German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) has aired a report confirming long-circulating claims of Polisario fighters’ involvement in the Syrian civil war, exposing once more the deep-rooted ties between the Polisario Front, the Assad regime, and their mutual allies Algeria and Iran.
Citing well-documented accounts, DW details how several Polisario combatants were captured in Aleppo following the fall of the Assad regime and remain in Syrian custody. Interim Syrian president Ahmed Al Charaa reportedly rejected Algeria’s requests to repatriate them, opting instead to have them face Syrian justice.
The report links this deployment to a broader ideological and strategic alliance. Syria’s Baathist regime, along with Algeria, has historically opposed Morocco and endorsed separatist movements.
As early as 1980, Hafez Al Assad recognized the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Republic (RASD).
Though this stance softened under Bashar Al Assad in 2001, leading to the closure of the Polisario’s office in Damascus, the civil war in Syria marked a reversal.
In 2012, amid Morocco’s support for Syrian opposition forces during the Marrakech-hosted “Friends of the Syrian People” conference, the Assad regime rekindled ties with the Polisario, this time orchestrated through Tehran and Algiers.
DW references a Washington Post report that Iranian operatives helped form four Polisario military units, roughly 1,200 fighters, embedded within Assad’s forces.
The arrangement reportedly emerged from a covert meeting in the Tindouf camps involving Algerian, Syrian, and Polisario representatives.
DW notes that in 2023, Assad sought to mend ties with Morocco in hopes of returning to the Arab League fold, hinting at a possible withdrawal of recognition for the RASD.
That effort failed, and ties between Damascus and the Polisario instead deepened.
Following Assad’s fall in late 2024, Syrian intelligence documents surfaced, further confirming the presence of Sahrawi fighters within pro-Assad units.
One classified memo from January 2012 outlines a tripartite agreement involving Algeria, the Syrian regime, and the Polisario to integrate Sahrawi militants into Syrian military structures.
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