SYRIA: Syria, Pressed by War, Deploys All-female Unit

The Syrian government is arming and training Syrian women to fight for President Bashar al-Assad, putting it ahead of the Pentagon when it comes to sending women to the front lines, according to video footage and activists' reports.

A video posted on Russia Today's Arabic channel from the central city of Homs shows dozens of women in combat fatigues marching around a training ground carrying Kalashnikov rifles, performing drills and chanting slogans in support of Assad. “Be prepared, Syria! Stand up, Assad!” they shout. “With our blood and our soul we protect you, Bashar.”

#Their trainer explains that the women are trained to use Kalashnikovs, heavy machine guns and grenades, and to storm and control checkpoints. “I think it's good to learn how to carry weapons and protect my country,” one recruit says to the camera.

The formation of the force comes amid speculation that the regular Syrian army, depleted by defections, desertions and casualties, is being stretched by the effort to suppress Syria's 22-month-old uprising. According to a report in Britain's Independent newspaper, the all-female force, named the “Lionesses for National Defense,” is part of an effort to supplement the army with a national defense force militia made up of civilian volunteers.

The women have already been deployed on the streets, and although their duties appear to be confined to checkpoint control, the frequency of rebel attacks on such posts effectively puts them on the front line. A blurry video posted by activists shows female soldiers at a checkpoint in Homs, and activists in the city say women are often seen guarding pro-government neighborhoods, focusing their attention on women wearing head scarves.

They force women out of cars with deliberate roughness, rip off their veils and scream insults at them,” said Majd Amer, the pseudonym of an activist in Homs interviewed by Skype. “They treat them like they are female terrorists. They call them al-Qaeda . . . and say, ‘The veil won't protect you.' “

Assad's government routinely emphasizes its secular roots in its battle against an increasingly Sunni Islamist rebellion, helping sustain the support of minorities such as the Christians and Assad's own Alawite sect but also further accentuating Syria's sectarian divide. A woman wearing a head scarf would be assumed to be Sunni — and, therefore, a suspected supporter of the revolution.

Similarly, Amer noted, “It is impossible that a lady wearing the veil would join this militia.”

The Independent likens the “Lionesses” to the female bodyguards maintained by the late Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, who was as notorious for surrounding himself with women as he was for persecuting Islamists.

It is not, however, the first time Syrian women have served in the military. A bizarre video dating to the 1980s shows a platoon of female soldiers biting the heads off live snakes at a military parade in front of Assad's father and predecessor, President Hafez al-Assad. The women then don aprons, barbecue the snakes and eat them.

The video surfaced last year after former U.S. defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reportedly posted it on his website, saying it had been given to him by the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein — a sworn foe of Assad — during a secret visit Rumsfeld made to Baghdad in 1983 as Mideast envoy.