Iraq.. Establishing a camp in the Anbar desert to house hundreds of soldiers from the Assad regime

Iraq has set up a camp for hundreds of Syrian soldiers who entered Iraq last Saturday after being besieged by Syrian opposition factions that entered Damascus and toppled the regime last week. Officials described the move as “temporary” pending communication with officials in the new Syrian government.

The camp is located in the desert of the Iraqi city of Al-Qaim, on the border with Syria, and close to an Iraqi army base (about 70 kilometers from the center of Al-Qaim). It includes more than 2,100 soldiers, including officers and soldiers, all of whom are Syrian.

According to an Iraqi security official, the Syrian army personnel who entered Iraq would not be allowed to leave the camp, which was under guard. Most of them also needed treatment for injuries and clothing other than the military clothing they were wearing.

Three soldiers were placed in each tent, a measure that the Iraqi official who works within the Western Anbar Operations Command responsible for the border file with Syria says is “temporary, until coordination with the new Syrian government on how to return them to Syria.”

He added, requesting anonymity because he is not authorized to make a statement, that some of them do not want to return to Syria for fear of being held accountable, while others confirm that they are merely soldiers who are assigned and want to return, but communicating with their families is difficult because they do not have phones or a communication network at the present time.

He revealed that international bodies will coordinate between Iraq and Syria in this context, and that the current situation of the soldiers remains under Iraqi security supervision inside the camp, which extends over several square kilometers, stressing that Iraq does not intend to grant any of them humanitarian asylum, but if any of them obtains asylum in a third country, it will not be an obstacle.

Activist Hassan al-Mahlawi in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, said that the soldiers were provided with clothes, blankets and various means of heating, and the wounded were treated. Al-Mahlawi added to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that advanced ranks in the regime’s army are among those living in the camp, and that 70% or more want to return immediately. He said that he trusts the opposition’s promises of amnesty, but the other percentage, most of whom are officers, fear returning and are asking for international intervention if Iraq does not accept their asylum on a humanitarian basis.

The mayor of the city of Al-Qaim, where the soldiers are located in western Anbar province, Turki Mohammed, confirmed in an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that hundreds of soldiers and officers from the ousted Syrian regime’s army had been received.

Mohammed added that "these soldiers have become the responsibility of the relevant military authorities, which have worked to transfer them to one of the military bases in Rutba district, providing all the needs, stressing that "there is no intention to accept these soldiers as refugees in Iraq."

Iraq officially announced last Saturday that it would receive hundreds of Syrian soldiers fleeing the fighting. They were supposed to be returned by plane to Damascus, but the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime has postponed their deportation until now.

Source: Al-Araby Al-Jadeed