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Lo / AFP - Getty Images
Soldiers from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) detain alleged "shabiha" members identified as Mehsin Mohamed Ahmed and Mohamed Azezz, from Aleppo, and accuse them of stealing from homes and giving important information to the Syrian regime, in an undisclosed location in the north of Idlib province on June 19, 2012.
NORTHERN SYRIA – Every war has its demons. The chaos of bullets and bombs gives rise to a certain breed of men who join the fight for the thrill of killing, and to stand before begging prisoners and cowering women in damp tattered clothing.
In Syria these monsters in civilian clothing who are the enforcers for President Bashar Assad’s regime are called the “shabiha.”
I’m staying in one of their family’s homes.
Syria’s ghost-like devils
It’s a small house with a vaulted stone ceiling. The shower is a bucket on the floor that slopes into a drain. There’s an outhouse in the garden with a fig tree. The house looks like many in this rural village flanked by olive, walnut and almond groves.
Syrian troops withdraw from 'secondary towns' and pound Aleppo
The shabiha left this village when the army pulled out to re-group and attack Aleppo, Syria’s commercial capital and the focus of the battle to control the north of the country. Before they left, there were about 50 shabiha in the village by most rebel counts.
Some lived among the rebels as spies. Others operated as plainclothes commandoes, arresting rebels or just shooting them and their families. I’ve seen a video of shabiha using a chainsaw to cut off a rebel’s head. I saw a shabiha prisoner tied up with wires. The rebels accused him of raping 10 girls. The youngest girl was said to be just 14.
NBC's Richard Engel reports from Syria, where government loyalists are launching a major counter-offensive to maintain control of Aleppo, the nation's largest city, which is considered to be critical to the survival of the Syrian government.
Shabiha is a difficult word to translate into English. It comes from the word Syrians used to describe the luxury Mercedes favored by the Assad family’s operatives that the enforcers of the regime used to move money, smuggle weapons and intimidate opponents.
Whenever someone in a flashy Mercedes with tinted window passed by, Syrians would say the car was a ‘shabah.’ It literally means the car was a ‘ghost,’ mysterious and not to be trifled with. The thugs who drove these phantom cars became known as shabiha – the ghosts who worked in the dictatorship’s deep shadows.
After the fighting started here the Assad government turned the shabiha into a militia. It armed them and sent them to infiltrate, execute and spy on the rebels. Now the shabiha are more feared than Syrian troops. Their evil has become legendary.
Rebels talk of the shabiha like devils, deadly as the regime’s chemical gas. But herein lies the danger.
Engel: Myth vs. truth in the Syrian conflict
Stringer / Reuters
After months of protests and violent crackdowns, a look back at the violence that has overtaken the country.
Who is really who?
I’m not sure if this house was really owned by any shabiha or their relatives. The owner’s son is accused of being shabiha, but the rebels have no solid proof that he did anything wrong at all. And there’s no proof either that the young man I saw tied up with wires, his eyes covered with a bandana, actually raped any girls.
Every war has revolutionary justice. Here that justice is carried out in the name of fighting shabiha.
No one knows exactly how many shabiha work for the regime. If the Assad government falls, the rebels will likely – almost certainly – carry out executions of suspected shabiha.
A man I spoke to this morning said all shabiha should be executed without mercy, and their property sold and distributed among their victims. The man’s own cousin is among those accused of being shabiha.
CFR.org: What you need to know about the Syria crisis
Slippery slope
But how will Syrians know when justice is being served or miscarried?
Machine guns operated by motorcycle brakes? Get a glimpse at the rebels fighting against Assad's forces in Syria's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area.
There’s also a disproportionate number of Alawites, accused of being shabiha. The Alawites are the minority Shiite Muslim sect to which Assad belongs and which has held a disproportionate amount of power since his family came to power in 1970. But the Alawites make up only 10 percent of the population, sowing resentment among the country’s Sunni population, who make up the majority of Syria’s 22 million people.
PhotoBlog: Who are the Syrian rebels?
Syrians need to prepare for the aftermath if the Assad regime falls. Atrocities that could be considered war crimes have been committed in this country and Syrians should rightly demand that the perpetrators be held accountable.
But Syrians must be careful not to engage in a murderous campaign of hunting ghosts. The shabiha are real, but they can’t be everywhere.
More world stories from NBC News:
- Millionaire medalists: Does Olympic spirit live on?
- In Japan, a nuclear ghost town stirs to life
- Olympic security plan turns London into fortress
- Myth vs. truth in the Syrian conflict
- 'Building Tomorrow' -- one school at a time
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Another rebel-leaning propaganda but a bit milder this time. If you don't even know where the source of the word Shabiha is, you really better not call yourself a journalist. Or at least, not report on one of the most sensitive conflicts in modern history. Shabiha is not a Syrian term and is not associated with the "Shabah" car. Whoever told you this never left his village or stopped screwing goats.
Shabiha has been used in Lebanon and Syria for decades and it means those who are powerful and flaunt their power to the point of annoying others.
You should be called the Syrian rebels spokesperson. To be called a journalist, you need to tell the truth not spread laughable lies.
I, for one, thank you for explaining the meaning of one, single word. Now, we need to understand the other 3 million around these issues? However, this is one less word to not understand and I'm truly thanking you for the explanation.
The Saudi Arabian Muslism terrorists killed 3000 on 911 and the pentagon is helping them kill and destroy more people around the world.
The Pentagon is allied with Saudi Arabia and Mecca.
The Pentagon and the CIA are the biggest supoprters of Saudi Islamic Terrorists the same ones who attacked America on 911.
Saudi Arabians and the Islamic terrorists have huge influence and have likely infiltrated the CIA an the Pentagon.
They bombed USA on 911 and noqw they are directing US foreign Policy to spread Islam around the world with Violent Islamic terrorists backed by USA and Saudi Arabia.
This is why the USA is supoprting Al Qaeda and the Saudi Arabian Ialmic terrorists around the world.
Everyday Assad exterminates more Islobic terrorist scum is a good day.
Supoprt Assad the Nationalist in his fight against Mudslime terrorism!!!!!
Syrians thrashing Syrians, seems all good to me. Let us stay out of their way. Any help the Russians may offer, well, remember George W. said Putin was a guy we could trust and work with. I wouldn't want to be casting any doubts on ol' George.
Death to Islamo-dumbocracy.
Long Live Assad the great!
and that guy who killed these ppl in colorado is muslim also? maybe he s christian does that mean all christian or bad and killers? or u r just a KKK member?
He has ties to the pentagon propabaly just like Al Qaeda and the Islamo maggots.
All Muslims are stupid.
All Muslims are dirty pigs.
Muslim culture is garbage.
Assad is a hero for National Socialism!
Putin is a hero for defending the World from Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorist garbage.
yea keep following ppl like bush and america will go down deeper .....
I hoep Assad kills more Islamo maggots today. I hope Russia nukes mecca today so more Islamo maggots die.
Death to Mudlisme pigs.
God Bless Assad !!!!
Hey ah Brian-3344583. If you pull the "islamo" in your rant and put in USA, you and good ol usama Bin no dead, would sound identical, you two would blend. Hope your happy with that.
As I stated before, Brian loves these militia. He sounds like the milita types we have here in the good 'ol USA. Racist, paranoid and a little dangerous. Mostly to himself. his friends, firend, whatever, need to monitor him and maybe have some medical professionals help him with his delusions. Anyone that praises a guy like Putin, a serious Communist in the mold of Stalin, needs monitoring. And meds. Maybe a Valium enema.
You're staying in the home of the family of a bloodthirsty ninja-like Syrian assassin? A dood you describe doing many of the same things as Western special forces and CIA do as part of counterintelligence activities while in deep cover in foreign countries? And you're plumb dumb enough to be bad mouthing him and essentially calling him and his brethren a bunch of morality and character free murderers not unlike the Deutsch S.S. in an article he can easily read and trace back to you? Disclosing all of these actions that would result in his execution as a war criminal were he ever to see the inside of a UN courtroom?
You are either that guy from Flowers for Algernon, post regression...or you are a liar and shameless propagandist. I'll accept either as both are viable and believable, so chose whichever is most "clever".
Could you try that again. You completely lost me on your point
What point?
Ooooooooooh, that's Syria.
I thought the picture was liberal Detroit or maybe Chicago.
Nah, it's a conservative pro-NRA neighborhood. They though they saw some Black people attempting to purchase homes "where they don't belong". They wanted to keep future Obamas out. White means Right. Wing.
Richard Engel--a man on the payroll, working hard to please his masters.
We don't have a history of being that smart about the rest of the world. The only thing we accomplished is shirts at Walmart stores from Vietnam. We give arms to the Taliban on fighting the Russians. In turn we invade Afghastan fighting the Taliban. We run the ruler in Iraq out of leadership, that hated Iran. China ends up with the oil in Iraq. We can't fiqure out our neighbors in Mexico or Canada. We argue about the Keystone Pipeline, while China haves billions of dollars invested in Canada's oil. Just waiting for the Keystone pipeline on being completed. Oil companies and China will benefit as some politicians will benefit financially.
Seems President Obama have read our past history of mistakes and stupid ways in the past. By not causing another war. I'm not for a president that rush into a war and invading a country with all our military involved without thinking of the end results.
I might as well mention the "Atomic for Peace" by Ike in the 50's. Furnishing Iran and Pakistan Nuclear Reactors. Seems today we hear more of "Atomic for War", instead of "Atomic for Peace" with Iran.
Deb, but you don't have any idea of what the lunatic-right-wing-gun-nuts-warmongers for profit want: WAR. It's good for their businesses and show, as in the case of King Bush, that you are a very macho man.
And lately american news are all over saying that Assad has chemical weapons and WMD's and will use them against his own people. This is just another excuse to justify what the United States is itching to do: INVADE!
Now where did I hear about those WMD's before?
Now I remember! It was when we found none! Good show.
Years ago a famous semantist became the President of San Francisco State University. The Black Panthers were on the left, Vietnam was on the right, the hippies were on both sides, Russian "molatov cocktails" were being blown up down the halls of the University.
Anything anybody said inflamed everybody else. But nobody had a clue as to what was being said.
If I say "cup" and my idea of a cup is not your idea of a cup, we cannot share ideas about a cup. From this simple example, go forward into the MIddle East. Pick any word used and nobody really knows the "shared meaning" of it.
Semantics - rebel? I think of a rebel as someone who is "against authority". But here? in Syria, rebels are in full agreement with some authority? just not the legal one? A half of a rebel is not a rebel, he is a "poser", somebody who pretends.
This IS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MIDDLE EAST. Nobody can even talk about it with even 2 words of "shared meaning". Then, as though making comparisions with other times and other wars, somebody throws in "Vietnam", how about if I throw in the Battle of 1812? or the Punic Wars? Who in the hell knows that I'm talking about, or what you are talking about, or what anybody is talking about.
If the UN is good for anything? I propose a table of people gathered to create a list of "shared meanings". Will everybody blow up the UN? make it a coffee store in Turkey? or a yogurt store in Syria? Make it someplace - then if you say "rebel" I know what you mean. Say ghosts and get everybody's feedback, not just 1 person's idea of what it means. It must mean the same thing to many people.
Somebody start it? What in the hell is "Islamic"? and further? what is "Islamic Terrorism" what do you mean?
And who is the "you", and how many "you's" agree on the meaning?
I am going to make a cup of coffee. You think about it. Coffee - instant, percolated, roasted, and my cup? Let's not go there today! Just think about each and every word for awhile. Iakawa, Professor Iakawa, San Francoisco State, years? I'd say 1969? and thereabouts? He is the legend. He taught people not only how to talk, but also to be heard and understood.
I hear you loud and clear
F. Sper--- Did you mean Samuel I. Hayakawa, author of "Language in Thought and Action", a professor of language and former U.S. Senator (CA)?
Thanks..
P.S. My "cup" is a thick, ceramic, mug-shaped container with a side-handle big enough to put 3 fingers through it which is good because when filled with coffee, it is heavy. It stands about 4 1/2 inches high, it is thicker at the base than the top - the edge is about 1/4 inch, very smooth. It is painted with different blue shades of paint to make it look like water. Because I drink alot of coffee I like a large cup. It is not delicate and tiny, but it is also not huge and thick either. Ground coffee from Starbucks. lol
There. At least I tried to tell you what I think of a "cup".
Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccccccccccccccce!
Americans are paid by their leaders to go out and do their bidding, their killing. If they have a bent like the government, they might like it and enjoy killing innocent, anyone, just for killings sake - the thrill of power. What is our government doing differently? Irag, Libya and Afghanistan - blown to smithereens - to take over, invade and make the people obey - How is America any different than Hitler or any other killer?
Same old, same old. Thugs and revenge seekers, the real problem with civil war. good luck with finger pointing to come.
There are butchers on both sides. Save the Syrians who've never touched a gun or explosive. Let the gunsels eliminate each other. When they're done, send the peaceable ones home.
Who is and what's wrong with Brian-344583? Clearly you need to be reported!