Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs - December 20, 2017
The Syrian conflict has an endless capability to surprise analysts as
seemingly every other day a new element, unprecedented in the Syrian
civil war, comes to the surface. Such is the case with the arrival of
the first Chinese Army special forces unit, “the Night Tigers,” to
Syria’s Tartous port on the Mediterranean, according to reports in Arab
media close to the Assad and Tehran regimes (the Al-Mayadeen TV channel).2
The Night Tigers were dispatched by Beijing to fight the Uyghurs, the
Muslim Chinese ethnic group fighting with the rebel forces against the
Assad regime.
According to these press reports, Beijing planned to send two units
from the Special Operations Forces – the “Tigers of Siberia” and the
“Night Tigers” – to assist Assad’s regime against Chinese Uyghurs
fighting with radical Muslim organizations in Syria. However, unlike the
news reporting about the arrival of the “Night Tigers,” no confirmation
has been received yet on the second unit.
According to the Syrian ambassador to China, some 5,000 ethnic
Uyghurs from China’s Xinjiang province are presently in Syria. President
Assad stressed the “crucial cooperation” between Syria and Chinese
intelligence against Uyghur militants last year. Following the visit of
Chinese Admiral Guan Yufi mid-2016 to Syria, the Chinese military has
been present in Syria to train Syrian forces on Chinese-made weapons,
intelligence gathering, logistics, and field medicine.3
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