Pages on social media circulated a report claiming that commander Jihad al-Ghoutani, the former brigadier general in the army of the ousted regime who fled to As-Suwayda after the fall of Assad and was appointed by Hikmat al-Hijri as commander of the "National Guard", had defected from Hikmat al-Hijri and arrived in Damascus, noting that he had smuggled prisoners out of As-Suwayda governorate.
Following up on the report, the fact-checking team cross-referenced information, including contacting the platform's correspondent in As-Suwayda, alongside a review of relevant open sources. Kashaf's correspondent confirmed that the report was untrue, denying that any defection by commander Jihad al-Ghoutani had taken place. Monitoring also showed no announcement or confirmation from any official body or credible source supporting the circulating allegations up to the time this fact-check was prepared.
Why is this claim misleading?
Absence of an official source: The defection report circulated without any announcement or confirmation from an official body or a credible source, while Kashaf's correspondent in As-Suwayda denied it on the ground. Presenting it as an established fact misleads public opinion about developments in the governorate.
