New Syrian leadership forces conduct training at former Assad stronghold

After the fall of the Ba'ath regime in Syria, forces aligned with the new government are conducting shooting drills at the Republican Guard barracks at the foot of Mount Qasioun in Damascus. The AA team captured images of the military barracks, where the Republican Guards, responsible for regional security, are stationed. The barracks, known as the headquarters of Bashar al-Assad's late brother Basil, who died in a car accident in 1994 and was seen as the heir to his father Hafez al-Assad, is considered the 'largest military headquarters taken over by the new ruling forces after the liberation of Damascus.' At the barracks, under the control of the new administration led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), forces are receiving training by aiming at portraits of Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar al-Assad in the exhibition areas displaying tanks and artillery. On the walls at the entrance to the barracks, photos of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad, both shot in the forehead, are visible, along with Basil al-Assad's 'golden yellow' destroyed statue. Political slogans are written on the walls, and portraits of members of the Assad family are drawn. Diagrams on the walls illustrating the maintenance and assembly of mechanical equipment, including machine guns, grenades, and rocket launchers, reveal field training undertaken by regime soldiers. In primitive stone garages, military vehicles belonging to the fallen regime are stored, while munitions and fortified depots, tank shell casings, reload stations, ammunition stores, and training areas represent the former regime soldiers' patrol points. Barrel bomb production facilities, minefields, chemical containers, burned-out soldier barracks, and materials used in the regime's bombing of civilians are also displayed. Barrel bomb production facilities, minefields, chemical containers, burned-out soldier barracks, and materials used in the regime's bombing of civilians are also displayed. Additionally, the barracks house a field where hemp trees are cultivated.