Syrian aid smugglers haggle for flour in Turkey

 'Abu Omar and Ammar, both in their 40s, fled their homeland seven months ago because of the sectarian strife in the Alawite-dominated region, the minority Shiite Muslim sect to which President Bashar al-Assad's entourage belongs.

 Abu Omar, a former physics teacher, does not hide his animosity towards the Alawites.

 "The Sunnis started the revolution because all the power and money lay in the hands of two million people," he says.

 Former lawyer Ammar, whose office was destroyed by shelling in his hometown in Latakia province, left with his wife and five children.

 Rami studied medicine at Aleppo University and spent almost a decade abroad in Saudi Arabia and Britain before returning to Syria. He decided to stay when the revolution began.

 "It was everybody's dream that a revolution would start, so we stayed to help as much as possible," says the doctor who works in the region's only field hospital.

 The three men agreed to talk to journalists and to be identified because they no longer fear for the safety of their families, who have escaped to Turkey.'