Arab press: Syrian mercenaries to Ukraine

On Wednesday, Arab press touched upon the departure of Turkey's mercenaries from Idlib to Ukraine. Russia is talking about the departure of 87 "extremists" from Idlib to Ukraine.

On the Syrian issue, al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper said: “Sputnik news agency reported that 87 foreign militants in the Hurras al-Din, Ansar al-Tawhid, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist organizations left the Idlib countryside in northwest Syria, heading to Ukraine.”

Sources in Damascus have indicated that regime loyalists have begun distributing contracts to transport fighters to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. She said that the term of the contract is seven months, with a salary of $1,000 per month. And sources talked about the presence of about 23,000 fighters ready to go.

The agency quoted private sources as saying that the militants who left for Ukraine on Saturday were two batches, mostly Iraqis, Chechens, Tunisians and French.

The sources revealed to the agency that all of those militants had belonged to ISIS before their integration into their new organizations, and that "at the combat level, they have high experience in guerrilla warfare."

On Thursday and Friday, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the current front of Jabhat al-Nusra in Idlib, took over the city of Sarmada (5 km east of the Syrian-Turkish border), after which they entered Turkish territory on Saturday, towards Ukraine.

The sources confirmed that Abu Muhammad al-Julani, the leader of the “Al-Nusra” organization in Idlib, “personally held over the past week a series of meetings with leaders of several armed organizations inside a mosque in the center of Idlib city, during which he urged them to go to Ukraine against the Russian forces,” and added, "Al-Julani personally pledged, during those meetings, to fully secure the needs of the families of the militants until their return from Ukraine."

During his meetings, Al-Julani focused on the foreign militants in the armed groups operating in Idlib, stressing his refusal to leave the local militants in the current batches to fight in Ukraine.

The agency quoted the sources as saying that Al-Julani urged his community to encourage a “certain faction” of foreign militants to travel to Ukraine, led by those who caused “strife,” alluding to the factional clashes in Idlib recently.

T/S

ANHA