds and Turkmen evicted. They were gone for about 15 000 — 20 000 man, they are on the Turkish border. And there was bombed by Russian aviation. Russian media are lying when they say that people "celebrated" the arrival of asadito. They brought with them their shabiha of Alawite to build information and pictures.

Russia declares its participation in the Syrian war as the protection of civilians and the fight against ISIS, it launched large information resources. How things really are?

The IG is a terrorist organization created by the secret police of Assad, Russia, Iran, Iraq and some Western secret services. Russia subsidizes IG. ISIS is not fighting against the regime and fighting against the FSA, which freed the coast from IG, in the South of Aleppo and in Idlib. IG is now at the North-East of Aleppo, however, the Russian aviation bombed on IG, why? IG is in direct contact with parts of the regime and Shiite groups are fighting against the SAA. Why not fight against ISIS? They have worked for 70 km, so what's the secret?

These rhetorical questions show the direct cooperation between the regime and ISIS: they provided the largest strategic warehouses in Palmyra, their convoy is 3 km long was from Rakka to Palmyra in the wilderness. Why doesn't this convoy was bombed? They were given warehouses, 17 infantry division, and the airport in the city Tabka, because Assad and Russia know that as soon as destroyed ISIS, the Assad regime will fall. Why Russia opposes the entry of Saudi and Turkish troops to fight ISIS? Because ISIS is the pretext for the intervention of Russia in Syria. The Kremlin nor the day nor the hour not at war against IG.

In al-Assad's Syria is illustrative of the process of Russification. Russian language added in the school curriculum, and Russian songs even appeared in the Syrian media. Can we call it occupation?

Clearly, Russia's presence in Syria is a kind of occupation. Based on military realities, it is clear that the cessation interventions of the Russian Federation indicates the imminent fall of the regime. Therefore, the regime is doing everything to please Russia. Bringing Russian music, Russian language, Putin seduces Russian businessmen Syrian territories on the coast for investment, all in the framework of the agreement between Assad and Russia, a humiliating, onerous contract.

If the opposition is able to unite to change the balance of forces and turn the tide?

There is a tacit agreement between Europeans and the U.S. about how to prevent the unification of all forces of the insurgents, because the U.S. wants to continue this war in order to Deplete Hezbollah, Iran and Russia in Syria. Therefore any unification of all groups into a strong army means the failure of these plans. USA are your game and inform about fragmentation of the rebels. In 2013 I went to Europe, met with politicians and explained to them that their help in creating a strong army against Assad guarantees the fall of his regime for 6 months.We tried to convince them that their help to us now in the creation of a national army capable of wiping the Assad regime for 6 months, is not commensurate with their losses then, when Europe poured millions of refugees from Syria. The Europeans agree with us, but the US imposed a ban on the creation of an army.

How do You see the future of Syria? What is the way out?

Let's just say after the Russian intervention the keys to the exit turned out to be Putin. Even the Russian representative at the talks in Geneva, Katalov, is the Deputy Minister of defence of the Russian Federation. So the military-political decision in the hands of Moscow, and partly from Iran. Assad has no effect. Russia, since its direct intervention, after Iranian promises about an easy victory and full control over Syria for Assad, was a miscalculation, revealing a different picture of balance of power. The Russian leadership realized that it was impossible to regain control of Syria. So I embarked on a section of Syria.Fighting off the coast were aimed at consolidating the borders of the Alawite state. Fighting in the North-East of Aleppo — a Kurdish state. Remains the territory from Iraq to Idlib for the Sunni state. The international community can agree on that, but Russia tries to use military power, killing civilians, destruction (8 hospitals, 25 schools, 20 humanitarian societies), the bombing of refugees on the Turkish border, to dictate terms to us of preserving Assad in power. The people of Syria will not go ever! Even if all of Syria will be occupied. We'll then go to people's internal resistance. We have 300 000 soldiers and we will not give neither the Russians nor the Iranians, and especially Assad to stay in Syria. The international community tries to find a compromise solution, and Russia wants the lion's share and control over our territory. Russia was mistaken if it thought himself a player in a future Syria. No military contracts, no economic relations of our country with Russia will not.

The people of Syria believes the Russian authorities are war criminals who are at war against the Syrians by all means and weapons. The Syrian people will not forgive Putin for what he'd done in Syria. One way out is the resignation of Assad.

In Your opinion, is within reality? What is the path to the goal?

If the world community is incapable of political solution of power of the Assad regime, then it should help the people of Syria to overthrow the regime. Anyway, the revolution will continue until the bitter end.

Interview was prepared by Катерина Яресько, specially for the website of the international volunteer community InformNapalm

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