Assad regime loyalists have accused government ministries of “treason” and giving up positions at the Military Vehicles Administration in Harasta.
As reports emerge about the siege of more than 350 regime fighters in the Vehicles Administration, a parallel war is ongoing on social media.
Loyalist pages on social media expressed their fury and pointed fingers of blame at the Defense Ministry, which they said had committed treason by failing to support the Vehicles Administration.
Activists said that a group from the Qalamoun Shield Forces, formed from residents of the areas which reached a reconciliation agreement with the regime, had defected, making it easier for opposition fighters to enter the Al-Bashar Hospital and kill a group of Assad forces in the area.
The opposition was able to take control over broad areas of the city of Harasta and besiege the Vehicles Administration in the area.
Activists said that the Syrian regime had sent major reinforcements from the Fourth Division to the western Harasta areas to break the siege of its fighters inside the Vehicles Administration amid aerial and artillery bombardment.
This pushed regime loyalists to accuse members of the peace settlements of “treachery and falsehood,” saying that the decisions of their commanders were wrong and their disastrous results had led the fighters in the Vehicles Administration to pay the price of this error.
They blamed the National Reconciliation Ministry, which was behind many of the fighters from the formerly opposition areas joining Assad’s forces.
The war on social media took place in comments published on Facebook between accusations of treachery and opposition members taking pleasure in the regime’s loss of the area, which was forfeited for the first time since the outbreak of the revolution in early 2011.
This is not the first time in which charges of treason have been raised. An earlier campaign emerged after control was lost over the Dakhaniyah area in 2014. The accused at the time was the National Defense Forces militia, which is allied to the Syrian army.
Social media sites became a refuge for many loyalists to express their anger, blame the group’s commanders and complain about their conditions. The most famous was the “We want to be discharged” campaign which was carried out by members of Group 102 draft class, whose demobilization has been delayed since 2011.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
