Still early days, but there are structural problems in Syria

www.free-lebanon.com reports that there are internal tensions in Syria’s military which required extraordinary action by the Assad regime:

«(17-March-2005) The withdrawal of the Syrian Army from Lebanon precipitated a negative moral effect on the Alawite regime in Syria. Things were getting unstable inside the Syrian military after the withdrawal from Lebanon. On one side between Sunnis and Alawite and the other side between Old Guard officers and New Guard in charge of the regime.

Ghazi Kanaan, unhappy from his withdrawal of his Military Intelligence position, pushed General Rustom Ghazaleh, his trusted "lieutenant," to fill his place in the Syrian Military Intelligence for Lebanon, a structure that control a billion dollar industry in that country.

Without taking any chances, the Regime alarmed that this situation [that of the intelligence branch defying Damascus] could spread inside the military and go out of control, 3 military bases were attacked simultaneously around 3 AM by Air and Land assault. Most of the Syrian officer dead were military pilots at the Doumair case in charge of protecting Damascus. There are some casualties in Katana and around Homs bases also, we do not have details yet as of this hour.»

Though it would seem that would make Basher Assad a moderate of sorts, it doesn’t. It’s a sign of grave disagreement on handling Lebanon.

Though there has always been a constant threat of putsch, this is an unusual measure. Syrian officers are typically rotated to entirely different region in order to keep a conspiracy against the government from forming. In fact this was the very same way in which the Ba’athist made their way into power to begin with.

There have been other reports which have not been confirmed at this stage: that withdrawing Syrian forces have been handing positions and weapons over directly to Hizballah and to Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen, who are like an odd combination of religious police, military irregulars, and special operations specialties.