Polisario mercenaries at the service of the Syrian dictatorship
According to the documented investigation, hundreds of Polisario militiamen, trained by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and integrated into Assad’s army, took part in bloody operations against Syrian civilians. An official Syrian document, dated 2012 and authenticated by experts, had already confirmed the presence of 120 Sahrawi fighters in Syria, deployed across several brigades alongside regime forces.
Images broadcast by Deutsche Welle Arabic and other independent sources also confirm that dozens of these mercenaries were arrested south of Aleppo and near Abu Zuhour military airport. Many admitted their direct ties with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Iranian intelligence services… and Algerian intelligence.
Algeria, sponsor of international terrorism
Rena Netjes’ investigation reveals that the Polisario did not limit itself to maintaining an official presence in Damascus. Its militias operated a strategic bureau for the entire Middle East, receiving funding and military training in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon.
Algeria’s hand is everywhere: diplomatic support for Assad, covert military coordination, and even an intervention by Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf to secure the release of Algerian generals and Polisario fighters detained by Syria’s new forces.
This complicity underscores the sheer hypocrisy of Algeria’s military regime, which on the one hand claims to defend “just causes” and on the other arms and exports war criminals to support some of the bloodiest dictatorships in the Arab world.
Algeria, a criminal state
These revelations shatter the victimhood narrative promoted by the Polisario and its Algerian sponsor. The Sahrawi fighters are not merely “armed refugees”: they now stand accused of war crimes, massacres of civilians, and systematic abuses, all in service of a regime that starved, tortured, and bombed its own people.
At a time when Syria is attempting to establish transitional justice, the presence of these Polisario mercenaries heavily complicates the process. The truth is now undeniable: the Polisario Front has not only spread instability in the Maghreb, it has exported terror to the ruins of Syria.
This damning report lays bare Algeria’s cynical strategy: instrumentalizing the Polisario as a mercenary militia to serve its geopolitical ambitions. After turning Tindouf into a camp of indoctrination, the Algerian military regime sent these recruits to serve as cannon fodder in Assad’s war, under the supervision of Tehran and Hezbollah.
It is further proof that Algeria is not a force for peace, but an active sponsor of regional terrorism, responsible for recruiting and financing war criminals who will one day have to answer for their atrocities before international justice.
Translated from Abderrazzak Boussaid’s French article – le7tv