Assad appoints pro-Iran general to handle security mess in southern Syria

Bashar al Assad has assigned Maj. General Abdulsalam Mahmoud, deputy director of the Air Force Intelligence Department, to handle the security portfolio in southern Syria.

According to a well-informed source, the appointment of Mahmoud, a Shiite officer who had secretly visited Tehran for several days before starting his duties as a security official, came at the request of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC).

Both the Revolutionary Guard and the Iranian government support Abdulsalam, not only for his sectarian affiliations, but also for being one of the senior security figures in the Air Force Intelligence after being the head of the investigation branch in Mazzeh airport, between 2010 and 2019.

Abdulsalam Mahmoud is also one of the security figures covered by the American sanctions imposed on the regime.

The source considered this an important step in the IRGC’s plan to infiltrate and root themselves in southern Syria, despite popular rejection of the militia’s presence as well as neighboring countries, especially Israel, insisting that Russia keep them over 80 km from the borders of Golan.

Since the fall of southern Syria to regime control in 2018, the instability in security and constant bombings and assassinations have not subsided. The conflict over the region between Russia and Iran continues to intensify, with the Fifth Corps controlling the eastern countryside of Daraa and the Fourth Division controlling western Daraa and Quneitra, and Russia’s continued attempts to share control over eastern Daraa with the help of Iranian militias.

Recently, the region between Daraa and Sweida has witnessed bloody clashes between the Fifth Corps, led by Ahmad Al-Awda, and armed faction from Sweida, which resulted in a large number of casualties.