Syrian regime forces have abandoned their positions as rebels advance further south towards Homs [Omar Haj Kadour/AFP/Getty]
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday decided to increase the salaries of soldiers in the military by 50 percent, except for those in compulsory military service.
The presidential decree comes as opposition groups carry out a lightning offensive across northwestern Syria, which saw rebels enter the major city of Hama on Thursday after capturing Aleppo last week.
“A fifty percent rate will be added to the lump sum salaries for military personnel, in effect on the date of issuance of the decree,” the official SANA news agency announced.
In December 2023, the regime raised bonuses from 10,000 (US$0.75) to 100,000 Syrian pounds (US$7.50) per month.
The Syrian army has weakened significantly in the country’s nearly 14-year conflict, which started when regime forces violently cracked down on pro-democracy protests in March 2011.
Russia, Iran and Iran-backed militias helped prop up the regime as it began to lose more territory.
Regime forces and their Iran-backed militia allies have also suffered serious setbacks recently after deadly Israeli strikes which coincided with the war in Lebanon.
With no official numbers, it is estimated that close to a million people have been killed or have gone missing throughout the Syrian conflict, with about half of Syria’s pre-war population displaced.
The war, which has drawn in several regional and international powers and extremist groups, has seen the army lose about half its manpower in the early years of fighting, or about 300,000 soldiers, according to experts.
A crushing economic crisis due to the war, sanctions and corruption has also dwindled the salaries of soldiers and other government employees.
The deteriorating socioeconomic conditions has left soldiers with low morale in the current bout of fighting, observers say. Hundreds of thousands of men of fighting age have also fled abroad in order to avoid the draft.
In July, the Syrian regime announced plans to let go tens of thousands of reserve troops until the end of this year.
Opposition calls on Alawis to defect
As the rebel offensive pushes further south, and with opposition groups setting their eyes next on Homs – Syria’s third largest city – the regime military, backed by Russia, is expected to face further blows.
Some soldiers have already defected and there are concerns in the regime of more personnel deserting the army.
Opposition groups this week called on members of the Alawi sect to distance themselves from Assad’s regime, promising that they would not be subject to harm from Islamist-led rebels or face any discrimination.
Alawis, an offshoot of Shia Islam to which Assad belongs, are a minority in Syria. Members of the sect occupy senior posts in the regime’s military and intelligence, leading to resentment in the Sunni majority
Rebel groups have said they do not wish harm on minority communities in Syria, whether Christians, Alawis, Druze or Shias.
The Syrian Salvation Government (SSG), which has administered the Idlib governorate for years and was formed by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, said the time had come to “rid the country” of a regime that has brought suffering to the Syrian people.
“The Assad regime used the Alawi sect against the Syrian people and entered them into a zero-sum battle through systematic bloody sectarian attacks, which created rifts between the components of the people,” the SSG said in a statement.
It called on Alawis to “separate themselves from this system…to correct the mistakes of the past, and to be part of a future Syria that does not recognise sectarianism.”
The SSG also addressed the people of Salamiyah, an Ismaili-majority town in the Hama governorate which rebels have taken, saying the rebels wanted to protect them and preserve their properties, urging them not to side with the regime.
