Syria and Western Sahara

In a recent Washington Post report, it was claimed that Syria’s new security forces currently detain hundreds of fighters from the Polisario Front, which functions as the ruling government in the portion of Western Sahara not controlled by Morocco. The implication then is that they were captured during the insurgent offensive that brought down the Assad regime.

However, unlike much of the article that is the product of on-the-ground reporting, the information is not attributed to or checked with Syria’s new security forces with whom the newspaper embedded, but simply a “regional official” and “a third European official.” For its part, the Polisario Front denounced the report’s content as “fabrication of wretched claims,” and attributed the claims to the fact that a reporter whose byline appears on the story (Souad Mekhennet) has partial Moroccan origin. What is the truth of the matter?