On the evening of Sunday, the regime focused its operations in the al-Waer neighborhood in the central city Homs, announcing its control of the last rebel strongholds in the city of Homs, through a deal whose key contributor was Major-general Hussam Luka.
The deal brought Luke back to the front, a security officer whom the regime invested in in Homs more than once since the beginning of the revolution.
Who is Luka and what is the secret that made Bashar refute all this confidence in him entrusting him with negotiation and authorization to overcome the biggest node in the way of the deployment of the regime in the city of Homs?
The intelligence archive in the possession of Zaman al-Wasl reveals the full name of al-Waer deal godfather Hussam Anya Luke, the son of Mohammed Nuri. The information confirms that Luka comes from Khanasir town in Aleppo countryside, and belongs specifically to the Circassian race, whose sons settled these areas since the beginning of the last century.
A retired intelligence officer who served with Luke said that the latter was working in a police station in Aleppo. He was then a lieutenant colonel when he was chosen to join the Political Security Division, the security service of the Interior Ministry.
The dissident officer told Zaman al-Wasl that Luke served under the command of Rafiq Shehadeh in the Political Branch in Damascus, and there, the two men had strong relationship and Shehadeh remained the biggest support for Luke.
Shehadeh, who was a personal guard to Hafiz al-Assad, was known for his eloquence and brutality even so he had the power to terminate Major General Rustom Ghazali, head of the Political Security Division, and the symbol of Syrian intelligence mandate in Lebanon.
Later Bashar dismissed Shehadeh from the presidency of the most powerful intelligence apparatus in the military repressive regime.
The dissident intelligence officer noted that Luke sill is close to Brigadier Suhail Hassan, one of the most famous and most powerful air force intelligence officers.
Luke served for many years before and during the revolution as head of the political security branch in Homs. This enabled him to build a strong and extensive network of relations. He returned to Homs Square with greater vigor recently, as the political security legacy and representative of the General Intelligence Directorate, popularly known as the State Security), where he has been the assistant to the GID since the summer of last year.
Our source points out that Luke is well known for his intelligence and is famous for his corruption. He had a strong relationship with the former governor of Homs, Iyad Ghazal whom people in Homs demanded his ouster before any other official in the regime, the first days of peaceful protests.
Luka is one of the first officers to be listed on the Western sanctions list. This may be due to the fact the officer served the most years of the revolution in Homs as the head of the political security branch and vice chairman of the security committee. Both positions put him in direct contact with field decisions and regime army officers especially in the Fourth Division.
In the autumn of 2015, for example, he was accused of participating in the so-called Eid massacre in al-Waer neighborhood, where a young children's playground was bombed and 19 people, including 14 children, were killed.
But the arms of Luke not only surround Homs, but extends far beyond the most important in determining the fate of Aleppo, the second city of Syria and its economic capital, where Luke recruited an army of mercenaries who defended his vital hometown and its main supply artery.
In 2012, it became impossible for the regime to take the main road to Aleppo after an important part of the road fell into the hands of the rebels. The regime was quick to take an alternate route from Khanasir, For years, even if the Khanasir artery has been completely cut off, the control map in Aleppo and its city may have been something quite different from what we see today.
These fighters recruited by Luke fight in the ranks of Bashar and helps him to continue his crime most of them are Circassians who fled from the brutality and criminality of the Russians in the early 20th century.
According to historical sources, the Russian invasion of the Caucasus (or Caucasus) resulted in the displacement of about 700,000 Circassians, through three major waves, the most recent in 1919 where displaced Circassians settled in Khanasir
