Ahmad Al Odeh, centre, had refused to merge his Eighth Brigade militia with the new Syrian government's army. AFP
Ahmad Al Odeh, centre, had refused to merge his Eighth Brigade militia with the new Syrian government's army. AFP
Ahmad Al Odeh, centre, had refused to merge his Eighth Brigade militia with the new Syrian government's army. AFP
Ahmad Al Odeh, centre, had refused to merge his Eighth Brigade militia with the new Syrian government's army. AFP

Powerful southern Syrian militia disbands under pressure from government


Khaled Yacoub Oweis
  • English
  • Arabic

A militia controlling a strategic area of southern Syria has disbanded after coming under political and military pressure from the new government in Damascus, in a boost to President Ahmad Al Shara's drive to bring all armed groups in the country under its control.

The peaceful dissolution of the 3,000-strong Eighth Brigade militia, announced by its spokesman late on Sunday, follows a new approach by the central authorities in dealing with holdout groups, based on projecting strength while trying to avoid major confrontation.

The government faced an international outcry after its campaign to quell opposition in Syria's coastal region, the heartland of the Alawite sect that formed the core support of ousted president Bashar Al Assad, flared up into sectarian massacres last month.

A video statement from spokesman Akram Al Horani said the Eighth Brigade, which had controlled areas near the border with Jordan in southern Syria for the past seven years, had "completely disbanded" and started handing over its weapons to the government to "strengthen security and stability and the sovereignty state".

Mr Al Shara's militant group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), formerly affiliated with Al Qaeda, led a rebel offensive that toppled Mr Al Assad in December, ending nearly 14 years of civil war. Since then his government has been seeking establish control over the country by incorporating the myriad militias, mostly formed during the civil war, into a new national army, with posts for their leaders, or by crushing them. On March 6, HTS forces overran the southern city of Sanamayn, ending a threat from a warlord called Mohammad Al Humaid, who had refused to disband.

The Eighth Brigade, whose power base was centred in and around the historic city of Busra Al Sham, refused to join the new army despite having committed to do so in January, mainly because its leader Ahmad Al Odeh was not offered a senior position, an HTS official told The National.

"If his force was larger, he would have been given a high rank in the new army," the official said.

Ahmad Al Odeh previously commanded a Syrian rebel force in a coalition that fought against the Assad regime with backing from the US and Arab states. AFP
Ahmad Al Odeh previously commanded a Syrian rebel force in a coalition that fought against the Assad regime with backing from the US and Arab states. AFP

A predecessor to the Eighth Brigade, also led by Mr Al Odeh, was part of a southern rebel coalition that waged an insurgency in southern Syria with US and Arab backing until 2018, when the US struck a deal with Russia for the Assad regime to take most of the area. However, Mr Al Odeh managed to preserve a large degree of independence from the regime by striking a deal with Moscow to become its surrogate.

But this time Mr Al Odeh was outmanoeuvred. The HTS official said the killing last week in Busra Al Sham of Bilal Al Masatfeh, a former militia ally of Mr Al Odeh who had turned against him and allied with HTS, set in motion a chain of events that eventually led to the Eight Brigade's surrender.

Mr Al Masatfeh belonged to Al Mekdad, a large clan in Busra Al Sham. Fearing a popular backlash, Mr Al Odeh agreed to hand over four men suspected of killing Mr Al Masatfeh to the central authorities. But instead of sending a small force to collect the four men, an armoured force of 1,200 HTS fighters entered Busra Al Sham at the weekend, residents say.

An Eighth Brigade commander, who did not want to be named, told The National Mr Odeh contemplated attacking the HTS force but did not do so because it would ultimately have been a "losing battle".

"We had the power to besiege them in Busra Al Sham, but this would have been an excuse [for Mr Al Shara] to respond with a whole army," the commander said.

The HTS official said the government was unlikely to pursue Mr Al Odeh, whose whereabouts are not known, because it had achieved its objective of neutralising his militia.

The new government's efforts to extend its authority received another boost at the weekend when Kurdish militias ceded a significant degree of control over two key areas under a deal between their leader, Mazloum Abdi, and Mr Al Shara, signed last month. Government security forces entered Sheikh Maqsoud, the main Kurdish neighbourhood of Aleppo that is situated on a hilltop near the city's northern outlets. On the edge of Aleppo governorate, government forces also took control of the Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates river, which had been in the hands of Kurdish forces for a decade.

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Tips for used car buyers
  • Choose cars with GCC specifications
  • Get a service history for cars less than five years old
  • Don’t go cheap on the inspection
  • Check for oil leaks
  • Do a Google search on the standard problems for your car model
  • Do your due diligence. Get a transfer of ownership done at an official RTA centre
  • Check the vehicle’s condition. You don’t want to buy a car that’s a good deal but ends up costing you Dh10,000 in repairs every month
  • Validate warranty and service contracts with the relevant agency and and make sure they are valid when ownership is transferred
  • If you are planning to sell the car soon, buy one with a good resale value. The two most popular cars in the UAE are black or white in colour and other colours are harder to sell

Tarek Kabrit, chief executive of Seez, and Imad Hammad, chief executive and co-founder of CarSwitch.com

First-round leaderbaord

-5 C Conners (Can)

-3 B Koepka (US), K Bradley (US), V Hovland (Nor), A Wise (US), S Horsfield (Eng), C Davis (Aus);

-2 C Morikawa (US), M Laird (Sco), C Tringale (US)

Selected others: -1 P Casey (Eng), R Fowler (US), T Hatton (Eng)

Level B DeChambeau (US), J Rose (Eng) 

1 L Westwood (Eng), J Spieth (US)

3 R McIlroy (NI)

4 D Johnson (US)

'Cheb%20Khaled'
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Rashid & Rajab

Director: Mohammed Saeed Harib

Stars: Shadi Alfons,  Marwan Abdullah, Doaa Mostafa Ragab 

Two stars out of five 

Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

Wicked: For Good

Director: Jon M Chu

Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater

Rating: 4/5

Tips from the expert

Dobromir Radichkov, chief data officer at dubizzle and Bayut, offers a few tips for UAE residents looking to earn some cash from pre-loved items.

  1. Sellers should focus on providing high-quality used goods at attractive prices to buyers.
  2. It’s important to use clear and appealing photos, with catchy titles and detailed descriptions to capture the attention of prospective buyers.
  3. Try to advertise a realistic price to attract buyers looking for good deals, especially in the current environment where consumers are significantly more price-sensitive.
  4. Be creative and look around your home for valuable items that you no longer need but might be useful to others.
Why it pays to compare

A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.

Route 1: bank transfer

The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.

Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount

Total received: €4,670.30 

Route 2: online platform

The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.

Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction

Total received: €4,756

The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.

The biog

Favourite hobby: taking his rescue dog, Sally, for long walks.

Favourite book: anything by Stephen King, although he said the films rarely match the quality of the books

Favourite film: The Shawshank Redemption stands out as his favourite movie, a classic King novella

Favourite music: “I have a wide and varied music taste, so it would be unfair to pick a single song from blues to rock as a favourite"

Hidden killer

Sepsis arises when the body tries to fight an infection but damages its own tissue and organs in the process.

The World Health Organisation estimates it affects about 30 million people each year and that about six million die.

Of those about three million are newborns and 1.2 are young children.

Patients with septic shock must often have limbs amputated if clots in their limbs prevent blood flow, causing the limbs to die.

Campaigners say the condition is often diagnosed far too late by medical professionals and that many patients wait too long to seek treatment, confusing the symptoms with flu. 

The specs: 2018 Dodge Durango SRT

Price, base / as tested: Dh259,000

Engine: 6.4-litre V8

Power: 475hp @ 6,000rpm

Torque: 640Nm @ 4,300rpm

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic

Fuel consumption, combined: 7.7L / 100km

MATCH INFO

Liverpool v Manchester City, Sunday, 8.30pm UAE

The Sand Castle

Director: Matty Brown

Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

Rating: 2.5/5

Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas

Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa

Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong

Rating: 3/5

The specs

Engine: 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12

Transmission: eight-speed automatic

Power: 715bhp

Torque: 900Nm

Price: Dh1,289,376

On sale: now

HAJJAN
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Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home. 

Last 10 NBA champions

2017: Golden State bt Cleveland 4-1
2016: Cleveland bt Golden State 4-3
2015: Golden State bt Cleveland 4-2
2014: San Antonio bt Miami 4-1
2013: Miami bt San Antonio 4-3
2012: Miami bt Oklahoma City 4-1
2011: Dallas bt Miami 4-2
2010: Los Angeles Lakers bt Boston 4-3
2009: Los Angeles Lakers bt Orlando 4-1
2008: Boston bt Los Angeles Lakers 4-2

Updated: April 14, 2025, 2:34 PM