Rena Netjes is a Dutch journalist and researcher who has reported extensively from Syria throughout its war. She was previously the Cairo correspondent for Parool newspaper and BNR radio in the Netherlands.
As Syria navigates its difficult transition under the government of interim President Ahmed al-Shara'a, the future of foreign fighters presents one of the country's greatest post-war challenges. Newly surfaced evidence revealing the role of Polisario fighters in Syria's war, who once backed the former dictator Bashar al-Assad, complicates stalled transitional justice efforts and Syria's return to the regional fold.
Despite Algeria's efforts to evacuate them from Syria, the Polisario fighters will not be extradited. Algiers pushed for an agreement with the transitional authorities in Damascus, sending Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf to meet with al-Shara'a in February, yet the visit did not produce compromise or follow-on talks.
The Polisario Front is an Algeria-backed politico-military organization in Northwest Africa seeking to end Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara. The group has a political presence across the Middle East and North Africa, and in some cases armed presence, including in Syria.
In searching for more evidence of the Polisario in Syria, two local sources affiliated with the transitional authority, who were responsible for finding documents from the Assad regime throughout the country, discovered and leaked a 2013 document detailing the group's role in the country's conflict. The document bears the official stamp of the infamous Branch 235, known as the "Palestine Branch," in Damascus.
"This document is a copy preserved in the branch's internal archive," one of the transitional authority employees who leaked it to the author explained. "It is not the original, which is why the signature and stamp appear in black and white. The scanner removed the color during reproduction."
"Nevertheless, it is an exact duplicate of the original file held by the Palestine Branch," they concluded.
The Polisario fighters belonged to the lowest ranks of Assad's militias and, in line with this reporting and the local sources, were caught by surprise during the offensive and subsequent regime collapse.
- Rena Netjes
Branch 235 documents typically constitute internal memos, summons, transfer or release notes or short administrative orders. They often contain the branch name and the Military Intelligence Directorate header, sha'ba al-mukhabaraat al-'askari, alongside a reference number. Many documents of Branch 235, specifically, are brief and may have handwritten dates. The document is signed by a rank, often with the full name, but sometimes only including initials or the last name. The leaked document contains all these elements.
Documentation in post-Assad Syria is exceedingly difficult, especially considering the regime's efforts to cover up its crimes during and after the war. The source explained that regime figures destroyed many documents in the rush to flee amid the opposition offensive. "The former regime members concealed the document in plastic bags alongside other materials, and the original was in poor condition," they said.
Still, "One employee ultimately leaked this clear copy," they added.
The transitional authority employees who leaked the document to this author described the challenge of documentation in Syria: "The problem is that, one day before the regime fell, the security branches burned all recent files—[especially] from 2018 onward. They destroyed everything. Even the electronic servers were taken. On Dec. 8 [the day the Assad regime collapsed], as civilians stormed the security branches to free the detainees, they also removed every remaining piece of equipment."
"What we have now are only the remnants—the documents that survived the fires—and we are preserving those. The situation is complicated, we know, but this is the reality in Syria today," they added.
According to the document, which this author reviewed, the Polisario provided "120 fighters [across] three brigades" to the Assad regime. It describes their duties and role, including "trainings…of 45 days," followed by a "transfer…to Eastern Ghouta on the Harasta and al-Rihan axes and on the Jobar axis as support troops for the Hezbollah brigades and the Iranian friends." The document was signed by Maj. Gen. Mohammed Azzou Khallouf, head of the Palestine Branch in Damascus between 2009-14.
Numerous media reports and think tank research describe the presence of Iranian-backed foreign fighters alongside Lebanese Hezbollah on the frontlines near Eastern Ghouta around 2013. There is widespread evidence of Iraqi, Afghan, Pakistani and other foreign fighters supporting Assad at this time and throughout the war. What is new, according to this document, is that Polisario fighters also deployed along these lines in support of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
To further confirm the document's details, this author interviewed three sources with firsthand knowledge of the Polisario fighters and their cases. All spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the issue for the transitional government of Syria, which aims to rebuild relations with regional states and world powers.
The first source works in Syria's prison system and witnessed, firsthand, the group of Polisario fighters in Idlib that this author first reported on in Democracy in Exile in July. The second source is a former opposition military figure with detailed knowledge of Iranian-backed foreign fighters who operated in Eastern Ghouta, now serving in the interim administration. The third source is an independent Syrian attorney with in-depth knowledge of both groups of Polisario fighters in Idlib and Adra Prison.
The sources confirmed the document's authenticity and details. The former military figure and the attorney went further, sharing detailed information about the Polisario fighters under investigation at Adra Prison, near Damascus. The former military figure participated in the interrogations of the fighters, while the lawyer has direct access to the fighters' written testimonies.
The author's request for an interview regarding the Polisario fighters' fate were declined twice by the Syrian Ministry of the Interior in response to emails sent to their media office by the author.
Thus, the author could not obtain official confirmation from any state institution. Diplomatic and political ties with Russia are being repaired, and the government is reluctant to provoke Algeria, a strong ally of Russia. This appears to be the core issue, according to dozens of Syrian interviewees this author pressed on the issue, including those very close to government institutions, since June.
In July, this author reported in Democracy in Exile that rebels associated with Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group that spearheaded the assault that ultimately toppled Assad, arrested a group of Polisario fighters after the liberation of Aleppo near Abu Zohoor Airport, south of Aleppo in eastern Idlib. However, the 2013 document and the three Syrian sources further reveal the group's presence in the country, including the story of a newly-discovered second group that HTS detained in the early December days of Assad's collapse.
The Polisario fighters were part of the Syrian army's military wing, specifically a military security service named "al-Amn al-Askari," according to the former military figure now with the transitional authority.
- Rena Netjes
"There is a group in Adra Prison, Damascus's central prison in Douma, of 42 Polisario fighters. They are all Algerians. After the liberation of Aleppo, they fled to Hama," the former military figure told this author. "They were arrested four or five days before the fall of the regime. There were more people than the 42 who were arrested, but these 42 ultimately ended up in Adra Prison in Eastern Ghouta," the sources explained.
During the fall of Aleppo in late-November 2024, Assad regime officers, soldiers and members of various foreign militias fled the city to various locations, including Lebanon and Iraq. Many initially went to Damascus or other regime-friendly cities and military airports across Syria to escape.
The New York Times recently reported on how Assad's top henchmen and allies fled Syria and justice, often chaotically and with many left behind. The Polisario fighters belonged to the lowest ranks of Assad's militias and, in line with this reporting and the local sources, were caught by surprise during the offensive and subsequent regime collapse. Dozens failed to escape, alongside some high-ranking regime officials, and are now languishing in Syrian prisons, illustrating how Assad not only failed to inform his top advisers but also deliberately misled them about the pending collapse.
The group of Polisario fighters in Adra Prison attempted to flee from Aleppo to Hama in regime vehicles, according to the former military figure, speaking about his findings in investigations into the group. However, higher-ranking officials took the vehicles due to a shortage. "They were threatened by the regime officials and forced to leave the cars," the former military figure added.
Explaining the investigation's findings further, they continued: "In Hama, they had changed…into civilian clothes. They were discovered by a hotel owner. He was confronted by a group of armed men who wanted to stay at his hotel. They threatened him, [and] their accent was Maghrebi: Tunisian, Algerian or Moroccan." The owner alerted opposition forces who had just taken over most parts of northern Syria to report the incident, leading to their arrest, according to what the Polisario fighters had told investigators.
In May, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle Arabic reported on the Polisario Front's involvement in Syria, showing rare footage of Polisario fighters in Syria, although their exact location remained unclear. The program also described the Assad regime's history with the Polisario movement, illustrated with photos, reporting that rebels primarily captured Polisario fighters near Aleppo during their offensive.
That reporting aligns with what six sources told this author in July and September: Both groups of Polisario fighters were captured fleeing Aleppo, many aiming to reach Lebanon or exit points like Damascus and Palmyra for flights out of the country. Many escaped, but many others did not.
Regarding the role of the Polisario fighters, the former military figure explained that, based on the testimonies of the Polisario fighters, they largely guarded key points near the frontlines in Idlib in recent years. "Most of the Polisario fighters were in Aleppo, according to the investigations. This aligns with the fact that most of the Polisario fighters have been caught fleeing Aleppo," they said.
"There were also many Iranians from the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], more than 200," they added. That said, the two other sources quoted in this piece and the sources in this author's previous reporting on the Polisario presence in Syria told this author that the fighters were on the frontlines in the early days of the war.
The former military figure continued, explaining that Polisario fighters told interrogators that "they didn't have ID cards with their own names on them when they got arrested in Hama. When regime officers and soldiers who had fled Aleppo arrived in Hama, they exchanged their military uniforms for civilian clothes and left their military ID cards there."
The Polisario fighters took the regime ID cards. However, in Hama, opposition fighters realized the cards did not match the individuals. The HTS fighters detained and transferred the Polisario fighters, first to Homs and then to Adra Prison, which housed many Assad soldiers, according to the former military figure. They and the independent lawyer explained that the situation was disorganized and chaotic in the prison.
"[Our] Investigations revealed that they all came from an orphanage, Daar Al-'ilma, in Algeria," the former military figure told the author of their investigation, and which the attorney also confirmed via transitional authority contacts. "They are Algerians—not Sahrawis—and as soon as they turned 18, they were deployed as Polisario fighters." The former military figure accused Algeria's intelligence services of orchestrating the plan, explain the difficulty in tracking the fighters given the lack of familial connections.
"In 2015, 2016 and 2017, they received three years of training in Dreish, behind the Qasioun Mountain in the Damascus countryside," they continued, discussing the group in Adra Prison and previous clashes with their opposition faction. They expressed certainty, based on their time in the Free Syrian Army in the area around Damascus, about the training location, noting additional training took place "in Aleppo," but they were not sure of the exact location.
The Polisario fighters were part of the Syrian army's military wing, specifically a military security service named "al-Amn al-Askari," according to the former military figure now with the transitional authority. This wing was deployed "in branches 227 through 248, spread across Syria. They didn't fire on the front lines, but were deployed to secure points, particularly between Aleppo and Idlib," the former military figure explained. Other sources from this author's previous reporting confirming the fighters did participate in hostilities earlier in the war to help Assad reclaim territory lost to rebels.
Ultimately, the uncertainty surrounding the Polisario fighters' future should raise concerns for transitional justice in Syria. With many groups and individuals involved in Syria's war on all sides of a conflict that witnessed widespread human rights abuses by all parties, questions about justice and accountability remain central to Syria's recovery. The long-running conflict and the fractures that developed over years of brutal violence and human rights violations have produced a fractured society that needs an effective transitional justice program to reconcile with the past and move forward.
That process begins by charging any fighters allegedly involved in crimes, if investigations show their responsibility, or releasing the fighters if no evidence is readily available for a conviction. If evidence suggests a crime was committed, the transitional authorities must hold public trials—like the ones initiated in Aleppo, although the author is aware of those trials referring to current events and fighters involved in recent massacres along the coast, and not under the former regime. The authorities cannot keep the proceedings, and even the fighters' presence, hidden from the public indefinitely.
When this author pressed the source involved in the investigations himself into the fighters on why they aligned with Assad and continued to do so until the regime's last days, the answer was blunt: "They had no choice but to fight. They were being exploited by Algeria."
Time will tell whether that reasoning leads to their release or further detention in today's new Syria after choosing to fight with a barbaric regime that killed hundreds of thousands to retain its grip on power, including many close to those now leading from Damascus.
The views and positions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of DAWN.
