Retired Syrian General Mobilizing the Druze of Sweida to Defend the Province

To most Syrians, the name “General Nayaf Al-‘Aaql” brings back memories to the Lebanese Civil War, when the aforementioned leader of the Syrian Arab Army’s prestigious “104th Airborne Brigade of Republican Guard” fought off a powerful assault from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) at the Battle of East Beirut in the summer of 1982.

However, the General is not sitting idly in retirement; his ancestral home and birthplace – Al-Sweida – is now facing its greatest threat since the French Imperialist Army attacked the Syrian Forces – under the command of Sultan Basha Al-‘Atrash – at Jabal Al-‘Arab, during the “Great Syrian Revolt” of 1925.

As hordes of Islamist militants from the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Jaysh Al-Yarmouk, and the Syrian Al-Qaeda organization “Jabhat Al-Nusra” have begun to assault the strategic “Tha’lah Military Airbase” some ten and a half miles away from the provincial capital of Al-Sweida, General Nayaf Al-‘Aaql has once again found himself in high demand by his fellow countrymen.