Syrian soldiers and police officers who deserted rather than fire on protesters in a restive northern city remained behind to fight against an expected all-out government assault, a resident said. Troops loyal to the regime came under sniper fire Saturday as they approached.
Tanks and thousands of forces sealed the roads leading to the mostly deserted town of Jisr al-Shughour in response to what the government claims were attacks by "armed groups" that killed more than 120 officers and security personnel last week. Refugees reaching Turkey said the chaos erupted as government forces and police mutinied and joined the local population.
So now, loyal soldiers will have to fire on fellow security forces. And will face more threat of their own deaths than in shooting at civilians. That's a step up in testing their loyalty.
How sure are the Syrian authorities that the troops committed are loyal enough for that? And if they are, how many troops with that level of loyalty are available?
And how many of the less reliable troops will be happy with seeing fellow soldiers attacked and killed for the understandable motive of not wanting to kill civilians? I speculated that the Syrians had to play whack-a-mole with scarce loyal troops willing to shoot civilians. This limitation is getting worse.
