Syrians routed by war find a safe haven in North Jersey

 

 'Alzouabi, 42, fled with his wife and eight children from Daraa, a hotbed of anti-government protest. In the first month of protests, Alzouabi said he saw a close friend shot to death at a demonstration. Another time, he said, he was beaten by the police who questioned him for using his cellphone at a checkpoint. Alzouabi said his sister’s house was burned to the ground. Soldiers destroyed houses and cars and searched houses during the 2011 siege of Daraa, when food and electricity were cut off to neighborhoods, he said.

 “Of course we were afraid, especially when there was shelling,” he said. “We’d run from one room to another, trying to predict where the shells would fall. Sometimes we’d run in the middle of the night to seek refuge in our neighbor’s basement.” '

 Seeking refuge from the government, not from a sectarian proxy civil war where we can't tell who the good guys are.