Issam Zahreddine

Issam Zahreddine (عصام زهر الدين) (sometimes also transliterated as Issam Zaher Eldin) is a Brigadier General of the Syrian Republican Guard, who has played a major role in the Syrian Civil War, leading Syrian Government forces on several fronts.

Background
Zahreddine is from al-Suwayda. He is a member of the Druze religious community. He was commissioned as an officer in the Airborne (Special Forces) Armoured units in 1985. Before that he served in the Baath Party's People's Militia as a conscript from 1982. In 1988, he was inducted into the Republican Guard.

Role in Syrian civil war
Zahreddine commanded the Republican Guard 104th brigade in Douma and Harasta alongside with Brigadier General Manaf Tlass before the latter's defection. This brigade was led by Bashar Assad before he became President, and by Basil Assad until his death in 1994.

In a statement to Human Rights Watch, a former Lietenant Colonel in the Syrian Army claimed that Zahreddine had ordered most of the beatings of protesters in Douma, during the early stages of the Syrian Civil War, and that Zahreddine always had an electric baton on his person, which he used to attack protesters.

Zahreddine is one of the most prominent and high-ranking members of the Druze community in Syria currently fighting for the Syrian government in the Syrian Civil War. In this role Zahreddine has been the subject of derision from other members of the Druze community, such as Walid Jumblatt, who has accused Zahreddine of fighting against his own people. Zahreddine was also singled out by a group of Druze religious leaders meeting in As-Suwayda in February 2013 as an individual deserving of death, in a statement otherwise decrying the use of violence by both sides.