Khaberni - In light of the United Nations' announcement of "5" assassination attempts on the Syrian President Ahmad Al-Shara by ISIS, the latter has made several structural changes and adjustments to establish a special force tasked with protecting the President and his workplaces and residence in the fashion of "the Republican Guard".
President Al-Shara strengthened his own special presidential guard unit that took charge of overseeing the security of the Syrian President amid what Syrian sources claim are monitored and thwarted assassination attempts.
It seems that President Al-Shara has been actively and eagerly working on redeveloping weapons and training for special elite forces whose function is to form a presidential guard battalion which is under the Republican Palace and directly overseen by Al-Shara's cadre.
New in the arrangement is that the presidential guard battalion now has its own "intelligence and reconnaissance unit" working under the command of the third man in the Defense Ministry's structure.
This same battalion has several offices and headquarters, and is part of a complete directorate within the Defense Ministry's structure, tasked with protecting the main Republican Palace and the floors occupied by the president's staff in one of the most luxurious hotels in the capital, Damascus, in addition to protecting special headquarters in both Idlib and Aleppo – which signifies that the special division for "protecting the president" is positioned within a deployment force and in more than one location, with responsibilities that extend beyond just the capital.
Sources indicate that Al-Shara has assigned the task of leading the battalion that protects him along with the Republican Palace to one of his closest confidants from the religious currents, namely the Jordanian Brigadier General known by the nickname "Abu Hussein the Jordanian".
This signifies that the narrow circles the current Syrian president trusts are those who command special forces known as the presidential guard forces, seemingly to avoid naming them the Republican Guard, and these forces have been reorganized according to a special administrative structure within the Ministry of Defense.
Abu Hussein is a prominent Jordanian figure in the advanced structure of the Ministry of Defense and known as a personal friend and companion of Al-Shara during the early stages of resistance as well as a key supporter of Al-Shara's operations against jihadist formations trying to dispute or disrupt the presidential project as a whole.
The presidential guard battalion is now looking for the best secretive communication technologies, camouflage coverings, and superior armament elements.
