Syria defectors live in secret camp

All rights Reserved. AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon

Jordan offers rejected numerous requests from the Assad government for your extradition with the
defectors and contains permitted entry to always be able to hundreds of Syrian rebels who transfer
freely across the country.
The defectors within the camp are usually allowed to communicate with just about all the rebel free
Syrian Army inside Jordan as well as abroad, both inside individual and also through phone and Web
communications, yet do not have what is considered beneficial intelligence, according to Jordanian
safety officials whom spoke about issue of anonymity simply because they will are not permitted to
make press statements.
Rahal said he as well as 37 other officers had been jailed shortly following your begin in the
uprising, however a quantity of them were provided amnesty along with released in May. The Actual
regime told him for you to document in order to function yet merely shuffled him via one office for
you to another, he said.
"I desired to end up being a part of the rebel movement fighting to liberate Syria," Khaldoun added.
Access for them is tightly restricted pertaining to their particular protection. officials; Auto bomb
kills 12
10K Syria refugees stuck in Turkish border
Maintaining control over the actual refugees poses a security threat for the small, tightly controlled
kingdom. to teach several its forces for that war in Iraq, as well as the defectors tend to be debriefed
simply by intelligence agents. Concerning 8,000 are living in a freshly setup camp on the border,
while the remainder are generally scattered across Jordan.
The Related Press motivated to visit your desert facility however was denied access. That They tend
to be even separated via his or her families, which live outside regarding the camp near the northern
border city of Mafraq nevertheless could probably get unique police permits to be able to visit.
The defectors tend to be among 40 along with 60 years old, plus some have got chronic ailments
such as high blood pressure, diabetes and back problems that will prevented all of them through
getting in the frontline within Syria or even joining the particular rebels, the actual officials said.
In this Monday, Aug. Hailing from a prominent Sunni Muslim family, he served inside the 7th
Armored Division for 23 many years until his escape.. He stated he spends nearly most of his day
watching TV, exchanging gossip, or perhaps browsing your Web regarding news on the violence
back home.
"It's hard to watch the actual war within Syria in TV as well as the Internet and not be a component
of it," he added.
"This is the reason I needed to move out regarding Syria," he added.
The Jordanian military runs the actual camp close to a site formerly employed by the U.S. This
material might not necessarily be published, broadcast, rewritten, or even redistributed.
Khaldoun, the 47-year-old former Syrian army brigadier, stated there was dozens involving trailers
housing as much as seven men each, with fans stirring the desert air. forces inside the past two
decades in the course of and following your wars inside neighboring Iraq.
(AP) MAFRAQ, Jordan - Inside an isolated stretch involving Jordanian desert, the heavily guarded,
secret compound houses 1,200 senior police along with army officers that defected coming from
regional Syria.
It isn't obvious if former Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab, probably your most prominent defector to
become able to flee to Jordan, is actually housed inside the desert facility or 1 elsewhere. However,
the actual AP spoke to be able to two in the camp residents whom described the actual conditions
there.
The camp's refugees fled in batches since the actual uprising began, with many of these smuggled
via a northern border fence through the Free of Charge Syrian Army as well as later interrogated
through Jordanian intelligence to verify their own identities and also the authenticity of their stories,
certainly one of the actual Jordanian safety officials said.
Rahal predicted your Free Involving Charge Syrian Army would ultimately get the weapons it needs
in order to finish off Assad.
"They would destroy a entire suburb when they believe one of us is actually there," stated the actual
colonel, who identified himself merely as Rahal, citing fears involving retribution against relatives
nevertheless throughout Syria.
Still, certainly one of the defectors in the desert compound said that as being a colonel inside the
military, he held this kind of higher rank the Assad regime would go to fantastic lengths in order to
strike back with him.
The safety defectors range throughout rank from corporal to general -- however they said their own
access to state and military info ended up being limited because as Sunnis they were kept in the
darkish from the inner circle with the ruling Alawite minority -- the Shiite Muslim offshoot -- which
surrounds Assad.
He stated he decided to defect if the security forces "decided in order to militarize the actual conflict
in order to end your crisis."
The men are now living in trailers along with fans but zero air conditioning, encompassed by Cheap
Air Jordan barbed wire, and consequently they pass their particular days browsing your World wide
web as well as watching TV regarding information associated with Syria's civil war, longing to
participate the battle -- nevertheless they are generally mainly struggling to leave.
"The free Syrian Army will be like a team of birds on a tree. However with the same time, Jordan
really wants to stay away from aggravating tensions having its a lot more powerful northern
neighbor, fearing that President Bashar Assad might remain in power.
The men invest his or her days exercising along with playing backgammon and chess, as well as the
Jordanians provide all of them with access for the Internet, TVs, cellphones and also computers,
mentioned Khaldoun, that insisted about getting identified by simply his first identify only, citing
concern for the safety associated with relatives within Syria.
Jordanian government officials have refused to comment concerning the desert camp, saying they
possess little info about the defectors.
"I had zero real job, just drinking tea and also watching TV," the actual 45-year-old said.
Most of the defectors were seen as "small fish" who for your nearly all portion failed to supply
actionable intelligence, according for the Jordanian safety officials along using a Jordan-based
Western diplomat who spoke in Cheap Air Jordan 10 Chicago issue of anonymity because identifying
him would compromise his capability to gather facts about Syria.
2012 The Particular Connected Press. 20, 2012 photo, general view of the Syrian metropolis Tal
Shehab, around the Jordanian border regarding Turra town, in Ramtha, Jordan. If the actual regime
attempts to shoot among the actual birds, the actual group flies off to another tree. Jordanian safety
officials along with refugees get mentioned there was pro-Assad "sleeper cells" in Jordan that could
act from the refugees.
The facility is really a sign of Jordan's expanding role as being a quiet supporter involving Syria's
opposition. Hijab fled below a strategy coordinated between your Amman government and in
addition the free Syrian Army.
"It's good to be here, away from the tension and war, yet this is simply not what I had hoped for," he
told the AP.
Syrian opposition criticizes U.S. The idea also has helped the particular refugees by simply giving
these people health-related treatment.
There are usually a lot much more than 160,000 Syrian refugees within Jordan, in inclusion in order
to their amount can be escalating from the 1000's every day. Hassan Hammadeh, who flew his MiG-
21 to Jordan on June 21.
The camp housing your defectors can be near Jordan's largest air force base, which in turn have
been utilized as a training facility regarding U.S. the regime will not get them all," he said.
A handful regarding other senior military and also police defectors tend to be kept with a secret area
elsewhere, certainly 1 of the security officials said, such as Syrian air force Col. Jordan has also
arrested supposed defectors in suspicion that will these folks were spying in Syrian refugees and
dissidents.
The Jordanian safety officials stated access towards the defectors has been restricted since involving
concerns in which pro-Assad elements could try to attack them.
Khaldoun defected to become able to Jordan throughout January in the height in the Assad regime's
crackdown on his hometown, the particular central city of Homs, that became the hub in the
uprising in which began in March 2011. Armed Jordanian soldiers guard the actual compound across
the clock, he said.
A group of attacks on Syrians in Jordan offers led refugees as well as Jordanian officials to trust
agents in the Assad regime are generally operating in the kingdom on a marketing campaign to hunt
down opponents along with intimidate those who have got fled