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Desperate for Soldiers, Assad's Government Imposes Harsh Recruitment Measures
(Washington Post) Hugh Naylor - The Syrian regime has intensified efforts to reverse substantial manpower losses to its military with large-scale mobilizations of reservists as well as sweeping arrest campaigns and new regulations to stop desertions and draft-dodging. The measures have been imposed in recent months because of soaring casualties among Assad's forces, as well as apparent increases in desertions and evasions of compulsory military service, analysts say. "These things...show just how desperate the regime is to come up with warm bodies to fill the ranks of the Syrian Arab Army," said Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow and Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Men who are dragooned into the army appear to be deserting in larger numbers, and the government's crackdown is driving many to go into hiding or flee abroad. A report this month by the Institute for the Study of War says the number of soldiers in the Syrian military has fallen by more than half since the start of the conflict, from 325,000 to 150,000. Combat fatalities have surpassed 44,000.