MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Syria's new leader is saying that he will dissolve the many rebel factions there and absorb them into the new ministry of defense. That new leader is Ahmed al-Sharaa. And if he can achieve unity, he'll do something that Syria's former dictator, Bashar al-Assad, never could.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Assad tried to hold on to power at the expense of hundreds of thousands of Syrian lives. So why did his feared military disintegrate when rebel fighters swept across Syria to take the capital? Leila Fadel reports from Syria, and we should warn you - this is a story about Syria's civil war, and the people in it will describe torture.
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: When you visit some of the poorer areas just outside Damascus, like Ghuzlaniyah, near the city's airport, it's easy to see why it all fell apart in just under two weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Arabic).
FADEL: Hello.
We're welcomed into Aisha Hamedi's (ph) home. It's a large house filled with five of her six sons, her daughters, their children, cousins, in-laws. On the back wall, a framed picture of one of Hamedi's sons smiling in his military uniform is displayed on a shelf near her collection of metal figurines. She sees me looking at it and walks over.
AISHA HAMEDI: (Speaking Arabic).
FADEL: Oh, she's turning it around. Why'd you turn it around?
AISHA HAMEDI: (Speaking Arabic).
FADEL: "My son's asking why I have it out," she says. "I'm just going to throw it away."
Are you not proud of your son's service?
AISHA HAMEDI: (Through interpreter) Right now, no, I can admit that. But before, I used to say I was.
FADEL: He served before the war in Syria started over a decade ago, and she hasn't seen him in years. He was detained by Assad's regime on vague charges of terrorism, she says, and eventually fled the country more than 11 years ago. Being jailed is the story of almost every one of her sons. And many of the men in this neighborhood full of former soldiers, they were detained, imprisoned, many accused under a sweeping counterterrorism law, tortured, they say. And the younger ones were ultimately forced into Assad's military. They all recount stories from prison.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Through interpreter) They took me in the Mezzeh Base for a year and nine months.
FADEL: What was your treatment like?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Through interpreter) Hitting and torture. They would electrocute me, and they would tell me your God is Hafez. Your God is Bashar. They would strip me naked and throw water on me.
FADEL: Were all of you treated like this when you went to prison?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Arabic).
FADEL: They're all nodding.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Through interpreter) When my brother came out, we would have to carry him around everywhere. He would be urinating blood.
FADEL: Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Through interpreter) They would hang me like a sheep.
FADEL: In Syria, military service is mandatory for 18 to 21 months. But because the civil war dragged on for more than 13 years, conscripts were forced to serve for much longer. During that time, they say they weren't allowed to hold other jobs. They weren't fed well. They had to borrow to pay rent and sometimes to bribe their higher up so they could go home and see their families. That was the situation for Mej Hamedi (ph) and his brother, Ahmed Hamedi (ph). They both went from prison to the army.
How much were you paid?
AHMED HAMEDI: (Speaking Arabic).
MEJ HAMEDI: (Through interpreter) A dollar.
FADEL: One dollar. How are you supposed to live on that?
AHMED HAMEDI: (Through interpreter) On my parents.
AISHA HAMEDI: (Through interpreter) I would work and send them money.
FADEL: What's your job?
His mother supported her sons by selling grape leaves and fried meatballs made with bulgur wheat. The rank and file of Assad's military were made up of men like these, paid the equivalent of a dollar a month to fight on the front lines, fined or jailed for the smallest infractions. Again, Mej and Ahmed.
I mean, did young men from this neighborhood have to serve in the army and fight?
M HAMEDI: (Through interpreter) Either kill or get killed.
AHMED HAMEDI: (Through interpreter) The officer would tell me you're going to have to go to the front line and shoot. If you turn your back, I'm going to shoot you myself.
FADEL: This coercion to fight for a government battling other Syrians went on for years. So on the day rebel fighters led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham - a group once linked to al-Qaida before they broke ties and rebranded - arrived at the doorstep of Damascus, it wasn't a surprise that soldiers like Mej defied orders.
M HAMEDI: (Through interpreter) We were in our jobs. We were at the base and we got orders to shoot anyone who comes. But we were like, who are we going to shoot, our people? So I just threw away my weapon. I threw away my ID, and I just ran away.
FADEL: And what were you thinking in that moment?
M HAMEDI: (Through interpreter) Who are we killing? Who are we resisting?
FADEL: He deserted, and so did thousands of other soldiers. In just this neighborhood, we hear the story of a soldier who stripped out of his uniform, threw away his weapon and walked 85 miles from his post to his home in this area. Another who shoved his uniform into the wood-burning stove that heats the one room where he lives with his wife and child - all they could afford on his meager salary. And with so much of Assad's military demoralized and beaten down, the former dictator leaned heavily on its backers, Russia and Iran, and the regional militia Iran backs like the Lebanese group Hezbollah. But this year, a lot changed. Israel decimated the top ranks of Iran's most important proxy, Hezbollah, forcing them to pull back from Syria and leaving Assad vulnerable. When we asked the Hamedi brothers if they credit Israel for weakening Assad's backers...
AHMED HAMEDI: (Through interpreter) Yes, of course.
M HAMEDI: (Through interpreter) Yes, of course.
FADEL: Of course, of course, they all say. But that doesn't mean they support Israel's daily attacks in Syria now. Israel says it's taken out some 80% of Syria's military capabilities, claiming it doesn't want the weapons to fall into the wrong hands. It's also taken over more territory in the Golan Heights in southwest Syria.
M HAMEDI: (Through interpreter) And whatever Israel is striking right now, it belongs to the Syrian people.
FADEL: That's something the new authorities in Damascus will have to deal with, they say. The overarching sentiment in this home and this neighborhood is relief. The days of forced loyalty to Assad, they say, are over. Their mother can stop worrying that they'll be taken from her.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting in Arabic).
FADEL: As we leave, they gather outside and begin to sing, Oh, Bashar, we want to step on your head. Syria is free. Raise your head up high. Syria is free.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting in Arabic).
(SOUNDBITE OF SHAKTI'S "PEACE OF MIND") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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