Scandal: The Syrian regime uses Christians as human shields to break into Daraa and FSA saves them

 'The revolutionary factions in the Central Operations Room in the south managed to free a number of Christian civilians from the Syrian regime forces, who used them as human shields in the raids of Daraa.

 During the Syrian regime's progress to the town of Jbeib east of Daraa, its forces used civilians including women and men as civilian shields to prevent the Free Syrian Army from targeting, and after the introduction on the town's outskirts , the factions launched a counter-attack destroyed two tanks and killed many of the attackers, many families were liberated and later found to be Christians and were used as human shields.

 The operations room announced today the destruction of four tanks and a truck for the transfer of soldiers of the regime forces in addition to capturing a group of elements on the engagement fronts of the town of Jbeib and the air base and Zemel area.'

U.S. funding cuts are jeopardizing a Syrian information lifeline – and making life easier for ISIS

 Raed Fares:

 'On May 17th, I went into work at Radio Fresh, the independent radio I founded to report the truth about Syria. I sat down at my computer, pulled up my email, and had a rude awakening: a State Department contact had written to inform me “with great regret, that the United States has decided to stop funding projects like Radio Fresh” — effective as of June 30.

 Radio Fresh is one of the many organizations affected by President Trump’s decision to freeze $200 million in “stabilization aid” to humanitarian groups in Syria. Although the administration recently released funds to the White Helmets (the Syrian volunteer search and rescue group) in response to a broad media outcry, he is still withholding money for civil society groups and independent news organizations like ours.


 Trump’s aim is to bring an immediate end to U.S. involvement in Syria. But I have bad news for him: Without funding and support for independent voices like Radio Fresh, the world may witness the birth of another Islamic State in Syria, and that will create a long-term security threat to the United States.

 I started Radio Fresh in 2013 as a local station based in my hometown of Kefranbel to reach audiences in Idlib, Aleppo, and Hamah provinces. It was crucial that the Syrian people receive independent news about what was going on in their country, and there was no other station of that kind at that time.

 As a journalist and activist, I felt I had a duty to counter the fundamentalist narratives that are spreading among people who have no other source for hope in our war-torn homeland. For five consecutive years, we have broadcast news and promoted nonviolence. Listeners noticed our reliable coverage, and we quickly became the most popular independent voice, especially in liberated areas.


 Radio Fresh is more than a radio station: We provide media training for more than 2,500 young men and women. We are helping them become the citizen-journalists that are so badly needed in Syria. We employ more than 600 people, giving them the opportunity to think critically and join the nonviolent movement. That means we are directing people to be citizens that have the skills to contribute to a democratic society. We’ve also been the main source of on-the-ground information for the international press, which hesitates to send its reporters to conflict zones like Idlib. If it weren’t for us and other independent voices, terrorists would be the only source of information about Syria locally and internationally.

 For that reason, the terrorist groups (and the regime) see us as a direct threat. Radio Fresh’s office has been raided by Islamic State militants several times (and bombarded by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad twice). Employees have been abducted and harassed. In 2014, I almost lost my life when two armed men opened fire at me and shot me in the chest. It took me four months to recover. Two other times, terrorists hid bombs in my car. Between 2014 and 2015, I was abducted four times by al-Qaeda militants and released a few days later after being tortured.

 But we haven’t given up. We’re still broadcasting our independent coverage of the Syrian revolution, countering terrorism and advocating tolerance. But now we face a much more serious existential threat. When we close up shop, that shutdown won’t be because of Assad, Russian President Vladimir Putin, al-Qaeda, or even the Islamic State – it will be because of Trump’s decision.


 The liberated zones where we operate are especially vulnerable to power struggles, and supporting civil society and media groups here is absolutely crucial. Recent history has shown us again and again that enduring peace depends on the existence of a vibrant civil society and free political discourse, a marketplace of ideas where new voices can challenge dictatorship and terrorism. We’ve also seen cases — in Afghanistan and in Iraq (where the Islamic State began) – where a lack of civil society-building undermines democracy.

 The Syrian conflict escalated in part because terrorists are winning an ideological battle for Syria’s soul. The people in villages like Kefranbel, especially the children, have been living in an environment of war, hate, violence and scenes of bloodshed for more than six years. In the absence of peaceful, democratic political voices, terrorists have been able to convince Syria’s vulnerable youth that violence and destruction can somehow pave the way to stability. Civil society groups and independent media are working tirelessly to oppose these messages – in ways that resonate with local audiences. Syria’s democratic future relies on our success.

 Trump is giving his voters the impression that the United States has defeated the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. But the terrorists are still here, and so is their ideology. In the northwest region of Syria, in my hometown of Kefranbel, I’ve seen with my own eyes how al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups that were once scattered by U.S.-backed forces are regrouping and recruiting fearful and disenfranchised youth.

 Without groups like Radio Fresh to provide alternative messages, another generation will take up arms to found the Islamic State’s second and third editions. We receive financial support and other resources from international groups like the Human Rights Foundationand War Child, but it is not enough. We depend on assistance from the United States. If the Trump administration does not release the remaining budget allocated for humanitarian groups, Americans will have to spend billions of dollars more to protect their allies and even themselves from new threats.'

We live with dignity, or we die with honour. We will not surrender to the régime of injustice.

 'In the name of God, the most Gracious, the most Merciful.

 Praise be to God, and may prayer and peace be on the messenger of Allah.

 The decision has been taken by Houran's* rebels, Military Operations Room, Associations and Organisations. Our resistance and steadfastness are our only choices. We have achieved the free will that makes victory, after the whole world gave up and left us to face victory and freedom.

 We continue our battle, with our hope and loyalty to the revolution. We look forward to victory.

 Our revolutionaries are achieving victories on various fronts. The military campaign by the Assad régime and its militias, supported by the Russian occupation warplanes, which have followed a scorched earth policy for nearly 8 days, although it resulted in them advancing in many areas of Busra al-Harir and Mleila al-Atsh, has cost them a lot and their losses are great, after a complete inability to confront the rebels on the ground.

 Southern Syria will always be hard and strong, and will not give up, God willing. The fearful governments, that could not protect their agreements, see them violated before the world's eyes. Their concern for the South translates into letting the options be limited to negotiation, humiliation and submission.

 The real translation comes from the battlefield. In fulfillment to the blood of the martyrs, the demand that detainees be freed,  and the return of the displaced.


 Houran announces public mobilisation to join fighters defending it, and will recruit their sons be be under the Operations Room leadership and guidance. And this support of the people for its military leadership, is the key to victory, God willing.

 We in the Central Operations Room, are doing what we can to keep this promise, that we have given to our people. There will be resistance and steadfastness, under the fire of bombing and the lava of warplanes. And we have patience that Assad's gangs, militias and criminal accomplices can never match.


 Our words have united in the South in one clear vision and decision. We will never compromise on the principles of revolution. We value things accurately and in the right balance. We demand the world live up its responsibilities, and abide by its agreements, which should lead to a comprehensive solution at the national Syrian level. Which protects the country from war, and protects the dignity of the people.

 We say to our people, we will never surrender. We have taken our decision, and we will defend our land on military or political battlefields. We live with dignity, or we die with honour. We will not surrender to the régime of injustice. 

 Mercy for our martyrs, healing for our wounded, and freedom for our detainees.' 

 *Southwestern Syria. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauran]

Syrian Opposition Ignores US Advice on Daraa

 'Syria’s opposition forces decided on Sunday to ignore Washington’s warning not to expect a US military intervention in their support regarding the regime’s operation in the southern province of Daraa.

 Commander of the Southern Front factions Colonel Khaled Al-Nabulsi said that the group ignored the US advice by choosing to confront regime forces and their allied militias.

 “If there is an American advice, then it should go to the Russians and the Syrian regime which are called to respect their promises and agreements by de-escalating tension and not killing civilians,” the Colonel said.

 He added: “We should not continue to wait for a massacre to take place as it did in other Syrian regions.”


 Nabulsi explained that shortly after the US warning to the Syrian opposition, Russian warplanes took off from the Hmeimim air base in the direction of the South, triggering their military operation by mainly targeting the areas of Basra and Al-Lajat.

 “Such behavior is a clear announcement that Russia is terminating the de-escalation agreement in the South,” Nabulsi said.

 Last week, the US advised the opposition not to respond to the provocations of regime forces, whose helicopters dropped barrel bombs on opposition areas of the southwest.

 The US seeks to give a chance for a “diplomatic solution” to protect the de-escalation agreement brokered last year by Washington, Moscow and Amman.

 Meanwhile, regime forces pushed further in their military operation in the east of Daraa province, the first since reaching a de-escalation agreement one year ago.'

Syrian rebel warns of 'volcanoes of fire' if Assad attacks south

 'Syria’s southwest has come into focus since Bashar al-Assad and his allies crushed the rebel pockets near Damascus and Homs.

 Assad has vowed to recover opposition-held areas near the frontiers with Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and Assad's and allied forces are mobilizing. A major flareup there risks escalating the seven-year-long war that has killed an estimated half a million people.

 Violence flared in several parts of the southwest on Tuesday, with government warplanes launching air strikes near a rebel-held village. But there is no sign yet of the start of the big offensive threatened by the régime.

 The United States last week warned it would take “firm and appropriate measures” in response to Syrian government violations of a “de-escalation” agreement that it underwrote with Russia last year to contain the conflict in the southwest.


 “Everyone is on guard. We are still committed to the de-escalation agreement but if the regime launches any attack on any sector of the south, it will be faced by volcanoes of fire,” Nassim Abu Arra, commander of one of the main Free Syrian Army groups in southern Syria, the Youth of Sunna Forces, said.

 Rebels attacked a military convoy bringing reinforcements overnight in the Khirbat Ghazala area, igniting clashes between midnight and 2 a.m., he said.

 The air strikes near al-Masika village were a response to a separate rebel attack that destroyed a tank, he added.

 Families fled the rebel-held town of Busra al-Harir, fearing it could be targeted, activists said.


 The conflict in the southwest has been complicated by the role of Iran-backed forces and Israeli demands for them to kept away from the occupied Golan Heights and, more widely, to be removed from Syria entirely.

 Abu Arra said the reinforcements arriving in the southwest aimed to put pressure on rebels to succumb to government demands such as accepting “reconcilation” deals, or to surrender strategic positions including the Nassib crossing with Jordan.

 “But we have made up our minds. There will be no retreat from the principles of the revolution or surrender of a single inch of the Syrian south,” he said.

 On Tuesday the Israeli military said that a tactical Sklyark drone was lost along its “northern border” but did not say exactly where it fell. It said there was no risk of its finders gleaning any information.

 A military news outlet run by Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, which supports Assad militarily in Syria, said a drone fell in the government-held Syrian town of Hader near the Golan Heights frontier.'

Syria's Graffiti Kids Who Sparked Revolution, Now Brace For Regime Attack

 ' "Your turn, Doctor." Seven years after scribbling the anti-Assad slogan that sparked Syria's war, activists-turned-rebels Moawiya and Samer Sayasina are bracing themselves for a regime assault on their hometown Daraa.

 They were just 15 when they and friends, inspired by the Arab Spring revolutions they saw on television, daubed a groundbreaking message on one of the southern city's walls in the spring of 2011.

 "We'd been following the protests in Egypt and Tunisia, and we saw them writing slogans on their walls like 'Freedom' and 'Down with the regime'," said Moawiya, now 23.

 "We got a can of spray paint and we wrote 'Freedom. Down with the regime. Your turn, Doctor'," referring to President Bashar al-Assad, a trained ophthalmologist.

 Within two days, security forces stormed their homes and detained the boys, who are unrelated but share a common family name.

 "They tortured us to find out who had provoked us to write it," Moawiya said.

 The teenagers' detention prompted a wave of angry protests demanding their release, in what many point to as the spark to Syria's nationwide uprising.


 "I'm proud of what we did back then, but I never thought we'd get to this point, that the regime would destroy us like this. We thought we'd get rid of it," he said.

 The words that sparked the revolution more than seven years ago are no longer visible today, covered up under a coat of black paint.

 Samer, also now 23, remembers emerging from detention in March 2011 to find his whole country in uproar against the government.

 "We were in jail for about a month and ten days. When we got out, we saw protests in Daraa and all over Syria," he said.

 Violently smothered, the demonstrations evolved into a conflict that has since killed more than 350,000 people and thrown millions out of their homes.

 "In the beginning, I was proud of being the reason for the revolution against oppression. But with all the killing, the displacement and the homelessness over the years, sometimes I feel guilty," said Samer.

 "Those people who died or fled, all this destruction -- it all happened because of us."

 During the first months of protests, security forces rounded up dozens of people in Daraa, including 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib.

 After he was tortured to death, according to his family, he became one of the early symbols of the Damascus regime's brutal repression.

 With protests melting into civil war and rebels seizing territory, Moawiya and Samer took up arms in 2013.


 But the rebel movement has since fragmented and suffered a string of devastating blows, with the regime with Russian support retaking more than half the country.

 Last month, the army regained full control of Damascus for the first time since 2012, and Assad has now turned to the cradle of the uprising against him.

 In a recent interview, the president gave Daraa's rebels two options: negotiated withdrawal or full-fledged attack.


 But the young men who first demanded he step down remain determined to fight, as they once wrote, until the regime falls.

 "The regime's threats of entering Daraa don't scare me," Moawiya said.

 "Assad's regime may have weapons, but so do we. The only difference is he has warplanes and we have God Almighty."

 He refuses any settlement for Daraa like those that have preceded it for the armed opposition to evacuate other parts of Syria.

 "I'd prefer death to Bashar al-Assad's reconciliation," he said.

 Going out on patrol, Moawiya swapped his civilian clothes for grey military-style trousers and a black sweater.

 He moved between destroyed buildings with just sandals on his feet, a Kalashnikov in his hand and his eye trained on the horizon for any movement.

 Moawiya and Samer lost many friends to the war, including classmates from school who became their cellmates in jail.

 "We were a group of young guys," recalled Samer.

 "Some are dead now. Some fled. Some are still fighting," he said, counting off friends who died in clashes in 2015 or subsequent bombing raids on Daraa.

 Moawiya too struck a nostalgic tone.

 "We grew up on revolution, on weapons and on fighting. We started to lose friends, to bury them with our own hands. We grew up on war and destruction," he said.

 Despite the losses, he insisted: "My opinion of the revolution hasn't changed. For us, the revolution continues."

 "When I get married and have a son, I'll tell him what happened to me. I'll teach him to write on the wall whenever he sees injustice -- not to be afraid of anyone, and to write it all." '

Building the case against Assad's régime

 '20, 21, 24, 28, 34, 36, 40, 41, 83, 90, 92, 124 and 126. Yazan Awad repeats the days he was tortured like a mantra; the days the military prison guards smashed his legs with a club for six hours solid; the days they suspended him from the ceiling and beat him; the days they pushed a Kalashnikov up his rear. And the worst day of all; day 36.

 Awad joins other victims, witnesses and lawyers in Germany where the legal battle against Bashar al-Assad’s government is being waged. Almost 1.5 million refugees have flooded into the country over the last two years, and many are living proof of the atrocities committed in the regime’s prisons. Their presence, along with thousands of photos and Germany’s universal justice laws, has not only meant that cases such as Awad’s are being heard, but that the first international warrant has been issued for the arrest of a high-ranking official in the al-Assad regime.

 In a room a thousand kilometers from Berlin, the evidence needed to nail the culprits is stored in hundreds of cardboard boxes. This ‘who’s who’ of torture consists of hundreds of thousands of documents that have been smuggled out of Syria over a period of years showing who designed the gruesome game plan, who issued the orders, who carried them out and who turned a blind eye.

 These documents have been classified by veterans of the international justice system and are now driving investigations in a dozen different countries against middle-ranking Syrian government officials who have moved to Europe. But, more importantly, they are being used to construct a case against the al-Assad regime in order to avoid a Yugoslavia or Rwanda scenario, where a lack of evidence meant delaying justice for decades and, in many instances, forever. These documents mean that when the time comes for justice to be done, the evidence will be ready and waiting – the loopholes plugged.


 The first body of evidence against the Syrian regime is contained in the victim’s statements, which depict its repressive apparatus in grisly detail and reveal a pattern of systematic abuse. Over and over, their stories recount the pipes on the ceiling and the cables used to hang prisoners for beatings; the relentless cries of those being tortured; the overcrowded cells rife with infection; the uncertainty of not knowing if they would be alive the next day; the disappearance of fellow prisoners; the confessions wrung from them. And now, a desperate faith in justice that is keeping their spirits from breaking.

 Awad is a big guy; a 30-year-old who sought refuge in Germany two years ago after being imprisoned in the al-Mezzeh airport – which was under control of the Syrian military air force – for 137 days. “As soon as I arrived, they beat me for six hours. They lay us on the ground and beat us with pipes. They beat the soles of our feet. Then they put me in a cell with 180 people. The pain was terrible. I couldn’t go to the toilet. Two people had to drag me there.”

 Awad’s story pours out of him. “They beat me like crazy – my head with their boots and with the butts of their Kalashnikovs,” he says. “They stuck an AK-47 up my ass and I ate nothing for two months. It was dangerous to ask to see the doctor; for every 10 that went, only one would come back alive. They gave us 10 seconds to go to the toilet. In that time you had to drink, tend to your injuries, go to the bathroom and clean up.”


 On Day 36, “They told me they were going to kill me,” he says. “I was still hanging from the ceiling and they put a gun in my mouth and they told me to recite the shahada [the Islamic profession of faith]. I couldn’t stop stuttering and it took me more than 15 minutes. Someone fired a shot. They had cut the rope and I was on the ground. I thought they had killed me. They took the bandage from my eyes and I ran after them. I needed to see their faces so I could explain to God who they were on Judgment Day.”

 Awad had been a regular guy, living an ordinary life. Then, on April 29, 2011, he joined his first demonstration against the regime. The Arab Spring had seen the fall of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and suddenly anything seemed possible, even in Syria. The photos portraying the torture of the Daraa children acted as the catalyst. These were 14-year-old schoolboys whose only crime was to deface a public wall with the slogan, “Your turn doctor,” referring to Bashar al-Assad’s training as an ophthalmologist.

 “When I saw the photos of those children, I decided to fight the regime,” says Awad. First there were the demonstrators, like Awad, then came those who would help the demonstrators escape arrest and, finally, there would be a network of underground doctors and hospitals to tend to the injured involved in the protests.

 The start of the conflict in Syria was infused with hope, a sentiment that has been stamped out along with the lives of around 400,000 people. Now, in its eighth year, the conflict has also forced 11 million from their homes, amounting to almost half of the population. But perhaps worst of all, there is still no political solution on the horizon and no end to the suffering in sight.

 Despite all this, Awad is filled with a sense of purpose. “My friends are still in jail and I promised I would get them out. My dream is to speak in front of the UN Security Council. In 2012, they stopped the torture for two weeks and we were able to sleep because the cries and screams also stopped. And they gave us food. It was only in case UN inspectors came to check out the prison. Those two weeks were incredible. Paradise in hell.”

 After seeking asylum, Awad encountered the renowned Syrian lawyer Anwar al-Bunni – who had also moved to Germany – through the internet. His strategy began to take shape. “My time had come,” he says.


 In Damascus, al-Bunni was the go-to defense for political prisoners and when he got to Europe, the refugee community quickly sought him out. Soon he was inundated with messages from fellow Syrians who, like Awad, wanted his help and were keen to talk.

 In next to no time, he was able to compile first-hand accounts from all over Europe. From his office in the north of Berlin, where the only decoration is the Syrian flag, al-Bunni explains: “We are preparing witnesses in Norway and also in Stockholm. There’s a case going on in France brought by two victims with French nationality…” In total, there are five Syrian lawyers working in Berlin and another 30 scattered across the rest of Europe. He explains that among the 27 they are seeking to indict is Bashar al-Assad himself.

 Activism runs in al-Bunni’s blood. Between himself, his four brothers and his sister, they have chalked up 75 years in jail. Back in Damascus, al-Bunni was director of a well-known human-rights center that acted as a point of reference for western diplomats and European institutions. Accused of seeking to debilitate the country and of collaborating with international organizations, he spent five years in prison between 2006 and 2011. During that time, he says they tried to kill him twice.

 Al-Bunni was actually behind bars when the revolution took off in Syria. Following his release, Germany offered him asylum – his work had previously been recognized by the German Association of Judges. But al-Bunni stayed. Demonstrators were being arrested without any guarantee of charges or trials and al-Bunni made it his business to find them and secure their release. In 2012, his partner and friend Khalil Maatouk disappeared. Al-Bunni kept going until 2014 when the government ordered his arrest. Aware that his life was on the line, he fled to safety with his wife and children.


 “We know there are more than 60 people from the regime in Europe, but I am not scared of them,” says al-Bunni. “They should be afraid of me. They know me from my time in prison. They interrogated me every day and they know that the only way to shut me up is to kill me. If they kill me in Germany, it will be easy to catch them and they will go to jail and I will have achieved my goal.” He laughs. “I promise I will put them in jail, dead or alive; these people cannot be part of the political transition.”

 Al-Bunni is convinced there is a lot at stake for Europe too. “If we let the al-Assad regime go unpunished, it will be like giving carte blanche to the world’s dictators. If international law collapses, what will become of our societies?” he says.

 Al-Bunni is also part of a project that makes use of his contacts among the refugee community to track down criminals coming to Europe in the guise of refugees. These could be either officials from the regime or members of Islamic State and al-Nusra – Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate. “We know that more than 1,060 people with refugee status here have committed crimes,” he says. “And there’s a lot of evidence to prove it.”


 Among the documentation with the Attorney General is a crucial package containing 26,948 photos. Almost half of them show the dead bodies of detainees. They are known as the Caesar photographs, after the military defector who smuggled them out of Syria.

 Caesar was a forensic photographer with the military police. Between 2011 and 2013, his job was to photograph the corpses from the different prisons arriving at the 601 Military Hospital in Mezzah and the Tishreen Military Hospital, both in Damascus.

 Besides providing proof of identity, the images offer evidence of systematic abuse and the subhuman conditions within Syria’s detention facilities. Most of the bodies are emaciated, their bones jutting and their skin showing infection and sores as well as evidence of torture. There are marks indicating strangulation, burns and beatings; mouths whose teeth have been smashed and eyes filled with blood.


 In another corner of Europe whose location is being kept under wraps, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) carefully files the documented evidence of abuse. One-hundred-and-forty-five legal experts from around Europe and the Middle East have already compiled 800,000 pages of incriminating evidence.

 Bearing the initials of Syria’s National Security department, one lists categories of people to be detained, including demonstrators and people in contact with foreign journalists. “Clean all sectors of these people,” one document reads. Another asks that any new names extracted from interrogations be sent to the National Security office. There are also notes taken during interrogations.


 “The culprits aren’t going to be able to be tried in absentia, but the international arrest warrants send the message to the perpetrators that the crimes will not go unpunished,” explains María Elena Vignoli, an expert in international justice from Human Rights Watch.

 As such, for many Syrian refugees, the German justice system is currently its only hope. Maryam Alhallak is one of them: in 2012 they took away her son.

 Last July, Maryam Alhallak testified in court, explaining how she managed to confirm that her son was dead after seeing him among Caesar’s photos. Prior to this, she had spent three years in Damascus searching for his body in vain. “The government was looking for me and wanted to arrest me,” she says. “I went to call on all the officials, which is why they were after me and threw me out of my home.”

 A “mother courage” figure who nobody wanted to listen to. However, the German justice system has been keen to hear her story and that of her son, who was a supervisor in the Odontology faculty. “There were no charges against him,” she says. Her voice breaks.

 She takes a deep breath and, referring to the trial, continues: “I am very hopeful. Justice is all that is left to us.” '

Silent War: How Rape Became a Weapon in Syria

 ' "I didn't know what was happening to me except that I was screaming and I was in pain. I felt like my thoughts no longer belonged to my body and my body no longer to my soul. My soul was elsewhere and my body was in the hands of the monsters."

 In basements, prisons and their own homes, Syrian women were repeatedly raped for "crimes" such as participating in peaceful demonstrations or to send a message to their husbands, fathers and brothers.

 "Every free citizen or any citizen engaged in the revolution has had one of the women of his family sent to detention ... His sister, his daughter, his wife. The message is, 'Either you surrender or we keep your wife or your daughter'. The regime used rape to humiliate the Syrian men," explains one woman who served in the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for eight years before defecting.

 "They started to rape women at roadblocks, at home in front of their husbands, their children …. At some point, the regime took a new approach. It recorded videos of the rapes of women in detention and sent them to the fighters."

 Soldiers were, in turn, encouraged to film themselves raping women so that the videos could be sent to the women's families.

 It is a topic filmmaker Manon Loizeau has long wanted to tackle.

 "Since I made my first film in Homs in 2011, I have thought about how to make a film about the unnameable," she says. "The family I was staying with took me to a house where there lived a woman who had just been released from the torture cells of Bashar al-Assad. She stood pale and frail by the door, then left without saying a word, too afraid to speak. For all those years, I wondered how to tell this story."

 Through their harrowing personal testimonies, the women in Silent War tell not only the story of what takes place in these cells but of what happens when they leave them, returning to a society that stigmatises, rejects and punishes them for being raped, sometimes to the point of death.

 "The regime raped her and society rejects her. If it happens to you, then you must die. But it happened to me and I did not die. What can I do?" asks one woman.

 "We are trapped between traditions on one side and the regime on the other. And we die caught in between." '

Armed factions join forces to counter Syrian regime gains

 'Military factions in northern and central Syria are joining forces to form the National Liberation Front (NLF) and calling on others to join them in building a new democratic state that preserves the rights of all Syrians regardless of ethnicity.

 The NLF includes a number of major opposition military factions operating in northern and central Syria, among them the Free Idlib Army, Martyrs of Islam Brigade, Jaish al-Nasr and others. The group officially launched in May, when Col. Fadlallah Al-Hajji was appointed commander in chief, with Lt. Col. Suhaib Leoush as his deputy and Maj. Mohamed Mansour as chief of staff.

 “The NLF is a new military formation that was the result of four months of consultations and negotiations between the leaders of the Free Syrian Army factions. The leaders realized how serious this phase is and how important it is to have a unified front, a unified position and unified efforts on the military, political and security levels, to find solutions and face any hardships," NLF spokesman Capt. Naji Abu Hudeifa said.

 “The NLF is committed to the objectives and principles of the Syrian revolution. It seeks to overthrow [President] Bashar al-Assad's regime and to hold him accountable for his terrorism and the killing of the Syrian people,” he added. “One of its other objectives is to defend the people against the attacks of any terrorist organization, such as the Kurdistan Workers Party and the Democratic Union Party.”

 The new group's members are deployed on most fronts and regions in Syria, especially Idlib province and the western, southern and northern countryside of Aleppo, as well as on the Syrian coast in the Kurd Mountains and the Turkmen region, and in Afrin.

 "Our members are ready to thwart any attack by the enemy," Abu Hudeifa said.

 The NLF has no direct civil activities. "Its role is limited to providing assistance to local civil councils that run the opposition-controlled cities, towns and villages," he added. "We are always ready to provide whatever help these local councils might need.”

 Syrians who oppose Assad’s regime, as well as activists at home and abroad, have long called for unifying the armed military factions. Syrian activists in several opposition-controlled areas in past years have organized popular demonstrations calling on the factions to unite and overcome their differences. In the past, disagreements evolved into direct military confrontation between factions, such as the battles between Jaish al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman in eastern Ghouta in mid-2017. Activists later said such battles allowed the Syrian regime forces to take control of eastern Ghouta in March.

 Activist Moumtaz Abu Mohammed from northern rural Aleppo said, “Every action that unifies the military factions is seen as a positive step. The years of division have paved the way for the Syrian regime forces to advance and take over large areas once controlled by these factions.”

 He added, “The regime and its allies want to end this in the field, ignoring all cease-fire agreements signed in Astana [Kazakhstan] and elsewhere. All military factions operating in Syria should join forces as soon as possible to prevent a future catastrophe in the remaining areas under their control in northern Syria.”


 Many Syrians have high hopes for unifying the armed military factions to thwart attacks by regime forces that are supported by Russia and Iran. The regime has displaced thousands of people into the north. Syrians believe that as long as division prevails among opposition factions, battles are bound to erupt in the areas they still control in northern Syria — and then the displaced would have nowhere else to go, save a few opposition-controlled areas in southern Syria.

 Other militias forming NLF include Sham Legion, 1st Coast Division, Second Coast Division, 1st Infantry Division, Second Army, Elite Army, al-Forkh 23 and the Horya Brigade.'