By Anas al-Bar | 2024-11-02

Iran-aligned militias in Syria have evacuated headquarters buildings, military sites and weapons depots in anticipation they will become targets amid the ongoing regional escalation, local sources said.

On October 31, Israeli strikes targeted a Hizbullah weapons depot and fuel storage facility in al-Qusayr near the border with Lebanon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Other strikes targeted warehouses near the Lebanese border and a bridge south of al-Qusayr, it said, as Israel sought to thwart attempts to transfer weapons from Iran via Syria to Hizbullah in Lebanon.

Before the strikes, militias had evacuated first-line commanders from the border town of Albu Kamal and throughout Deir Ezzor, where the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command is stationed, An-Nahar reported.

Other sources reported that a number of senior militia leaders and advisors to the IRGC withdrew towards the Iraqi border town of al-Qaim, or left for Iran and Lebanon.

Others repositioned themselves in more secure and secret locations in Syria and restricted their movements and communication with each other.

Deception and human shields

Iran-aligned militias had placed barricades and military vehicles around some abandoned houses in an attempt to fool aerial reconnaissance into believing they were military headquarters, per the Deir Ezzor 24 network.

Other reports indicated the militias had dug cross-border tunnels in the Albu Kamal desert as part of their efforts to secure the movements of their commanders and shipments of weapons and ammunition.

An estimated 100,000 IRGC-backed militiamen operate in Syria, primarily in the east. They belong to about 70 militias, including Lebanese Hizbullah and Iraqi groups such as Kataib Hizbullah and Harakat al-Nujaba.

"The militias’ ranks are in a state of alert and anticipation," Syrian Tribal Council head Sheikh Mudar Hamad al-Asaad told Al-Fassel.

They have taken preemptive measures to avoid being targeted, he said, which include "buying hundreds of houses in residential neighborhoods in the towns of Deir Ezzor."

These are being used for weapons storage, he said, and "threaten the lives of thousands of local residents, whom the militias are using as human shields to protect their military arsenal."

"The militias replaced their foreign elements with Syrians to guard their bases and headquarters, effectively making them scapegoats in the event that the sites are hit by airstrikes," al-Asaad said.

He urged the international coalition "to help the Arab tribes, especially those living in the Syrian desert (Badiya), such as the Bani Khalid, al-Ubaid, Bani Sakhr and al-Sakhani, in expelling the militias."

"All Syrian tribes have suffered from the crimes of Iran's proxies and they want to get rid of them so their towns can enjoy security and stability," he said.