Toward the later years in Iraq the Brits took on local militias. They were described as wolves coming into the street when the sun went down. They would seek out people in the immediate area they believed to be enemies to their purpose and kill them. They took few prisoners even though they had control of police buildings.
Once the jails filled up with a few people their only options were to kill those they found. What was once considered benevolent by the people, became dangerous and unpredictable. Any opposition to their will were considered enemies. There was no formal process, there was simply death squads. The Brits took them on in order to hand control over to the citizens.
The killing of Assad's military is due to this same type of dynamic. There is little they can do but seek and kill. They don't have court systems, they have arms. They don't have assets, they have their pure will to carry out their resistance. That is why the opposition forces appear to be inhumane. For a military to carry out justice they need the assets to make it happen and they don't. It is cruel but it is the way it is in Syria.
There is the option of moving them to the border for capture by the Turks, perhaps, but the militias are usually not that well organized to begin with and they usually lack trust. However, there are those in the military that have left Syria in opposition to Assad. They joined the rebel forces. The idea is that if soldiers from Assad's military are captured they may be valuable and could be an asset to the movement if spared and taken to a place where they can turn against their President rather than killing them.
updated 8/12/2012 2:56:51 PM ET
ALEPPO, Syria — Syrian rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad need the protection of foreign-guarded no-fly zones and safe havens near the borders with Jordan and Turkey, a Syrian opposition leader said on Sunday....
