Throughout the Syrian conflict, victims, witnesses, journalists and the United Nations investigators revealed horrifying acts of cruelty, carried out by groups of armed men. Killings. Arbitrary detention. Torture. Sexual violence against men, women, boys and girls. There appeared to be no crime these groups would abstain from committing.

As early as August 2012 an investigation by the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) into a series of attacks by these armed groups found that they formed part of a pattern of unlawful killings and other crimes committed in anti-Regime areas across the country. Attacks occurred in concert with the Syrian armed forces, who would begin with blockades and shelling before ground assaults of special forces and armed Shabbiha gangs. Searches would be made house to house, removing and executing activists, defectors, fighting aged men, and often, their family members or other randomly selected individuals. Before long, the news of unprecedented massacres of civilians by the secretive pro-Regime paramilitary groups flooded the international media.

The reports drew upon circumstantial evidence which showed that the Shabbiha The term “Shabbiha” has generated its own momentum in the Syrian conflict, but it does not always assist in understanding the context, nuance, variety or development of key defined Regime loyalist or parmilitary groups nor their link to the formal security structure. The term can mask a number of recognised pro-Regime groups, including mobilised pro-Regime loyalists, Ba'athist supporters, village defence forces, tribal groups, Popular Committees and other paramilitary groups. Moreover it is not a phrase routinely used by the Syrian authorities in their own documentation. acted alongside Government forces, forming part of the Regime's response to the protesters and opposition. But there appeared to be no direct evidence of this relationship. The COI Report considered that "Eyewitnesses consistently identified the Shabbiha as perpetrators of many of the crimes described in the present report. Although the nature, composition, hierarchy and structure of this group remains opaque, credible information led to the conclusion that Shabbiha members acted with the acquiescence of, in concert with or at the behest of Government forces."

In the years that followed, more information on these paramilitary groups, their crimes and membership was revealed. The crimes themselves were in the main well documented through social media, videos, as well as witness, survivor and defector testimonies. Similarly well reported was the localised set up, membership and patronage of these groups. But no undeniable link to the Syrian State apparatus could be established.

Autocratic states have historically utilised paramilitary groups to do their dirty work in order to claim plausible deniability. Whereas the link and benefit to the state could be perceived, it was difficult to prove in the court of law. The Syrian Regime was no different, appearing to resort to outsourcing some of the most vicious acts of violence of the conflict.

CIJA can now reveal how the highest levels of the Syrian Regime planned, organised, instigated and deployed these paramilitary groups in order to assist the state's crackdown on the opposition. Among CIJA's collection of over one million pages of documents produced by various Syrian state entities are those detailing the growth of the paramilitary organisations from small -or neighbourhood- level loyalist groups to a well-organised militia.

Although the Syrian Regime predominantly deployed its formal security structures to suppress anti-Regime demonstrations, it also featured the mobilisation and use of pro-Regime loyalist or paramilitary groups. Evidence in CIJA's possession -documents issued, signed and stamped by members of the Syrian Regime- show how the highest levels of the Regime mobilised, coordinated and supervised a wide cohort of Assad loyalists including Ba'ath party members, village defence forces and tribal groups, formalising some into Popular Committees and, ultimately, the National Defence Force.