MOSCOW: A Russian general killed in Syria had been seconded to the Syrian regime as a military commander, Russia’s military chief of staff said on Wednesday.
Moscow has long been a staunch ally of Syria, but the role of the deceased general reveals the extent to which Russia has become an integral part of President Bashar Assad’s ruling system.
Lt. Gen. Valery Asapov, 51, was killed on Saturday by shelling from Daesh positions near Deir Ezzor. He was the chief of staff of Russian forces deployed to the country and later became the commander of Syria’s Fifth Corps of volunteers, chief of general staff Valery Gerasimov said.
It was known that the Syrian Fifth Attack Troop Corps of volunteers, formed in late 2016, was equipped and advised by the Russians, but Damascus and Moscow had not previously announced it was under Russian command.
Speaking at Asapov’s funeral, Gerasimov said: “High prestige combined with care were outstanding features of his work.
“Of course, those qualities were displayed during his working trip to the Syrian Arab Republic, where he had been deployed from February this year,” Gerasimov said, addressing Asapov’s family and colleagues.
“He worked as the chief of staff of the group of our forces and then was in command of the Fifth Corps of volunteers ... A treacherous shell cut short his life.”
A security specialist, who worked in Syria alongside the Russian and Syrian military, said Asapov was de facto the commander of Syria’s Fifth Corps but he may have been listed as chief military adviser on paper.
“Syrian officers relied completely on our officers,” he said.
Hundreds of people, most of them from the Russian military, attended the funeral at the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery for Asapov who became the highest-ranking military officer to be killed in the Syrian war.
Inscriptions in Russian and Arabic on some of garlands said they were sent by President Assad, Syrian ministers and military commanders.
Russia says general killed in Syria held senior post in Assad’s army
Russia says general killed in Syria held senior post in Assad’s army
Algeria parliament approves amended law criminalizing French rule
- “Algeria, which sacrificed millions of martyrs for its freedom, independence and sovereignty, will never bargain away its memory or its sovereignty for any material advantage,” he told the lower house
ALGIERS: Algeria’s parliament on Monday approved an amended law criminalizing French colonial rule, removing earlier provisions that called for official apologies and broad reparations from France after Senate demanded the changes.
The law, approved by the lower house in December, had declared France’s colonization of Algeria from 1830 to 1962 a crime and demanded an apology and reparations, with Paris calling it “hostile.”
But in January the Senate said some articles of the text did not fully reflect the official approach set out by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who had said Algeria did not need financial reparations from France.
A clause seeking compensation for victims of French nuclear tests in Algeria remains unchanged.
Fawzi Bendjaballah, rapporteur of the joint committee tasked with revising the bill, said the changes reflected the “principled and unwavering position of the Algerian state.”
“Algeria, which sacrificed millions of martyrs for its freedom, independence and sovereignty, will never bargain away its memory or its sovereignty for any material advantage,” he told the lower house.
France called the bill “clearly hostile,” coming at a time of diplomatic friction between the two countries.
Relations soured in late 2024 when France officially backed Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, where Algeria backs the pro-independence Polisario Front.
Algeria says the war with colonial France killed 1.5 million people. French historians put the death toll lower at 500,000, 400,000 of them Algerian.
The bill states that France holds “legal responsibility for its colonial past in Algeria and the tragedies it caused.”
It lists the “crimes of French colonization,” including nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, “physical and psychological torture,” and the “systematic plundering of resources.”
However, Tebboune had said in a speech in December 2024 that Algiers was “not tempted by money, neither euros nor dollars.”
“We demand recognition of the crimes committed in the country” by France, he said. “I am not asking for financial compensation.”
Before taking office, French President Emmanuel Macron had acknowledged that his country’s colonization of Algeria was a “crime against humanity,” but Paris has yet to offer Algiers a formal apology.
