The Shabiha surfaced in the Seventies as Alawite gangsters from the seaside area with connections to the al-Assad household. They were engaged in drug- and weapons-smuggling from Lebanon, where they shifted those and more harmless items from the more solid economic climate next entrance into the shut Syrian community.
The name Shabiha is believed to be taken from the Persia phrase for "ghost."
Photos: In Syria, household associates escape and rebels fight
One Syrian author, Yassin al-Haj Shalih, says it represents individuals running "outside the law and residing in the dark areas." He and others also think it might be taken from "shabah," the name of a Bmw style that Shabiha associates owned.
After the rebellion began last season, the Shabiha were recruited as program martial artists, and the significance of the phrase is commonly considered as "thug."
