Damascus, SANA – President Bashar al-Assad on Friday evening held a call with Colonel Mahmoud Sabha, the commander of a group of Syrian Arab Army soldiers who were in Jisr al-Shughour Hospital.
“Your heroics are an expression of every soldier in the Syrian Arab Army. You held your ground and stood fast because you know neither defeat nor surrender,” President al-Assad told Col. Sabha.
“Your faith in God and your confidence that your colleagues in the Syrian Arab Army are coming to break the siege imposed on you are an indicator of the nature of this army, its conviction, and its faith in itself and in its members and their heroics.
“Your lives and the lives of every soldier in the Syrian Arab Army and popular defense forces always have been and always will be our foremost consideration, and we always seek to protect them,” President al-Assad said.
His Excellency said that the heroic acts of the soldiers and how they helped evacuate their wounded colleagues will show the world the morals and principles of the Syrian Arab Army.
President al-Assad asked God to have mercy on the souls of the martyrs from the hospital, the martyrs who fell during the operation to break the siege which had been imposed on the hospital for almost a month, and all the martyrs of the Syrian Arab Army who died to defend Syria, wishing full recovery to the wounded soldiers.
“I salute you and salute every soldier defending Syria’s soil,” His Excellency concluded.
For his part, Col. Sabha saluted President al-Assad and thanked him on behalf of himself and the soldiers from the hospital for his concern over them and their conditions.
He also thanked all the brothers in arms and all those who supported him and his colleagues and gave them morale while they were standing fast in the face of terrorists.
Hazem Sabbagh