1217 Arrests Aiming to Recruit Civilians
In November 2015, Syrian forces distributed lists that contained the names of tens of thousands of individuals for forced recruitment in the army, local militias or even forgiven militias. The lists were generalized to official military offices in Syrian governorates that are under the government control. It included the names of young men who are between 25 and 35 years old, the names of government employees and university students. However, it is worth noting that these young men possessed a government document of postponement of military service. In addition, we were told by a number of doctors and nurses that men who are over the age of 45 were notified to proceed to government military and makeshift hospitals.
Since November 2015 and up till 15 December 2015, SHNR documented the arrest of not less than 1217 young men who are to be forcibly recruited by government forces; amongst which 358 were university students. We recorded the arrests in mainly Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Lattakia and Homs.
According to the residents, the young men were arrested:
A- through night raids.
B- on temporarily government checkpoints which were set for this purpose next to vital facilities like markets, malls, universities and government departments.
C- from public transportation.