14-434: Popular Committees may refer to any of the following organizations: Popular Committees (Syria) Popular Committees (Yemen) Palestinian Popular Committees Popular Resistance Committees Popular Resistance Committees (Yemen) See also [ edit ] People's committee (disambiguation) Revolutionary committee (disambiguation) Topics referred to by
28-685: A Druze resident of Jaramana : "[The government] say the Lijans help us protect ourselves, but really they just wanted to light the sectarian fuse in Damascus". StrategyPage claimed that the Syrian Army offered weapons to minority communities in contested cities: "if the minorities will form self-defense militias and keep rebels out, the Army will not fire artillery at those neighborhoods". Tony Badran of Now Lebanon commented: "Assad seeks to assemble
42-455: A higher military education: Rajiha attained the rank of major general in 1998 and was appointed as the Syrian Army's deputy chief of staff six years later, in 2004. In 2005, he received a promotion to the rank of general called Imad (a rank in the Syrian armed forces between major general and lieutenant general). When Ali Habib Mahmud was named to head the ministry of defense in 2009, Rajiha
56-516: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Popular Committees (Syria) The Popular Committees (also called Lijan militias ; Arabic : اللجان الشعبية al-Lijan al-Sha'biyah , meaning "people's committees") were militias that emerged in Syria during the Syrian Civil War . They originated as neighborhood vigilante groups in
70-590: The Christian , Druze and Alawi and Shia Muslim quarters of Damascus and elsewhere to prevent the infiltration of Sunni -dominated rebel groups . However, the Popular Committees included a significant number of pro-regime Sunni Muslims as well. The Popular Committees were armed by the Syrian government and manned checkpoints around their districts. They have been accused of carrying out extrajudicial executions and revenge killings. Reuters quoted
84-557: The National Defence Force , bringing more organisation to the groups and subordinating them within the Syrian security structures. Dawoud Rajiha Dawoud Abdallah Rajiha ( Arabic : داود راجحة ; 1947 – 18 July 2012; forename sometimes transliterated Dawood or Daoud , surname sometimes transliterated Rajha) was a Syrian military officer who was the Minister of Defense from 2011 to July 2012 when he
98-615: The Christian militia was allegedly the first to fight against rebels. The day after a bombing killed four government officials, including the Greek Orthodox Christian Syrian Minister of Defence, General Dawoud Rajiha , it was reported by residents that at least 200 AK-47s were handed out in a Christian neighborhood of Damascus. From around mid-2012, hundreds of Popular Committees and other irregular paramilitary groups were merged into what became
112-428: The government's Central Crisis Management Cell (CCMC) . It was since proven that the allegations were false and were rebels propaganda. Members of the unit, including former minister of defense Hasan Turkmani , were shown on Syrian television to be alive, and the rebels later stated that only Rajiha's deputy, General Assef Shawkat , and a second official who was not named. Shawkat, the brother-in-law of President Assad,
126-567: The minorities around him in order to present himself as the sole and unavoidable interlocutor on behalf of these segments of Syrian society, where he has cultivated loyal patches". Iran has assisted in setting up and training Shia militias in Syria. In Aleppo , some residents claimed that the Syrian Army organized a Christian militia during fighting there in August 2012. In the Jdeideh quarter,
140-410: The others killed in the bombing were Hasan Turkmani and Assef Shawkat . Fahd Jassem al-Freij was named by President Assad as Rajiha's successor as minister of defense, while it was announced that Addounia TV would broadcast the minister's funeral. A state funeral was held for him, Hasan Turkmani and Assef Shawkat in Damascus on 20 July 2012. Bashar al-Assad did not participate in the ceremony and
154-433: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Popular Committees . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Popular_Committees&oldid=1223350379 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
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#1732764640474168-540: Was assassinated along with other senior military officers in a bombing claimed by Syrian rebel forces during the country's Civil War . From 2009 to 2011, Rajiha served as chief of staff of the Syrian Army . Rajiha, a Greek Orthodox Arab Christian, was born in Damascus in 1947. A specialist in artillery, he graduated from Syria's military academy in 1967. Dawoud Abdallah Rajiha attended different courses and
182-590: Was given the position of army chief of staff. He held this position in 2011, when the Syrian civil war began. On 8 August 2011, he was chosen by President Bashar al-Assad to replace Mahmud as minister of defense. On 20 May 2012, the Damascus council of the Free Syrian Army , among the rebel organizations opposed to the Assad government, alleged that it had assassinated Rajiha and the seven other members of
196-618: Was later shown to have survived, as well. In June 2012, the matter of Rajiha's alleged death was permanently resolved when it was confirmed that he remained Assad's defense minister in the newly formed cabinet. Almost two months after the date of his alleged death, Rajiha was assassinated in a bombing of a meeting of the Central Crisis Management Cell held at the Syrian National Security Building at Rawda Square , Damascus. Among
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