Alleged Nusra militant grabs Syrian uprising flag during anti-Assad protest

 'Activists and locals from Aleppo and Idlib took the streets of the rebel-held city of Idlib at the clock tower in solidarity with those suffering in eastern Aleppo. During the demonstration, the people chanted for the Free Syrian Army to unite, for Russia and Iran to stop bombing Syria and to show solidarity with Aleppo.

 They chanted: “Aleppo, we are with you till death”.

 Activists held banners that read: “The conscious of humanity is burning in Aleppo.”

 Hadi Abdullah, a Syrian media activist who has survived many assassination attempts by the Syrian regime and has covered the massacres in Aleppo attended the protest and said that during the march, a man ran up and grabbed one of the freedom flags 'angrily' and tried to destroy it. He said a group of men ran up and confronted the guy, grabbing the flag back. According to Hadi, the man who attempted to disrupt the peaceful protest, could be affiliated with Nusra front.

 Hadi said his message to the people of the world is: "It's very shameful that the world has abandoned the oldest-inhibited city filled with civilians for ruthless killers to destroy every house, rock for rock, and kill its own people. We have lost hope in international justice, human rights… We’ve lost hope that the international community would stand up for the victim in the face of the oppressor. There is one thing that I am sure of, we will continue with our revolution for freedom and justice until we win or die.” '

Europe can stop Syria's suffering

Shiyar Khaleal:

 'I consider myself lucky to have survived one of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s detention centres. Since the start of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, hundreds of thousands of innocent people have been arrested and unlawfully detained for: seeking freedom, democracy and a government accountable to its people, the same crimes I was charged with.

 The vast majority of those arrested cannot tell the accounts of the horror they saw and experienced. They are dead. For every person killed inside a regime prison cell, thousands more starve and are tortured, too often with sexual violence, in captivity. Former chief prosecutor of the special court of Sierra Leone, Desmond Lorenz de Silva, likens torture inside Assad’s jails to “industrial-scale killing.”

 While the world’s attention was on the outcome of the US elections, on 16 November I travelled to Brussels with a delegation of Syrian human rights lawyers and former detainees to meet with senior EU diplomats. Our message is clear: Europe must be a moral partner for the Syrian people and pave the way for a new comprehensive approach on Syria. This is now even more important given the outcome of the US elections.

 Our delegation in Brussels bore the onus of speaking for all those who perished in detention. They all are a constant reminder of why, we Syrians, first came to the streets, and why our revolution endures. Efforts to secure the release of detainees will save lives and help unlock efforts to reach a political solution. The Syrian people have repeatedly called on the regime to release detainees as a confidence-building measure. Making progress on the detainee's file remains one way to restart meaningful negotiations for a political transition.

 Justice and peace in Syria will also translate to more security in Europe. The refugee crisis and the rise of terrorist attacks show Europe is not isolated from Syria's crisis. Yet, neither terrorism nor the refugee crisis will be addressed without genuine accountability in Syria.

 There are concrete steps the EU can take to guarantee justice and accountability for the Syrian people. For example; the EU and its member states should lead an effort both within Europe and the UN General Assembly to demand that international monitors, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, gain immediate access to all Syrian detention facilities, including secret facilities controlled by foreign militias.

 As the Caesar photos show, some of Assad’s harshest forms of ‘justice’ are meted out with daunting regularity in these facilities, where detainees are raped, tortured, starved, suffocated, shot, and murdered. As the EU's foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini steps up her regional engagement, we call on her to press the regime - and its backers in Moscow and Tehran - into suspending all execution orders in the detention centres. Those responsible for kidnapping, torturing, and executing innocent people must be held responsible.

 Syrians deserve a future where they can live safe, free of tyranny and fear of indiscriminate bombs. As long as hundreds of thousands of Syrians are detained unlawfully, no Syrian is free. That’s why we need Europe to stand up and ensure those responsible for abuses and tortures inside Syrian’s prisons will be brought to justice. Accountability and transitional justice are critical for a future free Syria for all Syrians.'

'Will Not Surrender': Syrian 'White Helmet' Describes Aleppo Siege

 'Ismail Alabdullah, a volunteer rescue worker with the White Helmets, described the siege as the heaviest bombing he had experienced in the country's five-year civil war.

 "I can't describe this bombing, I mean non-stop bombing, every time, every second, every minute."

 Alabdullah pleaded for help from the international community to "end this massacre," but he acknowledged that such an outcome was, at this point, unlikely.

 "I'm pretty sure, 100 percent they will not do anything," he said, adding: "The Syria revolution is now going to end. They will not hear our voices."

 Alabdullah said it was impossible to leave to Aleppo — "there is no road to go out" — and that many people remain trapped in a small western section of the city. There is no electricity there, nor are there medical supplies and he anticipated running out of fuel in two days, he said.

 "The streets are full of people," he said. "They are walking in the streets without any, like, clothes or food."

 He added: "It's like more than hell."

 Still, Alabdullah said he had no choice but to continue working.

 "I didn't stay in Aleppo City for these years to surrender at the end," he said. "We are doing our duty to our country and for our people. Will not surrender, will not give up, will not give up." '

How Can You Heartbreak A Stranger?

 Yasmine Nahlawi:

 "Up until now the Security Council has been paralysed because of Russian and Chinese vetoes. but the draft resolution that the Security Council put forward last month was vetoed by Russia alone. If we continue to rely on the Security Council as a scapegoat for not engaging in any action, there will be no action on Syria. What we are advocating for is the pursuit and the convening of an emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly. This is an alternative to overcome the abuse of vetoes in the Security Council, when there is a situation that threatens international peace and security, as Syria obviously does. The Canadian government is involved in calling for an emergency special session. It has submitted a letter to the President of the General Assembly last month, signed by over 70 countries including the UK, calling on the President of the General Assembly to convene an emergency special session on Syria; and should this happen, the General Assembly would be able to recommend measures, including the use of force, for states to take with respect to Syria.

 The Syrian heartbreak is twofold. The first is obviously the family, friends, cities, neighbourhoods, communities, memories, that you've left behind, and the people you know who continue to face starvation by Assad, continue to face bombardment by Assad and Russia. So that's the first heartbreak that Syrians face. The second heartbreak is just watching all of this, and realising that the international community is doing absolutely nothing. It could be as simple as dropping humanitarian aid on to besieged areas, and if the international community isn't even willing to do that, then us Syrians have faced a very big heartbreak in this respect."

 David Miliband:

 "We've spoken to people today, and they describe the situation and I quote as "Doomsday" in East Aleppo. And of course the key point is it's not only East Aleppo that there is a pounding of an incessant kind. In East Damascus, in the south-west of the country, there are people with that worry as well, and it gives the lie to the argument that this is being done to target ISIS or Jabhat al-Nusra. In Eastern Damascus it's rebel groups that do not fall into those two categories. So I think you are right to say there is a very high order of concern. I'm afraid that recommendations from the General Assembly don't carry the same weight or the same action as a decision of the Security Council can, and it's the Security Council that can invoke force and deploy UN force and of course provide legal cover for other countries to do their own actions. I think it's very important that it's political division that has neutered efforts to bring relief to the people of Syria, and inside Eastern Aleppo. Since the 13th of November, they've had no food aid at all.

 The history of air drops is far from simple. The dangers are real for the people on the ground, never mind the people flying there. Certainly they should be on the table, and if Hilary Benn has made the point that we're in last resort situation, he's absolutely right to do so. Secondly, it's vital that we don't lose sight of the core demand, which is a cessation of hostilities and a freeze in the fighting, because until that happens, there will be no space at all for the political movement necessary. One other point, I want to know who ordered the bombing of the IRC medical facilities this year. Our own organisation has had eight hospitals bombed this year. Accountability for war crimes, and that's what we're talking about, bombings of humanitarian centres marked on maps, that then get bombed, I want to know as the CEO of the International Rescue Committee who is ordering those things. It's the breakdown not just of mechanisms for action in the Security Council that's of concern, it's also the breakdown of any sense of accountability for one of the most heinous crimes we've seen this century.

 I think that the consequences of the 2003 decision [to go to war in Iraq] are clear for all to see, and in various aspects have been disastrous. But I think it's also very important to say that the uprising in Deraa in 2011 was a homegrown revolt against autocratic rule. And it's very important that in the West there is proper recognition of decisions that are made in the West. I was a Schools Minister in 2003, and I say very clearly about the mistakes that were made in 2003, and the mistakes, frankly, that were made subsequently in the administration of the peace, never mind the waging of the war, after 2003. It's also important to say that history is made by Arabs in the Middle East too, and the people of Aleppo who made peaceful protests in 2011, the people of Deraa where the civil war started, were protesting and demanding accountable government. And I think it's very important not to forget that the conflict that's happening in Syria is not just a sectarian one between different confessional denominations in the country. It's also part of a demand for accountable and legitimate government, never mind the wider geopolitical and intra-regional conflagration that has been taking place since then."

Aleppo 'faces starvation' amid continued bombardment

 'Deadly offensive continues as residents of eastern Aleppo face harsh winter conditions and critically low food supplies. At least 39 people, including five children, have been killed in the latest round of air strikes and shelling in and around the Syrian city of Aleppo. Witnesses and activists said the air strikes on Friday destroyed two women's hospitals in Aleppo and Idlib province, as the renewed government offensive to capture Aleppo city from opposition fighters stretched into its tenth day. Some residents said meat now costs $50 per kilo, compared to $9 four months ago.

 Mohamed Shbeeb, a freelance journalist trapped inside the besieged city, said conditions in Aleppo were rapidly deteriorating.

 "Since the early [Saturday] morning, Russian warplanes attacked the city. Many people were killed. In the last 10 days in this campaign, more than 500 people have been killed by Russian air strikes and ballistic missiles. All the hospitals in the city are out of service. So the injured are a risk as there is only limited medical aid available. The situation is becoming worse every day. Food supplies have almost dried up. All stores are closed. Some people sell vegetables that they grow in their garden. Other food is no longer available."

 On Friday, Raed al-Saleh, the head of the Syria Civil Defence, or White Helmets, said the inhabitants of east Aleppo have fewer than 10 days to receive aid or face starvation and death from a lack of medical supplies. The volunteer group, which works in opposition-held territory and has rescued thousands of people from buildings bombed in the civil war, is also running out of basic equipment from Lorries to diesel and gas masks.

 With freezing winter conditions setting in, about 275,000 people are trapped in eastern Aleppo, where the last UN food rations were distributed on November 13. Anti-government fighters in east Aleppo have agreed to a plan for aid deliveries and medical evacuations, according to UN officials, but the global body is awaiting a "green light" from Russia and the Syrian government before it can begin operations.'

A Message To the world From Bilal Abdul Kareem Inside Besieged Aleppo

 Bilal Abdul Kareem:

 'I am Bilal Abdul Kareem. I am a journalist for On The Ground News, but today, I'm going to step out from my role as a journalist, and I'm going to talk to you directly, one person who is in Eastern Aleppo, as you can see, to the rest of the world. My message here is very simple and it is very compact, and that is this: if there is anyone who is out there, who believes that this war that is taking place here, inside of Syria, is a war on terrorism, I am telling you, that the people saying it are playing you for a fool. I will say this again. Anyone out there who hears someone saying they are attacking Aleppo because they are going after Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (or Jabhat al-Nusra) or some terrorists, know for a surety they are playing you for nothing more than an abject fool.

 In this city, in the last week, I'm talking seven days, in the last week, five hospitals have been put out of service. Now what do I mean, out of service? That they just hang an out of service sign on the door? No. What I mean by out of service, is that the hospitals have been blasted to powder, killing both patients and doctors, and children and women, and anyone else who happened to be in the area at that time. That is what I mean when I say hospitals here have been put out of service. They have been targeted by barrel bombs, missiles, and Grad rockets. Our office was near one of these hospitals. Which is why these days, everybody's seen me wear the same clothes for almost the last week, because all our clothes were destroyed in the Grad rocket attack, and the ensuing fire that took place after it.

 Now, I didn't come here today simply just to give you a history lesson, in terms of what is happening here in Aleppo. You have to ask yourself a question. How in the world could you fall for, and believe, that a person who killed more than half a million people, is not the terrorist? However, some small groups that happen to be operating here in Syria, are the terrorists? I am saying to you, in no uncertain terms, that in Eastern Aleppo, the groups that you have here, are protecting the Syrian people from the same entity, the Syrian Arab Army, that has killed so many people, has produced so many deaths, so many injuries, that even now, the people cannot even say that they can go to a hospital, so that they can be treated for their broken legs, or their missing limbs.

 This is a reality that the world is going to have to come to grips with. So now, if I didn't come here today to tell you these things, then what in the world did I get in front of the camera for? I'll tell you. My message here today is clear. I am calling on every single man, woman, and any child that wants to participate, to go to any Syrian or Russian embassy, around the world, and you get all of your friends and your family, and everybody else, and you demonstrate in front of the embassies. Now, wait a minute. People are going to sit there and say, "In our country, you can't just walk up in front of the embassy and have a protest." So to that I would say this, go to whatever council you have to go to in your respective country, and get the permission for it. If they don't give the permission in 24-48 hours, then you bring 10,000 people in front of that building and tell them, "We want the permission, we're going to demonstrate, we want the permission right now."

 Why would you do that? You do that because no-one likes terrorists, no-one likes terrorism. But terrorists don't grow in a vacuum. Everybody would have to understand, that when you look at groups like ISIS, ISIS was born in Iraq, and the oppression there. And they migrated here to Syria. So as I see them, these people are terrorists. But, everyone knew the Americans were oppressing the Iraqi people, and therefore they did nothing, and now you have ISIS. So I am saying to you, if you are serious, I mean if you are really serious, that you don't want a terrorist attack to happen to you, or to your family members, or to anybody anywhere around the world, it is incumbent for people like you and me and everybody to stand up to terrorism. And if you can't say that Bashar al-Assad, who has killed more than a half a million people, has displaced half of the Syrian population, and has done all that they are doing here right now; if you cannot call him a terrorist, then I would have to say, that something is severely wrong with you.   

 I'd just like to introduce to everybody, before I do go, my little companion. I don't know what her name is. But I promised her owner, who lost quite a few family members, and her uncle's building was demolished. When I say demolished, I'm using the linguistic term demolished,  there is nothing left of the building. Alhamdulillah, they were able to escape uninjured. But I promised I would do this video, with her doll, and she was nice enough to loan it to me. So I would have to go back to her, and I want to tell her the world is listening, the world is hearing, and the world is gong to come together and do something to take these atrocities away from her population, and the people here in Aleppo, and in Syria in general.

 Finally, I say to you, don't you dare fall for anybody who's telling you - I don't care if his name is Obama, Putin, Assad, or whatever the case is - that what is happening here in Aleppo is that they are fighting terrorists, and terrorism. My name is Bilal Abdul Kareem. Do share this video, don't hit the stop button until you decide to share it.'

Surviving Bashar: Syrian women tell stories of rape, torture

 ' “They stripped my clothes off and did their worst”, Shandana uses an alias, afraid of revealing her identity, as she tells us about her detention, torture and rape by Syrian regime forces.

 Wearing large dark glasses, that cover most of her face, Shandana tells us her journey from a suburb of Damascus to Bashar al Assad’s torture chamber.

 “At the beginning of the revolution, I was helping with relief work with opposition activists. The regime considered this as a terrorist activity. I now wish they had tortured me like a man, at least I could live with myself”, she said.

 Mariam was a nurse in Hama when a military intelligence unit detained her. “They hung me up from my hands for three days, then pulled my teeth out using pliers and then they did things to me no human could imagine.”

 As she told her story, Mariam broke down several times, crying, as she recollected that time in her life in 2013.

 “These are women who have lost everything,” said Ali Zeer, a Syrian lawyer, now living in Turkey. Zeer has documented eighty-five cases of women who said they were raped and tortured by regime forces.

 “They would make women watch gang-rapes of both men and women. It would have the desired effect”, said Zeer. He told us that women would readily confess to crimes they did not commit and would also implicate family members in anti-regime activities.

 “The screams were the worst”, said a woman in a white scarf with a Syrian flag. She spoke of women being humiliated in front of her. “They’d tie the women to beds posts and then a man called Azrael would go around with a sharp-ended stick. There was blood everywhere”, said the woman in the white scarf.

 “They’d say anything, admit to any crime to avoid a similar fate” said Zeer the lawyer. But a confession was often the beginning, not the end of a victims struggle.

 Once released the survivors were abandoned by their families. In many cases husbands would divorce survivors for dishonoring the family.

 “This would happen even if the women had not been raped”, said Zeer.

 He says in some cases women even contemplated suicide. “They will live with severe trauma for the rest of their lives”, he said. 

 “We lost everything.  We lost our families and our children”, said Shandana with tears trickling beneath her large sunglasses.' 

A message from the people of Aleppo to the world

 Dr. Hamza al-Khatib:
  'Today marks the 91th day of the siege of the city of Aleppo. According to Aleppo city council statistics, 271,536 are stuck inside the east of Aleppo, over 2300 strikes including airstrikes, explosive barrels, artillery, cluster bombs, bunker-busters and bombs, loaded with chlorine gas have been documented just over the last 23 days. 8 hospitals and medical centers have been struck, 4 hospitals over the last week, 6 schools, 2 bakeries and civil defense HQ. 

 Both Russian and Syrian regime air-forces are intentionally targeting the civilian infrastructure in order to break people’s will, currently people have almost zero access to medical care, people are afraid to go to hospitals due to the intentional Russian and Syrian regime airstrikes. It has been almost 6 years and we are wondering what the world was doing… more than 500 000 people have died, how many hospitals or schools does it take to see real actions against war crimes in Syria? It can’t get more gruesome than this, we are in 2016, and 271,536 people are trapped in a besieged city facing death from bombardment and possibly very soon starvation, the dysfunctionality of the world is responsible for 500,000 deaths and those 271,536 trapped in the city, we wonder why do we have U.N, why do we have human rights laws?

 This has been a slow-motion train wreck, and this message is from the people who lasted in Aleppo to the world, don’t look back years from now and wish that you could have done something, you can still do, we ask you to ground Assad air-force that’s killing us, or at least have some diplomatic leverage to force the Syria regime and Russia’s bombardment of the city of Aleppo to be stopped. We ask you to open a demilitarized humanitarian corridor for the people of Aleppo to revolutionary-held areas under the observation of the U.N only without the presence of any other groups or countries, a corridor that allows free movements of food, fuel, medicines and all merchandises for the civilian essential infrastructure inside eastern Aleppo, “water stations, electricity, hospitals, schools and civil defense”, facilitating both relief aid and trade movements. Revolutionary armed groups have agreed on allowing relief aid passage to eastern Aleppo, yet both the Syrian regime and Russia are refusing. If the international community won’t be able to open the previous mentioned corridor, or be able to convince the Syrian regime to pass the relief aid toward eastern Aleppo, we urge the world and the west specially to airdrop the humanitarian aid as there are already warplanes for the US-led collation in Syria not far from Aleppo city.

 We are the people of eastern Aleppo and we emphasize that we have no problems with relief aid airdrop. The international community holds responsibility of any future consequences of Aleppo's besiegement. We are hoping that our voices will be heard, and Aleppo will be saved.'

Newest Australian reveals atrocities of Madaya siege

 'Nurse Khaled Naanaa, 31 stands at Kings Park lookout in Perth, Western Australia, staring out at the Swan River. "To me, Australia is like heaven on Earth," Mr Naanaa said. "Not long ago I was under barrel bombings, snipers' shootings, amputating people's legs. I've gone from hell to heaven. It's an amazing feeling."

 Nine months earlier he had been trapped inside the besieged town of Madaya, Syria, running the only medical clinic in a town where children were slowly being starved to death. It is only now that Mr Naanaa and his wife and daughter are safe, as newly arrived refugees in Australia, that he can tell the full story of what happened in Madaya.

 "One day when the Bashar al-Assad Government falls, this documentation of war crimes will be used to indict them in the courts of The Hague."

 Mr Naanaa grew up in the Syrian capital Damascus, where he studied nursing at university. After graduating, he spent much of his career working as a surgical and anaesthesia nurse at government hospitals.

 Late one evening in April 2011 he was on duty at Tishreen military hospital when a busload of injured protesters was brought through the hospital gates. An uprising against Mr Assad's rule had begun two months earlier, and now unarmed protesters had been shot in the streets by regime troops. But hospitals were no safehaven. To Mr Naanaa's horror, instead of treating the wounded, his colleagues began to beat and torture the injured demonstrators.

 Mr Naanaa refused to join in, and instead became part of a secret underground medical network in Damascus, treating wounded opposition supporters across the capital.

 "We treated people away from the eyes of the regime, it could have been in a kitchen, in a bedroom, in any place. This job was done very secretly, I didn't tell my family even."

 In 2012, Mr Naanaa moved to the opposition-held town of Madaya, a mountainous village about 40 kilometres from Damascus and close to the Lebanese border. There he helped set up a medical clinic and makeshift surgical theatre, assisted by a young dentistry student and a vet.

 "During those years it was all happening. Shelling every day, barrel bombs, daily massacres. I always had emergency cases to take care of," Mr Naanaa said.

 He taught himself how to perform surgeries by watching YouTube videos.

 "I used to have to look things up, in medical guides or watch on YouTube," Mr Naanaa said. 

 As the most qualified medical practitioner in the town, the young nurse became "Dr Khaled" to the 40,000 residents of Madaya. In July 2015, the situation in Madaya took a dramatic turn for the worse. The rebel-held town became completely besieged by the Syrian Government and its ally, the Lebanese Shiite militia group Hezbollah. Access to and from the town was blocked.

 "They began planting landmines, sniping, watch towers, the situation became impossible for anyone to be able to leave Madaya," Mr Naanaa said. "During July it became a 100 per cent siege, it was impossible to allow in even a grain of wheat … There was no baby milk, no food, no drinks, nothing."

 A United Nations convoy of food arrived in Madaya in early October but it lasted only a few weeks, and soon hunger set in again. Like the rest of the town, Mr Naanaa was existing on only one meal a day — lentils or rice soup. Mr Naanaa was weak and dizzy from a lack of food, but his workload intensified as an increasing number of townspeople tried to escape Madaya.

 "We had so many amputation cases because of the landmines surrounding the town and the many people who tried to break the siege."

 Mr Naanaa said he appealed to the United Nations (UN) and Red Cross offices in Damascus, asking for aid to be urgently delivered to Madaya.

 "We tried to communicate with so many people but this didn't help at all. We were told they needed the agreement of the Syrian regime," he said. "People started to look pale, even their cheeks started to dissolve. They were getting so thin, even starting to look like skeletons."

 Five months into the siege the first victim, a three-month-old baby, died of starvation.

 "We made so many calls to the UN offices. We told them, 'people are dying of starvation, you must help save them'. They didn't give us any real promises," he said.

 Mr Naanaa's patients continued to die. "I will never forget the looks on the children's faces," he said. 

 With mounting international pressure, the Assad Government granted permission for the UN and the Red Cross to deliver food aid to Madaya, on the agreement that they also send a convoy to two towns besieged by Syrian opposition rebels.

 "It was the happiest day of my life, I don't think we'll ever experience such happiness again, me and all the people of Madaya," Mr Naanaa said.

 Supporters of Mr Assad had accused the Madaya medical staff of faking the videos of starving, emaciated children Mr Naanaa had filmed and sent to ABC. Mr Naanaa was determined to show the UN representatives that the situation was real.

 Mr Naanaa led the UN and Red Cross workers into his clinic, where the most malnourished patients lay on the floor in various stages of illness and distress.

 "They all started to cry, all the delegation, when they saw kids, the women, the older people, even young men lying on the floor," Mr Naanaa said.

 "Skinny people, skeletons, skin attached to the bones, nothing in-between. Then the talk ended. No more questions were asked."

 After exposing the use of the Syrian regime's starvation tactics to the world, Mr Naanaa received death threats.

 On a snowy, freezing night in January this year he managed to escape from Madaya, and after walking through mined fields for two nights he crossed the Lebanese border.

 But I didn't want to leave. I never wished to leave Syria. But at the end this was not my choice, I was forced to leave, I was facing death."

 The hardest part for Mr Naanaa is that, despite everything he risked to tell the world about the deliberate starvation of people in Madaya, the siege continues. And despite intermittent UN convoys, many more people have starved to death inside the town. The Madaya medical clinic has now also been suspended due to a lack of resources and staff.

 "When I eat and drink, I ask myself, how the people in Madaya are living?", Mr Naanaa said. "How are the patients? Is there someone who needs my help? These questions are on my mind all the time, not only every day but also every minute every hour." '

Halifax journalist helps pen gut-wrenching documentary on war in Syria

 'The War Show is told through footage mostly shot by Syrian radio host Obaidah Zytoon. Starting in 2011 she took her camera to protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. For the next few years, Zytoon filmed her friends, their involvement in the revolution, and the torture, gun battles, starvation and destruction of her country.

 The film's co-writer Spencer Osberg met Zytoon in 2013 when he was working as a magazine editor in Beirut. She had escaped Syria and sought refuge there.

 “The reason I've stayed involved with (the film) for so long is because it feels like a defining movie, like 15, 20 years from now when people talk about the Syrian conflict, this tells the story of it,” he said.

 The film premiered at Venice Days in August, received a standing ovation and won the jury prize. Osberg said during its first showing, some audience members were weeping during the film.

 “It tells the wider story, but it brings you through it in a personal way where you get attached to the people,” he said. “You feel you know them and then they're taken from you.”

 His hope is the film makes what's happening in Syria feel real and creates a bridge of empathy.'

Foreign Backers and the Marginalization of the Free Syrian Army

 'During the summer of 2016, the Syrian regime scored two strategic victories over opposition forces: it took control of Daraya, a suburb of Damascus, and imposed a siege on Aleppo. On both these fronts, major factions of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) were conspicuous by their absence. Since mid-2015, most non-jihadist rebel factions have been marginalized in the fight against the regime, not so much because the FSA no longer exists, as sometimes claimed, but because their backers ask them to deescalate the fight against Assad forces to be able to focus on other enemies instead. This marginalization has two consequences. First, it has made Assad and his allies confident enough in their capacity to militarily defeat the rebellion that they felt no need to seriously take part in political negotiations or abide by negotiated truces. Second, it has left the jihadist and Salafist factions of the rebellion practically alone on the battlefields, granting them near monopoly over the revolutionary discourse.

 The FSA is a collection of brigades, usually organized locally without a centralized chain of command. These brigades are sometimes part of larger coalitions comprising several thousand fighters. Their political orientation varies from secular nationalism to Muslim-brotherhood-style Islamism, with a clear majority of them being non-ideological. Most are military defectors and former civilians motivated to overthrow the regime. “FSA factions” can simply be defined as those who claim to be part of the FSA, without referring to any leadership on a national level, as opposed to “Islamist factions” who do not claim to be part of the FSA and tend to be aligned with some national or international leadership. Taken as a whole, the FSAaligned brigades make up the majority of the rebel forces. However, their inability to define a common agenda or strategy is their main weakness. This has made them particularly exposed to pressure to serve foreign interests rather than their own, particularly those of Turkey, Jordan and the United States, each of which has priorities other than to fight the Assad regime or to confront Russia.

 The example of Harakat Hazm is particularly telling of the USA’s goal of turning effective rebel forces into mere proxies. Harakat Hazm was created in early 2014 by various rebel groups, many of which had played a central role in expelling ISIS from northwest Syria in the winter 2013-14 and had advanced combat experience against the regime. Harakat Hazm have always had bad relations with Jabhat al-Nusra (which, unlike ISIS, is supposedly allied to the FSA), and the two groups often clashed. Hazm was long considered to be one of the USA’s favoured groups in northern Syria,5 but it was left without support when, at the end of 2014, it came under attack and was eventually destroyed by Jabhat al-Nusra. When the author asked a former member of Harakat Hazm why the USA didn’t support them when they were attacked, he explained that “by September 2014 the United States started to pressure us to leave the battle field against Assad and to send all our forces to fight ISIS. We had no problem to go fight ISIS, but wouldn’t agree to stop fighting Assad. From then on, our relations with the Americans went from bad to worse and eventually they stopped backing us. When Jabhat al-Nusra attacked us, we had already lost all foreign support. We lost because we dared to disobey the Americans.”

 While the strategy of selecting factions to pull away from the battlefield so that they could fight jihadists had proved to be a failure, the alternative strategy was to impose nationwide truces with the regime. On two occasions, a Russian-American deal was reached to impose a truce on belligerent forces. While the truce of February-March 2016 led to a reduction of fighting for over a month, the one in September 2016 was never effectively implemented. The Assad regime and Russia clearly had no intention of respecting their engagements and saw the truces simply as a way to gain time and to test the determination of the rebellion and its supposed allies. For the regime, truces are not a first step towards a political negotiation but rather a step towards the complete surrender of rebels, as was the case for local truces in Damascus and Homs.

 While almost all of the opposition forces rallied to the principle of a political solution and de-escalation with the regime, Jabhat al-Nusra/Fateh al-Sham reclaims the revolutionary discourse and presents itself as the only force striving for the definitive fall of the Assad regime. Those accepting compromise with Assad were called defeatists, if not traitors. The failure of the truces proved the jihadists right. The regime had no intention to respect them and diplomacy has not could not save Aleppo. Only the military action led by Jabhat Fateh al-Sham in August was successful in breaking the siege. During the regime’s major offensive in Aleppo since April 2016, Jabhat al-Nusra/Fateh al-Sham seems to be the only force capable of facing Assad forces. Within FSA factions, morale was at its lowest. During the so-called truce of spring 2016, Jabhat al-Nusra recruited fighters by the hundreds, mainly among die-hard FSA fighters who were convinced not by the ideology of the group but rather by its will to fight. 

 In southern Syria, the rebellion managed to keep a rather nationalist identity and limit the influence of Salafist and jihadist factions. FSA groups are deeply rooted within their local community and largely dominated by military defectors. The “Southern-Front” operation room gathered over 50 factions and 15,000 to 30,000 fighters. It could have served as a counter-model to the jihadist-dominated Jeish al-Fateh coalition which is dominant in the north, but the “Southern-Front” factions have achieved little in the last year. The “Southern-Front” was seen as the opportunity to build an organized army that was independent of jihadist influence and could break the siege of the southern suburbs of Damascus, seriously challenging Assad in the capital and forcing him to make concessions and enter real negotiations. Instead, the policy of the MOC (Military Operations Centres) was to de-escalate the fight against the regime and to have the factions that it supports focus on clearing and securing the Jordanian border. The factions of the “Southern-Front” have also been extremely weakened by the inconstancy and irregularity of the support provided by the MOC. Thus, these factions have had very little autonomy and nearly no leverage on the strategy decided in the MOC and imposed upon them. The MOC exerts its control over the factions using a carrot and stick policy. When it is decided that a front should be opened, munitions, weapons, salaries and access to Jordanian hospitals are provided. When the MOC decides that a battle should stop, military support is cut, and access to Jordanian hospitals is closed. Jordan publicly cooperates with Russia on the Syrian file, and there is a serious fear among southern factions and civilians that a refusal to cooperate with Jordanian authorities would cause the Russians to step up and strike the south with the same intensity as it strikes the north.

 Daraya is a town in the suburbs of Damascus which served as a model for the Syrian revolutionary movement. Despite years of siege and intense shelling, it kept strong social and civil activities, and was a rare case where the local council maintained control over the armed groups. This model of political-military cooperation with locally rooted factions is still serving as an example to revolutionary forces striving for autonomy from Islamist factions and foreign agendas.  The Battle of Daraya continued until the end of August when the regime’s Republican Guards finally forced the last rebels and civilians out of the town. In the meantime, the tens of thousands of fighters from the “Southern-Front” were not allowed by their backers to attack the regime, even though they stand only 30km away from Daraya. Even months after the end of the truce, the MOC-backed factions were not allowed to engage battle with the regime and had to concentrate on clearing the Jordanian borders of small ISIS-affiliated factions.

 In the north of Syria, a similar situation is happening, as rebels are used to clear Turkey’s border and fight its enemies instead of fighting Assad. Turkey had until now held one of the most hawkish anti-Assad positions in the international community, but eventually its other priorities began to overcome those of the Syrian opposition. While Assad forces were consolidating their positions in Aleppo, besieging nearly 300,000 people, Turkey pushed thousands of FSA fighters into the battle of Jarablous against ISIS and against the Kurdish dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The ultimate goal of this operation is to cut the SDF’s progress along the border and prevent the Kurds from unifying the territories that they held. Once again, as in the south, significant manpower and firepower are used to secure the borders and serve the direct interest of a foreign actor. The consequence of this is the marginalization of FSA brigades as they concentrate nearly all their forces on a secondary battle at a time when Aleppo is about to fall back under the regime’s control. The Turkish-backed “Euphrates Shield” operation is ultimately leaving the space wide open for the regime and the jihadists to fight the central battles in Idlib, Hama and Aleppo.

 The marginalization of the FSA from the central battles has provoked strong reactions within the revolutionary movement. By June 2016, a statement called “The Hauran call for help” was signed by 50 of the most prominent figures of the revolution, including military leaders, clerics, activists and intellectuals. Symbolically, the first signatory was Abo Jamal, the FSA leader of the armed resistance in Daraya. The statement called on revolutionaries in the south to start the fight again. All through the summer, as the regime was progressing in Daraya and Aleppo, leaders of the “Southern-Front” were compared to traitors, cowards and contrasted with Islamists in the north who were continuing the battle. In July, a fatwa issued by 54 clerics, including some close to Al-Qaeda such as Abdullah al-Muhseiny of Jeish al-Fateh, declared it illegal (haram) to be a member of a faction that is not fighting the regime. In the meantime, Ahrar al-sham’s spokesman called on people to overthrow the leaders of the “Southern-Front”.

 In 2016, two coups by FSA fighters against their own leaders took place in two of the most important factions in the south: Liwa Shabab alSunna in August and Jabhat Thuwar Souriya in September. In early August, Ahmad alAuda, the leader of Liwa Shabab al-Sunna in Bosra al-Sham, was deposed by fighters of the brigade and some civilians. A few days later, the MOC quickly reacted and had factions of the “Southern-Front” attack the group’s headquarters in Bosra al-Sham to put Ahmad al-Auda back in his position.18 An FSA fighter told the author that “everyone hates Ahmad al-Auda, but the MOC wants him there. He is not a revolutionary. He is the slave of the MOC”.

 In the north, criticisms of “Euphrates Shield” operations are rising. The FSA is trying to convince itself that a second phase of these operations consists of taking back Aleppo from Assad. But they are under fierce criticism from other factions, mainly jihadists, who are excluded from the Turkish-backed operation, and who feel left alone on the fronts of Aleppo and Hama. Despite the successes of the operation against ISIS and Kurdish forces, many rebels are wondering whether it is really a priority to take Tel Rifaat or al-Bab, when Aleppo is besieged. An FSA faction from Idlib withdrew from the “Euphrates Shield” operation, according to their statement, because of the situation on the fronts against the regime.22 Several FSA fighters who took part in the first days of the operation went back to their local brigades to protect their community from the regime.

 The Syrian war has become an internationalized conflict in which local actors struggle to have some leverage on the course of the events. Fighting without outside support has become impossible. However, what is important is for all actors in Syria to be allies of foreign backers instead of mere proxies.'

FSA in the eyes of Syrians

 "The FSA is our hope and representative; we belong to the FSA and it belongs to us."

With Donald Trump's victory, Assad has been given free rein in Syria

 'The same day Americans elected Donald Trump for president — a man who has dismissed the shattered, starved, gassed and barrel-bombed refugees of Syria's civil war as "definitely in many cases ISIS-aligned" — Syrian government forces fought their way into a strategic neighbourhood on the southwestern outskirts of Aleppo.

 The two events are linked. Aleppo, once one of Syria's most glorious cities, has been pulverized by fighting between rival forces, as well as by airstrikes carried out by the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies. The nihilistic head-hackers of ISIS, the so-called Islamic State, prowl beyond the city, mostly untouched by Russian or Syrian bombs.

 Assad and his allies, which include Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, are by far the most prolific mass murderers in Syria. ISIS has seized headlines with its videotaped gore. But most of Syria's dead are dead because of Assad and indeed, most Syrian refugees have fled because of Assad. Unlike ISIS, Assad's forces don't publicize their bloodlust. But anyone who doubts its existence need only consult the photographs of thousands of torture-scarred corpses smuggled out of Syria by "Caesar," a former Syrian government forensic photographer who once worked at two Syrian military hospitals in Damascus.

 And now Assad has been given free rein. He knows he has nothing to fear from America. American support for Syria's opposition —"we don't know who the rebels are," Trump says — will dry up. Trump will try to forge some sort of cooperation with Russia against ISIS, reinforcing Putin's growing strength and influence in the Middle East. And Syria's opposition and civilian victims will find themselves as alone and isolated as they have ever been.

 To be sure, America's support for Syria's opposition and its will to confront Assad was always tepid. President Barack Obama said the use of chemical weapons in Syria was a "red line" for him, but then withered when Assad's forces used sarin-filled shells to kill some 1,400 Syrians men, women and children in 2013. America has armed and trained Syrian rebels, but only in small numbers. It never bombed Assad's forces their behalf, or established a no-fly zone where Syrian civilians might be safe from Syrian and Russian airstrikes. Some Syrians hoped a Clinton presidency might bring some relief from their greatest tormentor. It now seems certain Assad will endure.

 "That S.O.B. we have in Damascus is the luckiest bastard in the world," says Faisal Alazem, Montreal director of the Syrian Canadian Council. "He had eight years of Obama, where red line after red line was crossed with no consequences. And now he gets Trump, probably the Western leader that is going to be the closest to Vladimir Putin."

 Five years ago, Alazem says, he was the most optimistic person in the world. He believed the interests of Syrian democrats and Western governments were aligned, and together they would force Assad from power. Now, Alazem, who also runs a charity that operates a school for Syrian refugees in Turkey, has concluded that no one outside Syria will help its people. But he still doesn't believe the Syrian revolution is dead.

 "As long as there is one person on the streets defying all this violence around him, whether it's ISIS or these barrel bombs falling on their heads, it's not [over]. Because it's a miracle. No normal human being can sustain and resist so much violence, and people still are. But it's not the spring we were dreaming about five years ago. And the price Syrians have to pay is just incredible." '

No to detention and no to dictatorships

 'My name is Miream Salameh. I am from a Christian family. I never needed to say that here or in my country because Muslims and Christians always live together in harmony and peace, but I say this today because I need to explain that my family and I escaped from the Syrian regime violence before ISIS even existed in my country. The Assad regime claims that it protects minorities like us from extremist groups. That is not true. The regime protects itself by using minorities as a playing card to tell Western societies that it is the only source of protection for us.

 In early 2011, a peaceful revolution for freedom and democracy started. Syrian people took to the streets to get rid of the dictatorial regime. But from the very beginning, the regime responded by arresting and killing anyone who opposed it. During the revolution, I was an activist. I recorded videos to document Assad’s abuses, and my friend and I established a magazine. We had to stop publishing it after only six months because the regime twice attacked the place we were meeting in and committed horrific massacres there. In one instance, this included killing 20 young men and arresting 150 people, among them women who were stripped naked in public. Later, I started to receive many arrest, rape and death threats from Syrian security. I was forced to leave my home, my memories and all my life to go to Lebanon. I had no choice but to flee.

 At this time my art teacher and the closest person to my heart, Wael Kasstoun, was arrested by Syrian intelligence and tortured to death. His only crime was refusing to draw a painting that supported the regime. His body was found by accident in a military hospital among 200 bodies. Syrian security was preparing to bury them in a mass grave without letting their families know where they were or what happened to them. The Syrian people carry on living while death is only seconds away. There is no choice but to flee to bordering countries, to live in camps which lack the basic necessities of life, and where there is no future, no protection and no prospect. This is especially true for children, who are being forced to work in appalling conditions to help their families – a whole generation that has lost its childhood and its most basic rights.

 As refugees, we have all fled from the same horrific situation. I feel very sad when I hear that Christians are prioritised. As a refugee, I call on the Australian government to bring in people according to their horrific situation, according to the risks that threaten their life and their children’s lives, and not distinguish between us. This is the only way to protect justice and fairness for all. I feel very lucky that this beautiful country has welcomed me and my family and has treated us in the best way I ever imagined, and gave us all the opportunity to rebuild ourselves and start a new safe life.

 But my heart is always with our people who every day face death by all kinds of weapons. The Assad regime and its allies committed and are still committing massacres against the Syrian people. They are bombing schools, bakeries, markets, hospitals and civilian neighbourhoods using internationally banned weapons. They use sieges and starvation as a weapon to give the people in the besieged areas two options – leave their land or die in it. The Syrian people just want to live in safety, in freedom and in dignity. They just want to hear their children laughing, not screaming and crying. To hear them talking about their dreams, not about death and destruction.

 After nearly six years of suffering, the number of refugees has now reached 8 million. We have more than 300,000 detainees and over 500,000 martyrs. Six years on, the international community has not taken a single serious step to stop these war crimes against a people who just ask to live a free and dignified life in a civil democratic state. Six years on and the world is watching us in complete silence. But we will continue our revolution and we believe that the Assad regime, and its right arm ISIS, fear our revolution, because they know when we will win there will not be any existence for them.

 If we really want to stop the refugee crisis, we have to get to its roots. Turning back the boats is cruel, and is not the solution. Putting asylum seekers indefinitely in detention centres in very bad conditions, destroying years of their lives for no reason, is not the solution. Taking only people who have sponsors in Australia and ignoring those who have been stuck in refugee camps for years is not the solution. Deporting asylum seekers is not the solution. Closing borders and preventing refugees from entering Europe is not the solution. These strategies are all complicit in the crimes being committed against people who only want to live a safe life. Part of the solution is to secure a safe passage to refugees and open borders and close the detention centres. But this alone is not enough. The only real solution is to stop the war crimes of all dictatorships and the self-serving policies of the great powers. This is the root of the Syrian refugee crisis and the refugee crisis around the world. This will be its end.'

Activist insists Assad and ISIS aren’t the only choices for Syria

 'Abdul Karim Rihawi is a Syrian businessman, whose livelihood once upon a time came from manufacturing and selling clothing - believe it or not, he owned a lingerie shop in downtown Damascus - until a chance experience in the 1990s brought him up close and personal with the brutality of the Syrian regime under then-President Hafez al-Assad.

 Basically, Rihawi lost his wallet, including his Syrian ID card, and had to go to a local police station to make a report. He was detained, beaten and harassed, with a police official accusing him of having sold the ID on the black market to an enemy of the state.

 Eventually released after family and friends intervened on his behalf, he began wondering about the health of a country that would allow its police and security services to behave in such a way with essentially no accountability or recourse.

 Rihawi began reaching out to some lawyers and activists, and launched a journey that led to the founding of the Syrian Human Rights League, which has become one of the leading expressions of civil society in the country, documenting abuses on all sides of the conflict and striving to build a moderate, pro-democracy alternative to the status quo.

 Over the years, his leadership and reputation for integrity have put Rihawi in some fairly surreal positions. For instance, ISIS kidnapped a group of roughly 200,000 Assyrian Christians, and reached out to Rihawi to see if he could broker ransom payments for their return.

 One of the things that surprised him most, Rihawi said, was how well-educated and disciplined the ISIS commander seemed, making him believe that he had high-level training and support. Also striking, he said, was the sense of moral purpose they projected.

 “They see themselves as the good guys in this story,” he said. “He was firmly convinced that what they’re doing is right, and that God will reward them.”

 Eventually the Christians were returned, Rihawi said, after paying roughly $50 million in ransom collected from the Assyrian community over the arc of several months’ time.

 Yet ISIS, to hear Rihawi tell the story, is hardly the only threat to peace and security in the country, because he also sees the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the heir to his father, as deeply flawed.

 When Rihawi says he’s worried about the estimated 300,000 perceived enemies of the state currently languishing in Syrian jails, for him that’s no abstract sentiment. He’s been arrested dozens of times for his criticism of the regime, including a two-week stint in jail in 2011 during which he was tortured and repeatedly beaten.

 The pièce de résistance of that experience, he said, came when he was hanging by his arms in a jail cell after one beating that left him with several broken ribs, and a general from another security service who’d long been after him came into the room.

 “He ordered the guard to put me on the floor and use my body to clean it up, like a mop,” Rihawi recalled. “Then he shoved his boot into my mouth until I lost consciousness.”

 Rihawi eventually fled to Egypt, where he worked with pro-democracy forces during the Arab Spring, and is now seeking temporary political asylum in Germany. His desire, however, is to return to Syria and be part of a peaceful, moderate revolution.

 “I told my case officer I won’t spend one more minute in Germany than I have to,” he said. “I belong in Syria.”

 At a distance, the perception one often has of Syria’s minority communities, including the roughly ten percent of the population that’s Christian, is that they tend to be strongly pro-Assad because they see him as the only realistic alternative to the Islamic State.

 Rihawi has a message for Christians tempted to think that way, and for anybody else who may be willing to listen - including, pointedly, the U.S. government. In essence, it’s that phrasing the situation as an alternative between Assad and ISIS is a false choice.

 “Assad wants you to believe that,” he said. “Assad is actually supporting ISIS … they basically have a deal.”

 In reality, he insists, there is a groundswell inside Syria for something different, a dramatic break with the past that would take the country in a moderate, democratic, and stable direction.

 “Syrians are not radicals,” he said. “They hate ISIS, but they also don’t support the regime. They want real change, and if given a chance, there are all kinds of people on the ground there who would lead it.”

 Shoring up Assad as an alternative to ISIS, he believes, is simply prolonging the country’s agony.

 “If Assad were to be replaced by a moderate government with the people’s support, ISIS would be gone within three months,” he said. “I guarantee it.” '

Al-Fatah Fighters Secure the Families of Their Enemies in Assad Suburb in Aleppo

                                                                                                                                                                 
' “It was a very confusing few moments. We were in battle and in direct confrontation when a family suddenly emerged from the buildings, fleeing from the horror of what was happening,” said Iyad al-Mohammad, the leader of one of the fighter units operating in the western Assad Suburb in Aleppo city during the battle to gain control of the area on 28 October.

 Al-Mohammad explained, “It was a battle within a battle. How could I fight the Assad forces and at the same time protect this family from danger? I remembered at the time the strict orders we had received to protect civilians, even at the expense of achieving our military objective. So I asked two members to provide cover on the street between us and the family and I signaled to the family to run in our direction. Despite this, they were targeted by the regime mercenaries, but thank God they arrived to where we were safe and sound.”

 The family was placed in an evacuation car, prepared for such cases, which took them to a safe place far from the battle zone.
Al-Mohammad, a fighter in his twenties, said, “It was difficult, but it strengthens our sense of humanity to protect the families of those you are fighting. Assad Suburb has many residents who are fighting in Assad forces and among his Shabiha but the families are certainly not guilty and it is our duty to help and protect them.”

 What is shocking, according to al-Mohammad, is that Assad’s warplanes and his artillery bomb the suburb that houses his fighters’ families. He said, “It shows the degree of Assad’s brutality even in dealing with the families of his own fighters… This is their nature, they do not care about any civilian even if the civilian supports the regime.”

 Abu Yousef al-Muhajir, the military spokesperson for Ahrar al-Sham Movement, said to Enab Baladi that the military command of Jaish al-Fatah issued strict orders regarding how fighters deal with civilians in liberated areas . Fighters were ordered to evacuate civilians immediately from the areas of fighting and to treat them respectfully and humanely during their evacuation.

 Abu Yousef added that the area did not have any civilian vehicles to help evacuate the residents, so the opposition fighters were forced to use military vehicles to evacuate the civilians immediately as the fighting was intense and there was heavy aerial bombardment during the evacuation operation.

 One of the citizens leaving the Suburb, who refused to disclose his name, spoke to Enab Baladi about the reasons behind them remaining in the area despite the military operations. He said that the Assad forces had prevented them from leaving the suburb and gave them guarantees that the area was safe and that opposition fighters could not reach the area.

 “But the exact opposite happened. In less than an hour, the Assad forces had fled the area and left us to face the unknown and we were truly afraid”, he said. “They told us the fighters were slaughtering civilians and killing them in cold blood, and that they were there to protect us. Thank God these were all lies. The fighters of Jaish al-Fatah helped us, they secured the roads inside the Suburb and evacuated us in cars to areas far from the confrontations, and now we are safe.”

 Jaish al-Fatah entering populated areas is considered a new event in Aleppo city, which has forced the group to change how it deals with these areas to ensure that no civilians are harmed. Perhaps what happened in Assad Suburb is evidence of the high standards of fighters in dealing with such cases.'

Displaced Syrians fear return, marking a demographic shift

 'Syria's government says people who fled rebel zones that have since been retaken by the military are now welcome to return. But that's not how it worked out for one refugee family that came to check out the state of their home: They found another family had moved in.

 That's just one of many hurdles keeping away those displaced in Syria's war.

 Many who fled say they fear arrest if they return to homes now under government control or that their sons will be conscripted into the same military that once bombarded their towns. In other former opposition strongholds, the state is carrying out redevelopment projects that have razed thousands of homes.

 The opposition accuses the government of President Bashar Assad of using under-the-radar methods to discourage populations it sees as disloyal from returning, changing the demographics to help consolidate control over a corridor running from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast.

 For example, a string of rebel, mainly Sunni Muslim suburbs around Damascus have come under military control. They were drained of much of their population as hundreds of thousands fled siege and bombardment in recent years. Now thousands more are leaving because of government control. It is an open question whether they will ever return.

 In Aleppo, Syria's largest city, government forces are besieging the rebel eastern districts, and the estimated 275,000 residents have refused calls to evacuate, in part because many are convinced they'll never be allowed back.

 The fact that most of the people from rebel areas are Sunni Muslims adds a toxic sectarian aspect to the charges of demographic manipulation. Sunni Muslims are the majority in Syria and make up the backbone of the rebellion.

 Homs, Syria's third largest city, offers an indication of the hurdles for would-be returnees. In 2014, Homs' last major rebel neighborhoods, centered in its Old City, surrendered. That came after a long brutal siege that drove an estimated 300,000 from the city. Two years later, the government says the Old City is open for residents, but even official statistics say only 40 percent have returned. That figure is impossible to independently confirm, and the opposition believes it is inflated. On a visit to the Old City of Homs earlier this year, an AP team found a ghost town. More recently, AP interviewed six families expelled from Homs' old quarters, and only one could point to a relative, among hundreds, who has returned. All those interviewed spoke on condition they only be identified by their first names for fear of reprisals by the government.

 "The families of the old city are still in exile. Today, you'll find them all over the world, except in their neighborhoods," said Abou Zeid, from the George Chiyah neighborhood.

 Hoda, now living in the Lebanese city of Tripoli, said she was told she had to pay overdue bills before she could see her Homs home. But she, like others, is deeply hesitant to approach state institutions to do so or validate her property records because it means crossing through multiple checkpoints run by the feared security services.

 The displaced fear security forces will detain their husbands and sons for trumped-up crimes or conscript them into Assad's military.

 "We are not able to go back," said Rabaa, who fled to Lebanon with her family in 2012. She has a 20-year-old son. "The first thing they'll do is take him to the military," she said. "Go see our home? No way."

 Conscription fears are also driving residents out of former opposition strongholds. The government denies that conscription is a tactic to push dissidents out, saying it a national duty.

 "It's a law that dates back to the establishment of the Syrian state," said Ali Haidar, the national reconciliation minister. He said the military is exploring ways around the predicament. For example, in some recaptured areas, the government has offered to postpone conscripts' deployments for six months to a year.

 But many deserters and draft-dodgers view this as simply a government tactic to give them a deadline to leave.

 "The implication is that ... in these six months you get everything in order and flee, (and the military) will look the other way," said Dani Qappani, an opposition activist.

 In the Damascus suburb of Moadamiyeh, for example, a third of the population of 50,000 fled during the government siege. After the suburb surrendered in September, some 10,000 more are likely to leave over the coming months for fear of conscription, said Bassma Kodmani, an opposition official.

 Similarly, some 13,000 will probably leave the Damascus suburb of Qudsaya along with their families to avoid conscription, said a former fighter in Qudsaya. When the suburb of Daraya fell in August, all its last remaining residents — around 2,700 from an original 250,00 — were removed and put in camps, raising an outcry from U.N. officials over the possibility of a forced displacement. The government says they will eventually be allowed back. But Daraya could see the sort of urban renewal projects that observers say are also a tool for demographic engineering.

 A 2014 report by Human Rights Watch identified seven opposition neighborhoods around the country razed by government authorities for "redevelopment." It accused authorities of carrying out collective punishment.

 Presidential Decree 66, issued in 2012, lists a number of areas, mostly opposition, for urban renewal projects involving demolishing shantytowns.

 "It serves another purpose: to punish the unruly areas, so you pacify them, and you change the demographic," said Rashad al-Kattan, a political analyst affiliated with the Center for Syrian Studies at the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland.'