FYI
--
Did Assad's ruthless brother mastermind alleged Syria gas attack?
Shadowy figure of Maher al-Assad could have been involved in alleged atrocity
that hit rebel-held district of Damascus
Martin Chulov
The Observer, Saturday 24 August 2013 21.43 BST
He hasn't been seen for over a year, remaining in the shadows while Bashar
al-Assad has been the public face of Syria.
But Maher al-Assad has in many ways played a more decisive role in the
country's civil war than his elder brother, commanding its most formidable
military division as it claws back losses and leading the defence of Damascus
against an opposition that remains entrenched on the capital's outskirts. The
question many Syrians are asking, after last week's revelations of an apparent
chemical attack on civilians in rebel-held areas, is what role the president's
brother may have played in the atrocity.
Maher has remained a senior member of the Ba'ath party's central committee and
a central pillar of a police state that, despite the ravages of war and
insurrection, remains one of the most effective in the world.
As the trajectory of Syria's war has wobbled throughout the past year,
opposition gains in parts being offset by regime advances elsewhere, the 4th
Armoured Division Maher commands has been a chief protagonist on behalf of the
regime.He has acted as division commander since at least 2000, and at the same
time leads Syria's other premier fighting force, the Republican Guards. Both
units have been at the vanguard of the war since its earliest days, and were
active again last week as loyalist forces launched their biggest operation yet
to root out rebel groups from the capital.
It was while this operation was under way that thousands of residents of east
Ghouta were exposed to what scientists increasingly believe was a nerve agent,
possibly sarin. Attempts to pin down who was responsible for the attack are now
the subject of a global intelligence effort that has already started to zero in
on loyalist military units as the likely suspects.
In the days since, Syria has persistently denied having used its stocks of
sarin to shell the area.
The 4th division has remained relatively unaffected by desertions and
defections that plagued other divisions in the first 18 months of the war.
Until about then 18 July last year Maher was visibly in charge. Frontline
troops saw him often, especially in the hotspots of what was then more an
insurrection than the full-blown civil and proxy regional war it is now.
In Deraa he personally led a siege by 4th division troops in March 2011, in
response to a spark of defiance by a group of schoolboys, who wrote on a mosque
wall calling for Bashar to leave. The division left an unambiguous calling card.
"He came to see us one weekend down there," said a former 4th division
conscript who fled to Istanbul soon afterwards. "He told us not to shoot at the
men with guns, because they were with us. He told us only to shoot at people
without guns, that they were the terrorists.
"It took me a while to protest at that. He made us shoot at their hearts and
heads. And anyone that was shooting high and wide [deliberately] would be
beaten, or killed."
In Jordan's Zaatari refugee camp, only nine kilometres south of Deraa, which is
now home to a sizeable chunk of the city's residents, Maher's name is spoken of
with visceral anger.
"His brother is a puppet for Maher and the Iranians," said Khaled Othman, a
plumber from the city, standing in the flap of a UN supply tent. "Maher is the
devil. He personally tried to annihilate us just because we defied him. He took
pleasure in it, along with his closest officers. Did you see the video of him
in the prison?"
The refrain is commonly asked in communities that support the Syrian
opposition. It refers to a prison revolt in 2008 that Maher was asked to put
down; a task he carried out with brutal efficiency, killing many who had taken
guards and soldiers hostage, then filming the bodies with his camera phone.
The phone video is often showed by supporters of the Assad regime as purported
evidence of the strength of the brothers. But between the statesman and the
general, it has been Maher who has inspired more fear and speculation.
His last appearance in public was several weeks before an explosion in a
meeting room in central Damascus killed security chief, and the Assads'
brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, who had married their sister, Bushra. Also
killed that day was the defence minister and several other members of the inner
sanctum.
Rumours have circulated since that Maher was also in the room at the time and
was wounded. Last year Abdullah Omar, a former press officer in the
presidential palace who defected in September, said he had seen Maher visit the
palace and he had appeared to have lost part of a hand and leg.
The suggestion has not since been confirmed. Turkish officials believe that the
younger Assad was wounded that day one of the few times that the opposition
has got so close to the seat of power. "But he is alive and functioning," said
one senior Turkish diplomat. "And the 4th division is still one of their better
units."
In Lebanon, where in more settled times leaders from all sides of politics beat
a regular path to Damascus, there has been nothing from Maher for more than a
year.
"We know his wife is in Dubai along with Bushra," said the leader of one
political bloc. "And we know that Bashar will have a hard time keeping him in
his box. If they think they are winning, they will behave without any
restraint. And if they did the chemical attack, he won't be far away from it."
© 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All
rights reserved.
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