Assad regime organised 'shabiha' militias at start of Syria civil war, documents confirm

The Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad was directly involved in and ordered the establishment and mobilisation of paramilitary loyalist ‘shabiha’ militias during the early days of the civil war, documents have confirmed.

According to official documents seen by war crimes investigators in the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), top figures in the highest levels of the Syrian regime “planned, organised, instigated and deployed” the shabiha – meaning ‘ghosts’ and referring to regime loyalist militants – from the start of the war in 2011.

The documents show that on 2 March 2011, Syria’s military intelligence instructed local authorities – through Security Committees run by the the Assad regime’s Baath party – to “mobilise” a network of informers, grassroots organisations and government loyalists, and the following month ordered them to be formed into Popular Committees.

In the Spring months that year, the newly-established Central Crisis Management Committee (CCMC) – a mixture of security forces, intelligence agencies and top officials that reported directly to Assad – gave a series of instructions and orders to the Popular Committees. One of those, dated 18 April, was for their members and shabiha to be trained on using weapons against demonstrators and how to arrest and hand them over to regime forces.

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The involvement of Damascus and regime figures in the formation and support of the shabiha militants has long been suspected by many, but the documents finally provide evidence of the links.

The documents also reportedly provide evidence that the regime was quick in creating and organising the shabiha militias from the very start of the ongoing conflict in 2011, and that it did not rely on existing groups as many experts on Syria had previously believed.

Due to the countless human rights violations committed by the shabiha – including wholesale massacres of towns and villages, rapes, lootings and torture – it is believed that the documents can be a significant tool in efforts to bring the Assad regime and its former and current operatives to justice.