As the Syrian regime retook the Damascus suburb of Harasta, one soldier from the elite Tiger Forces proudly proclaimed his intentions for the former opposition stronghold.
“Everyone is stealing, looting, not leaving anything… with God’s help, nothing will remain,” he tells the camera.
During the same operation, numerous videos were shot showing mobs of uniformed and plain-clothed men stripping vacated homes of all their belongings, with washing machines, furniture, and even steel facades piled onto the back of trucks and military vehicles before they departed town.
“Farewell to Harasta,” one soldier taunted the survivors in a video showing part of a convoy of military and civilian vehicles, some loaded with household items, leaving the neighbourhood. “This is how looting is done.”
Such admissions are frequent in an explosive new report revealed by the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre, presenting evidence of widespread pillaging by regime soldiers as they ‘liberated’ rebel towns and suburbs.
Most of the homes were likely empty, with residents fleeing bombardment of their neighbourhoods or fearing detention or death at the hands of ruthless regime troops when they entered the formerly rebel-held areas.
With homes stripped of all their belongings, sometimes even their roofs, there is little now left for residents to return to.
Videos in the report show gas canisters and refrigerators bundled onto pick-up trucks, hinting at sporadic looting by victorious soldiers, while the extraction of roofs from homes and mosques indicate systematic collaboration on multiple levels of the Syrian military.
Much of the regime’s booty ended up in the so-called ‘Sunni Markets’ of Damascus and Aleppo, referring to the likely religious denomination of the original owners of the goods.
After viewing footage and satellite imagery of one such market in the Alawite-majority area of Dahiyet Al-Assad, the SJAC concluded that it surfaced in 2018, at the same time that regime troops went on a looting spree in nearby Harasta.
The ‘Looting Market’ and ‘Thieves Market’ in Aleppo also emerged during the regime’s recapture of former opposition neighbourhoods, in the city and as the names suggest, likely the result of the widespread theft.
The report, based partly on intelligence documents, highlights a pattern that emerged when regime soldiers entered former opposition areas over the past ten years, with Syrian regime authorities fully aware of a problem of widespread looting but failing to act on it or worse.
“The Syrian military looted civilian areas to destroy livelihoods and send a message that anyone who lived under opposition-control would be punished,” said Mohammad Al-Abdullah, SJAC’s Executive Director.
“However, the substantial video evidence of looting means perpetrators who may have moved to Europe may one day be held accountable for the extensive war crimes they have committed.”
Institutionalised looting not only allowed many in the military to profit from the recapture of rebel areas, but also disincentivised displaced residents from returning to their homes.
“When forces recaptured an area, they would steal anything that could later be sold,” said the lead author of the report.
“Soldiers would collect gas canisters, washing machines, air conditioners, and even copper wiring and roofing rebar from large numbers of homes in captured areas, which made it impossible for Syrians to return.”
When the Al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp south of Damascus was captured by regime forces in May 2018, residents were barred from returning to their homes until 2021.
Troops combed through the camp for booty and the neighbourhood’s Palestine Mosque was used as a collection point for the loot.
Videos showed washing machines, water tanks, gas cannisters, and air conditioning units – all essential necessities for residents – piled on the side of the camp’s main avenue.
Russian troops who were deployed to the area as military police, can be seen in one video apprehending thieves who attempted to transport contraband out the neighbourhood.
The military uniforms of the looters not only indicated the regime’s acquiescence to the looting, but also involvement of top brass in the extraction of resources from the former opposition areas.
Colonel Jaber Asaad Duba, who led the 34th Brigade’s infantry division, became known as the ‘King of Pillaging’ due to his alleged involvement in the looting, while Brigadier General Hafez Jabbour, the unit’s commander, also took a cut of the stolen goods, the report added.
The criminal nexus also involved intelligence officers and government officials, with official documents warning of “bad practices” among regime forces that would do little re-build trust with the local population of re-captured rebel towns.
One song of the National Defence Forces was further proof of a culture of criminality among the pro-regime militia and the fate of the belongings left behind by displaced residents.
“Load your refrigerator in the KIA, from Saqba or from Darayya. You and me, the National Defence Forces. Carry with me this washing machine; I can’t lift it alone. You and me, the National Defence Forces.”
Paul McLoughlin is a senior news editor at The New Arab
Follow him on Twitter: @PaullMcLoughlin
