大統領宮殿につながるトンネル施設、ＡＦＰ特派員が取材 シリア

【ダマスカスＡＦＰ＝時事】シリアの首都ダマスカスを見下ろすカシオン山の斜面の地下に掘られたトンネル網を、ＡＦＰ特派員が取材した。トンネル網は、首都防衛任務を負った軍事施設と、その向かいにある大統領宮殿を結んでいた。（写真は、シリア・ダマスカス近郊の共和国防衛隊〈ＳＲＧ〉が放棄した基地で、バッシャール・アサド氏の像の頭部を持つ新政権の戦闘員）
　このトンネル網は、昨年１２月８日のバッシャール・アサド政権崩壊後に明らかになった、同政権の秘密の一つだ。
　アサド政権下、ダマスカス市民はカシオン山への立ち入りを禁止されていた。大統領宮殿やその他の政府庁舎を含む景観を見渡せ、狙撃兵にとっては理想的な場所だったからだ。
　ダマスカス郊外にあった反体制派支配地域への長年にわたる攻撃も、この山から行われた。
　ＡＦＰ特派員は、兵士専用の広大な部屋を備えた２基の掩体壕（えんたいごう）から成る施設に入った。中には通信機器、電気、換気システムが備えられ、武器が貯蔵されていた。
　共和国防衛隊が放棄したこの広大な基地では現在、元反体制派の戦闘員がアサド氏と父の故ハフェズ・アサド氏の写真を使って射撃の練習をしている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2025/01/06-16:52）

On the slopes of Mount Qasyun which overlooks Damascus, a network of tunnels links a military complex, tasked with defending the Syrian capital, to the presidential palace facing it.
The tunnels, seen by an AFP correspondent, are among secrets of president Bashar al-Assad's rule exposed since rebels toppled him on December 8.
We entered this enormous barracks of the Republican Guard after the liberation of Damascus sent Assad fleeing to Moscow, said Mohammad Abu Salim, a military official from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant Islamist group in the alliance that overthrew Assad.
We found a vast network of tunnels which lead to the presidential palace on a neighbouring hill, Salim said.
During Assad's rule, Qasyun was off limits to the people of Damascus because it was an ideal location for snipers -- the great view includes the presidential palaces and other government buildings.
It was also from this mountain that artillery units for years pounded rebel-held areas at the gates of the capital.
An AFP correspondent entered the Guard complex of two bunkers containing vast rooms reserved for its soldiers. The bunkers were equipped with telecommunications gear, electricity, a ventilation system and weapons supplies.
Other simpler tunnels were dug out of the rock to hold ammunition.
Despite such elaborate facilities, Syria's army collapsed, with troops abandoning tanks and other gear as rebels advanced from their northern stronghold to the capital in less than two weeks,.
On the grounds of the Guard complex a statue of the president's brother Bassel al-Assad, atop a horse, has been toppled and Bassel's head severed.
Bassel al-Assad died in a 1994 road accident. He had been the presumed successor to his father Hafez al-Assad who set up the paranoid, secretive, repressive system of government that Bashar inherited when his father died in 2000.
In the immense Guard camp now, former rebel fighters use pictures of Bashar al-Assad and his father for target practice.
Tanks and heavy weapons still sit under arched stone shelters.
Resembling a macabre outdoor art installation, large empty rusted barrels with attached fins pointing skyward are lined up on the ground, their explosives further away.
The regime used these barrels to bomb civilians in the north of Syria, Abu Salim said.
The United Nations denounced Bashir's use of such weapons dropped from helicopters or airplanes against civilian areas held by Assad's opponents during Syria's years-long civil war that began in 2011.