The recent massacres of women and children taking place in Syria are the work of a group of steroid-fueled mercenaries who are fiercely loyal to Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect, reports Lee Moran of the Daily Mail.
Known as the Shabiha, or "Ghosts" in Arabic, the group wears black t-shirts with combat trousers and wields AK-47s and machetes.
The foot soldiers are paid a relative fortune of about $200 per day to enter towns after the army has stopped shelling to "terrorize the civilian population and conduct ethnic cleansing," according to a Daily Mail source.
From the Telegraph:
"They were like monsters... [said Dr. Mousab Azzawi, who runs the Syrian Network for Human Rights from London but had treated some of the Shabiha in Latakia]. "They had huge muscles, big bellies, big beards. They were all very tall and frightening, and took steroids to pump up their bodies.
"I had to talk to them like children as they like people with low intelligence. But that is what makes them so terrifying — the combination of strength and blind allegiance to the regime."
The Shabiha is accused of carrying out the Houla massacre — in which 108 civilians including 49 children were killed by slitting their throats or shooting them at point-blank range — as well as incidents last week in which 12 workers were executed in Qusayr and 78 villagers were killed in the central province of Hama.
Dr. Azzawi cited a YouTube video that shows pictures from one alleged member's Facebook page alongside videos of the group beating people in the streets.
Almost all of the Shabiha are young men from the mostly-poor Alawite sect, a Shia Muslim sect comprising 12 percent of Syria's population that includes the Assad family.
A woman named Selma, who is from a prominent Alawite family and whose cousins are Shabiha, told Harriet Alexander and Ruth Sherlock of the Telegraph that even before the revolution the Shabiha would quell anti-government unrest by going into the streets and breaking people's arms and legs.
From the Telegraph:
"They are fueled by this belief that they are fighting for their survival," said Dr. Azzawi. "Assad tells them that they must defend the government or else they will be destroyed; it's kill, or be killed... They are treated like animals, and manipulated by their bosses to carry out these murders. They are unstoppable."
The vast majority of the country's top intelligence and military officers adhere to the mysterious Alawite faith while the Shabiha, when called upon, ruthlessly protects the regime without directly associating themselves with the government as they dress in civilian clothes and wear white tennis shoes instead of black military boots.
"If they know the whole area is against the regime they have no problem killing everybody," Selma told the Telegraph. "That is how it works."
ALSO SEE: New Developments Come To Light As We Retrace The Chilling Route Of Alleged Murderer Staff Sgt. Robert Bales >
Please follow Military & Defense on Twitter and Facebook.