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Assad Is Desperate for Soldiers
(Atlantic) Sam Dagher - When protests against the Assad regime began in 2011, the Syrian army numbered about 250,000. But tens of thousands of defections, desertions, and mass casualties over more than seven years of conflict have gutted the military. Rustum, 29, an Alawite man from western Syria, said he paid bribes to get out of prison and come to Lebanon earlier this year after he was arrested in Syria for evading army service. Alawites have shouldered most of the burden of defending Assad. "We have given our all. There are hardly any men left," he said.