The ghosts of Syria

Syrians claim that roaming gangs of thugs have turned peaceful pro-democracy protests into violent chaos.

Hugh Macleod and a reporter in Syria
Al-Jazeera

"They are known to the locals of Lattakia as the ghosts - al-Shabeha - but when these phantoms dress up it is in black and their terror is tangible. In a port city dominated by Sunni Muslims, who comprise three quarters of the Syrian population, and surrounded by mountain villages that are home to Alawites, a minority that has ruled over the country for 40 years, these roaming gangs of black-clothed thugs have turned peaceful protests calling for freedom into deadly chaos. Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, warned in a speech this week that such gangs are part of a foreign plot to drive a wedge between Syria's different religious and ethnic communities. But in interviews with residents, journalists and eyewitnesses in Lattakia almost all say the same thing: Shabeha are almost exclusively Alawites from the region, described by one reliable source as the private militia of the Assad family itself....."