Algerian and Polisario officials have so far remained silent on the diplomatic rebuke. [Getty]
Syria’s new government plans to put on trial hundreds of pro-Assad Algerian soldiers and Polisario Front fighters captured in Aleppo, rebuffing Algeria‘s calls for their release, French media outlet Monte Carlo Doualiya (MCD) reported.
When Algeria’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf landed in Damascus last week, he carried an urgent request: the release of Algerian military personnel and Algeria-backed Polisario fighters captured in northern Syria during the final days of Bashar al-Assad’s totalitarian rule.
Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa’s response was “no,” wrote MCD quoting its Damascus reporter.
Among the detainees are around 500 Algerian soldiers and fighters of the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, seized by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) during its November offensive in Aleppo, a battle that delivered the final blow to Assad’s forces.
These claims have long been propagated by Moroccan media outlets, but were confirmed on 11 February by the French media outlet MCD.
For years, Algeria had been one of al-Assad’s most steadfast supporters, opposing his expulsion from the Arab League in 2011 and resisting Western calls for regime change.
MCD cited intelligence documents uncovered in Damascus suggest that Algerian and Polisario fighters—trained and backed by Algiers—joined Syrian government forces as early as 2011, their deployment allegedly coordinated through Algeria’s Ministry of Defence
Unlike Iran and Hezbollah, which managed to evacuate many of their fighters before Assad’s fall, Algeria was apparently caught off guard. The regime’s collapse left its troops stranded, forcing Algiers into damage control.
However, al-Sharaa, Syria’s newly installed leader, appears unwilling to accommodate Algeria’s plea. Instead, he has signalled that the detainees will stand trial alongside Assad’s captured forces, according to MCD.
For Algiers, the crisis is a déjà vu of the aftermath of Muammar Gaddafi’s downfall in 2011. When Libya’s new leadership took power, one of its first acts was distancing itself from the Polisario Front, furious that the group was allegedly fighting alongside Gaddafi’s forces.
The Polisario Front is a separatist movement fighting against Morocco over the sovereignty of Western Sahara. It’s strongly backed by Algeria, where its self-proclaimed government in exile is based. It also maintained strong ties with Gaddafi and al-Assad regimes.
Since 1980, Syria has officially recognised “the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR),” the state proclaimed by the Polisario Front, establishing formal diplomatic ties with the separatist movement. Though the revelation of Polisario fighters in Assad’s ranks could put this relationship at risk under al-Sharaa.
If Syria’s new rulers tilt toward regional players hostile to Algiers—particularly Morocco, which has long lobbied against Algerian influence in the region—Algeria could find itself losing another key ally.
Algerian and Polisario officials have so far remained silent on the diplomatic rebuke. However, Attaf’s press statements following his Damascus visit were noticeably vague, a shift from Algeria’s usual confidence in its relations with Syria.
Meanwhile, Morocco has wasted no time in courting Damascus.
King Mohammed VI was the first leader in the Maghreb to congratulate Syria’s new government, reaffirming his longstanding support for “the aspirations of the Syrian people”—a gesture that could signal the beginning of a new diplomatic chapter between Rabat and Damascus.