Bashar al-Assad’s billionaire cousin Rami Makhlouf, now in Russia, is trying to raise Alawite militias to fight against the new Syrian Government
On Monday, Syrians will mark the first anniversary of their liberation from the Assad regime.
But the threat from high-ranking Assadists, now sheltered in and by Russia, is far from over.
A Reuters investigation documents how the Assad loyalists are sending millions of dollars to tens of thousands of potential fighters, hoping to stir violence in Syria.
The regime’s head of military intelligence Maj. Gen. Kamal Hassan and billionaire Rami Makhlouf are competing to raise militias in coastal Syria and Lebanon. The groups are made up of members of the Alawite sect, of which the Assad family are members.
The two men and others jostling for power are financing more than 50,000 fighters.
“Four people close to the Assads” said neither deposed leader Bashar al-Assad nor his brother Maher, who is also in Moscow and still controls thousands of former soldiers, has yet to give money or issue orders.
Details of the plotting are based on interviews with 48 people with “direct knowledge of the competing plans”; financial records, operational documents; and voice and text messages.
Hassan and Makhlouf are vying for control of weapons caches and a network of 14 underground command rooms built around coastal Syria soon before Assad’s fall. Each has spent millions of dollars in the quest, with deputies in Russia, Lebanon, and the UAE.
Sources said Hassan is incessantly calling and sending voice messages to commanders and advisors. Angered about his lost influence, he outlines grand visions of how he would rule coastal Syria, a former Assad base of power with a large Alawite population.
Makhlouf, Assad’s cousin, fell foul of regime rivals and spent years in house arrest. He is trying to regain power by portraying himself as a messianic figure bringing an apocalyptic final battle.
The Syrian Government has deployed Khaled al-Ahmad, a former Assad paramilitary leaders who defected to the opposition, against the plotters. A childhood friend of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, al-Ahmad is trying to persuade Alawite ex-soldiers and civilians that their future lies with the liberated Syria.
The governor of the coastal Tartous region, Ahmed al-Shami, said Syrian authorities are aware of the outlines of the plans and ready to combat them.
“We are certain they cannot do anything effective, given their lack of strong tools on the ground and their weak capabilities,” he told Reuters.
Al-Ahmad said in a statement, “The work of healing – of uprooting sectarian hatred and honoring the dead – remains the only path toward a Syria that can live with itself again.”
Hassan claims control of 12,000 fighters, while Makhlouf claims control of at least 54,000. However, commanders on the ground said fighters are paid a pittance and taking money from both sides. They do not appeared to have been mobilized yet.
But one of Hassan’s top military coordinators insisted that fighting is the only way to restore Alawite dignity.
A former Assad-era military intelligence officer now in Lebanon, the coordinator said, “Perhaps thousands more will die, but the sect must offer up sacrificial lambs.”
