The Assad regime is using intimidation to secure new recruits by forcing the young men who have been forcibly displaced from eastern Ghouta to join its forces, with activists saying that as many as 9,000 young men have been forcibly recruited.
According to local activists, the Assad regime is seeking to recruit new troops from residents of eastern Ghouta who have been transferred to temporary shelters in the outskirts of the capital Damascus.
Activists pointed out that the Assad regime detained thousands of young people in shelters on the pretext that their statuses have been settled yet, adding that the Assad regime is pressuring the displaced civilians to join its troops in exchange for leaving the shelter and reuniting with their families.
The Assad regime has employed the same tactic in all areas whose inhabitants were driven out by pressuring those who remained to join the ranks of its forces.
In early May, Assad forces detained 80 young men who were born in the years between 1990-99 in the town of Douma for compulsory military service.
The Assad regime’s forces also launched a major arrest campaign targeting military-aged men and army defectors in Douma in eastern Ghouta. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
