There Are 1.5 Million On The syrian government's Leaked Wanted List

Deir al-Zour, like many sites in Syria, has been laid waste by the war, leaving more Syrians fleeing as aid runs low. Credit Khalil Ashawi/Reuters

Faisal Al Yafai, The National: Damascus' leaked wanted list shows the regime does not much care whether it kills Syrians quickly or slowly

The international community cannot save Syrians who have already died – but it can perhaps salvage some sort of protection for those who remain inside.

What would a future with Bashar Al Assad back in charge of Syria look like? That question, always ruminated upon by Syria-watchers, took on a renewed lease of life this month as the seventh anniversary of the Syrian revolution passed. To mark the occasion, a Syrian opposition website released a leaked database of 1.5 million people wanted by the Syrian regime.

The database, which the site had made searchable, was allegedly based on a leak of intelligence material from the regime. Included were people with outstanding arrest warrants and interrogation orders, the sorts of warrants that, in the midst of a bloody civil war, could lead to detention, torture and even death.

The database was unverifiable and many media outlets refused to publicise it because it could expose Syrians outside the country to danger. The concern was that authorities in, for example, Turkey, Germany or elsewhere could use the information to block the asylum claims of Syrians who might have done nothing wrong. In the brutal war now taking place, it could easily have been an operation to discredit hundreds of thousands of civilians who had left Syria.

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WNU editor: I am sure that the Syrian government has a wanted list that details every person and family that has waged war against the Assad regime .... and they are going to make sure that these individuals are going to suffer. This 1.5 million number is probably just the tip of the iceberg.