“We are practical and not theoretical," When the Syrian uprising began in mid-March 2011, Assad regime strategically released hundreds of radical Jihadists from prison One the one hand, the regime didn’t only free Jihadists from prison but also facilitated their work in creating armed brigades. Based on Some of the most On the other hand, thousands of civilians and liberal civic activists were driven into prisons, beaten, tortured, terrorised, and horrified and millions, including many human rights activists, were forced to flee their homes seeking refuge inside or outside the country. Assad regime imprisoned thousands of civilians and protestors, staged concocted attacks against governmental facilities in 2011 and 2012, even before ISIS had presence in Syria, and commissioned fake trials to convict protesters of terrorism. Thus while playing with reality to match the regime’s propaganda, Assad claims to be the victim of Jihadist extremism. Controversially notorious, these same prisoners regardless of the accusations directed against them, were partially released after having to pay bribes to governmental officials. Security forces and lawless secret police (Shabbiha) confronted peaceful protests with utter brutality and killed hundreds of civilians in the first few weeks to ignite a beginning of an increasingly bloody death toll. Therefore, any form of opposition had to be practiced from abroad; otherwise a risk of imprisonment, torture, or murder was in place. These atrocious actions were in correlation with rare combat engagements with the ISIS militants. According to senior defence intelligence officer Jeffrey White “In the Syrian war, the regime is completely pragmatic regarding whom to fight with or against, as well as where and when to fight.” While the regime remains an unreliable ally in combating ISIS, it is more likely to be “putting only limited effort into the fight while putting its own interests first, including cooperating with ISIS when deemed expedient,” he adds. The fact that Assad regime has targeted its military operations against “moderate and secular opposition groups” while barely attacking ISIS indicates that this opposition is “considered to be much more of a threat to the regime than ISIS”, according to the But this is not the whole story. The Assad regime has The Assad regime “opened the door to terrorists in order to put pressure on the American troops in Iraq so they wouldn’t even think of war The regime conducts its policies in regard to ISIS based on a pragmatic approach that serves its interests to further its political aims and consolidate its power structures. Thus, through a relationship of coordination, which implies conflict, and cooperation, which implies coalition, both the regime and ISIS have been ready to commit atrocities against each other and against civilians alike. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hakim Khatib is a political scientist who works as a lecturer for politics and culture of the Middle East and journalism at Fulda University of Applied Sciences and the editor-in-chief of the Mashreq Politics & Culture Journal (MPC Journal).
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