OREANDA-NEWS  The Syrian army was severely demoralized and suffered from corruption and understaffing, which led to the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad. This was stated by the Syrian military in an interview with Reuters.

In an interview with the agency, one of the military, 23—year-old Farhan al-Houli, complained about low wages and an acute shortage of people. According to him, the outpost, which he and his colleagues held, was guarded by three people instead of nine, and the other six bribed the command not to serve. Al-Houli added that one of the two remaining colleagues with him had mental disabilities and was actually unfit for the army.

Earlier it became known that the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which came to power in Syria, promised to persecute officers from the Assad government army. The militants said they would pursue "war criminals" from among the officers of the army and law enforcement agencies of the overthrown regime in order to "bring to justice."