In what comes as a shocking development for China, the new Syrian government has started to appoint foreign fighters, especially from the banned Uygur militant group 'the East Turkestan Islamic Movement', to senior military ranks. Notably, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is active in China's volatile Xinjiang province.
China's permanent representative to the UN, Fu Cong, at the UN Security Council Briefing on Syria on Wednesday expressed concern over the development saying that the Syrian Army has recently granted senior military ranks to a number of foreign terrorist fighters, which includes the post of the head of Council, a listed terrorist organisation, the Turkistan Islamic Party, also known as the ETIM.
China urges Syria to fulfil counter-terrorism obligations
The Chinese representative urged Syria to fulfil its counter-terrorism obligations. It asked Syria to prevent any terrorist forces from using Syrian territory to threaten the security of other countries, according to official media reports.
According to some reports, the new Syrian regime headed by de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has appointed 50 new military officials of which six were foreign fighters, including that of ETIM.
HTS re-organises army in Syria
The Army is being re-organised by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that is now effectively in charge of the country following the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.
Based on the names that have been published, they are said to include Chinese Uyghurs, a Jordanian and a Turkish national. All are said to have been given high-ranking positions as colonels or brigadier-generals, BBC reported. China has supported the Assad regime and was caught unawares by its sudden fall. Assad himself fled to Russia where he was granted asylum.
Thousands of fighters from many different countries joined the uprising against Assad as it became an all-out armed conflict when mass protests were met with violence by the security forces. The new appointments appear to have been made in order to reward those fighters – whether from Syria or elsewhere – who played a significant role in the final triumph over the regime.
(With inputs from AP)
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