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On December 6th, ArabiToday, published an interview with a former soldier of the Syrian Arab Army who was there at the beginning of the conflict and ended his military service in 2017, according to a medical report.
He is called Muhammad, and he refused to be named, he also refused to say where exactly he fought. He lives in Homs and his family takes care of him.
“I was on many fronts in Syria, in the first few years we mostly retreated. I had a feeling that the entire world was against us: the US, Israel, Turkey as well as the Gulf States.”
“These countries provided the terrorists, those sons of a dog, with arms and ammunition. We would have won the war much earlier, if it wasn’t for their supporters and their sponsors who brought more and more mercenaries from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others to Syria.
We often found documents from these countries with the names of terrorists who were killed. But God did not give up on us. I liberated the Aleppo teams and they took me and my colleagues to the desert”
The last battle he participated in was not far from the Euphrates Valley [near Deir Ezzor city]. He was seriously injured during it, which is not uncommon, especially when there are large-scale military operations.
“I had to injuries during my period of service. I was lightly injured during a bombing, I broke my arm and lost a lot of blood (he showed his scars), but the doctors treated me, and I returned to the army. It happened two years ago.
The second injury happened in Deir Ezzor, they shot at me. The bullet hit my stomach and I lost my kidney. Some say that such an injury can’t stop some from returning to the fight, but the doctors did not allow me to keep going.”
When he was asked if he would return once more, he said:
“Maybe, but I was happy to go back to my family. Now everything is better. I don’t need to worry about them anymore.
We will have to rebuild our country, which was destroyed by the enemies of Syria, of God and the people. But our president, Bashar al-Assad is doing his utmost and has not left us in times of trouble. We will certainly not leave him now.”
Muhammed believes that Syria will recover from the war soon and everything will fall back into place.
“As I said, the war is artificial. We did not fight against Syrians, we fought against the terrorists who were brought in and supplied from abroad.
There were also Syrians, but those betrayed their homeland and their people, who would not forgive them. Sunnis, Shiites, Christians, Syrians, Iranians, Lebanese and Russians all opposed the terrorists.”
We asked if Muhammed had fought with some of them, side by side, and he said “Yes.”
“In the desert, and in eastern Syria we fought together, and before that we fought in Aleppo. The Syrian people are our support, ours brothers are from Hezbollah and also the Russians.”
The outlet asked if he referred to the Russian aviation, or to Russian military advisers who have trained some of the Syrian Arab Army.
“I’m talking about those who fought with us. And the Russians fought as if their own country is at stake, God preserve them. They often followed us directly and supported our major offensive operations alongside the Russian aviation. I did not always see them, but to me it seemed that they were always somewhere nearby, around us. It is said that, when were, for example, retreating, the Russians were still fighting the terrorists. I do not know if this is true, but I believe it.”
[Most likely Muhammad referred to the Russian Special Operations Forces or Russian private military contractors, which particiapted in some of battles across Syria]
Finally, he was asked about the next he planned to do:
“Before the war I worked with my father in a cement factory. I now work in a factory as well. I earn about 50,000 pounds (approximately $97), but I do not despair.
I work a lot and thanks to my work and the work of such companies, the cities and villages destroyed by the terrorists are being reconstructed. In a way, I am still a soldier in the Syrian army, God preserve them.”
