Syria urges people to join army

Damascus

With the Syrian army's ranks depleted by casualties and rampant draft-dodging, a new campaign in the war-torn country is urging citizens to enlist. In recent weeks, billboards have sprung up across Damascus reading "Join the army," "We are all the army," and "With our army, we'll win our country."

The campaign is the work of a pro-government organisation known as the "Syrian Women's Group for Good Deeds," which includes mothers and daughters of Syrian soldiers. One billboard shows two soldiers in fatigues, a man saluting and a woman pointing, under the phrases: "Our army means us" and "Join the army."

Another shows a soldier in uniform next to a smiling girl with her hand raised in a victory sign. More than 80,000 soldiers and other pro-regime fighters have been killed in the four-year conflict, out of a total of roughly 230,000 dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

And many Syrians, even those who support the regime, have been reluctant to show up for mandatory two-year military service, with up to 70,000 failing to enlist, according to the Observatory.

The combination of casualties, defections, and draft-dodging has seen the country's 300,000-strong military halved in size since the conflict began in March 2011, according to experts.