Damascus, May 02: A new online video features a man who says that, as a member of Syria’s elite Republican Guards, he was ordered to open fire on peaceful protesters. The man, calling himself Walid Qashaamy, says that on April 23 he was told he was being sent to the Damascus suburbs of Harasta to protect civilians from an armed gang, but instead he was ordered to open fire on protesters. The video could not be verified.
“We were surprised that there was no gang; it was a normal demonstration asking for the fall of the regime and … freedom,” Qashaamy tells an unseen interviewer (video subtitled in English). “Intelligence opened fire with live ammunition, and without any reason, on the demonstrators and women and children.”
When Qashaamy and five of his fellow soldiers refused to fire and tried to run away, security forces fired on them, wounding his friend in the shoulder, he says.
“[I say] to every soldier: Do not shed the blood of the women and children of Syria,” he concludes. “There are no armed gangs inside Syria.”
–Agencies