Saturday 29 September 2018

“Our revolution will not stop before the release of all detainees”

Syrie: manifestations à Idleb pour la libération de détenus aux mains du régime

 'Several thousand people demonstrated on Friday in several cities of the Syrian province of Idlib (north-west), the last great bastion of insurgents in the country, calling for the liberation of prisoners in the prisons of the régime.

 Out in the streets after Friday prayers, the demonstrators chanted against the Assad régime, some waving the flag of the revolution and that of Turkey, in support of the uprising.

 They carried placards and banners, reading in English: “Our revolution will not stop before the release of all detainees”.

 “We call this Friday the Friday held to send a message to the world: our freedom will be complete only with the release of the prisoners in the prisons of the régime,” said Izz al-Din al-Idlibi, one of the organizers of the rally in the town of Maarat al-Numan.


 At the march in Maarat al-Numan, attended by women dressed in black, Abu Hassan carried on his shoulders his niece dressed in a blue dress and waving the portrait of his father, who was kidnapped five years ago.

 “We have joined this peaceful demonstration to demand the release of prisoners from the dungeons of the intelligence services”, he reiterated.

 Rallies were held in other towns of Idleb, as well as in the territories the rebels of the neighbouring province of Aleppo.

 “The detainees are our cause. We call on the international community to put pressure on the régime to free them”, said Mayssa Mahmoud, a protester in the city of Atareb.'


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 "If all of Syria was taken (by Assad) except for one inch, I would stand on that inch and scream.. Curse your soul oh Hafiz! The revolution shall continue!"


"ISIS is the Arm of Assad Regime, freedom for our kidnapped women in Sweida. From the liberated countryside of Aleppo."


"To whoever is betting on our fatigue after 8 years, we say to him do not test our patience, as God has given us the patience of Ayoub (Job)."

Friday 28 September 2018

The last rebel stronghold in Syria has survived – for now

 Idlib

 'The doors of fear and hope have revolved again. For weeks, Dr Mahmoud would rush his daughters into the basement at night, or tuck them in a corner in the lavatory, improvised shelters against the impact of airstrikes by the Syrian government and its Russian allies.

 That is, if he was at home. For the future, his plan was to hire a smuggler and move them to Turkey.


 It would cost him between $500 and $2,500 each to transport them illegally across the border. The lower the rate, the bigger the risk of being shot at by the Turkish police. He had heard of some seasoned smugglers who had mapped out the few unmanned crevices on the sealed frontier and, unlike most civilians in northern Syria, he could afford the expense. As a cardiologist, he had managed to save some money.

 He knew he himself would stay back in Idlib. There is a shortage of doctors and he intended to stick by the people, helping them endure the attack, were it to take place.

 For now, though, he and his children are breathing more freely, and the evacuation plan is postponed. An unexpected deal between Russia and Turkey last week may have averted the catastrophe he feared: a full-blown invasion of his home in Idlib, Syria’s last rebel province. Nothing is certain and agreements have been made and broken with monotonous regularity in the past.

 But Dr Mahmoud – a pseudonym, for fear of future reprisals – is happy for now. “I think it’s a good deal,” he said.



The agreement calls for a 15-20km demilitarised zone to be set up by mid-October, which will act as a buffer between the forces of the Syrian government and the rebels. Until then at least, a military offensive has been halted.

Dr Mahmoud’s first feeling was relief. He had other feelings too – the rush of a tiny victory, the joy of being alive another day, a diminishing hope leaping and suffusing his heart with promise because the revolution hadn’t yet died. However, the sense that his family would not be bombed that night came before all of that. “My first priority was to save my family,” he told me.

Then there was suspicion. Would the deal work? Or was it a ploy by the Russians to appear sympathetic to the humanitarian cause, that would lead eventually to a resumption of the bombing?


 “We are people, just like you,” he told me in an attempt to counter the narrative of the Syrian government that Idlib is entirely inhabited by Islamists and jihadists.

 The last remaining rebel stronghold, Idlib is dominantly in the grip of a jihadist outfit now known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or the HTS, infamous for its al Qaeda links. Yet their estimated numbers – 10,000 fighters in all, according to the UN – are a mere fraction of the people residing in Idlib.

 Dr Mahmoud, a practising Muslim, admits the province leans towards the conservative, but he insists that does not make him an extremist. The people of Idlib, he says, including him, back the relatively moderate Free Syrian Army, now rebranded as the National Liberation Front, and not the jihadists of HTS.


 “Most people want the Free Syrian Army, they don’t like the HTS,” he said. “We don’t want to be ruled by them because we want democracy and they have deviated from the path of the revolution.”

 Yet digging a little deeper reveals a relationship riddled with complexities. Whilst Dr Mahmoud doesn’t wish to replace the dogma of the Baath party with the hardline ideology of the HTS, he finds them useful in fighting the régime.

 “They are certainly better than Assad. We don’t dislike them as much because they are also fighting the régime,” he says. He draws a distinction between the group’s leadership and its foreign fighters, and the foot soldiers, who are mainly ordinary Syrian boys and hence by and large trusted.

 What civilians like Dr Mahmoud think about the HTS is crucial because the future of the Russia-Turkey deal hinges on the HTS backing off from the demilitarised zone and giving up its weapons.

 Dr Mahmoud says that if HTS shows reluctance to co-operate and move out of the buffer zone and Russia consequently uses it as an excuse to attack Idlib – as is feared – the people of Idlib will also hold the group responsible for squandering a shot at peace.

 “Turkey will make the HTS co-operate and if they don’t, all Syrians will blame the HTS. I think they will respond,” says Dr. Mahmoud.


 A few days before the deal came about, I had spoken via a translator to an HTS commander who goes under the nom de guerre Abu Abd al-Rahman. “We are not at odds with the National Liberation Front when it comes to knowing who the real threat to our revolution is, and that is what matters right now,” he said. “Whatever our differences may be, I believe we are capable of setting them aside. This does not mean, however, that either of us should merge with the other."

 The relationship between HTS and the National Front for Liberation (NLF) – which is a conglomeration of several rebel groups backed by Turkey including the Free Syrian Army – is now key to the deal’s implementation. HTS's demand for co-operation – subordination is what the NLF fears the jihadists mean – but no merger makes NLF leaders certain that some sort of clash is coming. The deal makes it more likely.

 I first met Faras al-Bayush two years ago. He was a leader with the then Free Syrian Army based in Iskenderun in Turkey and we have stayed in contact. Now he says that a fight with HTS is inevitable. “It is a matter of time,” he said.

 General Haitham Afisi, another senior leader of the FSA who collaborated with the US during the early stages of the war, and is currently the NLF chief of staff of the rebel armed forces, says HTS is a bigger threat to the revolution than even the régime. General Afisi’s son was kidnapped and tortured by the group and held in captivity for two years.

 “They consider us infidels, as ‘Murtadeen’: Muslims who are not practicing Islam,” he told me over a secure messaging app. “But our Islam is an Islam of love and forgiveness and we want elections, we want democracy. There is no doubt over us fighting them.”


 If Idlib falls to the Assad régime and the worst comes true, Dr Mahmoud will prefer to live in Turkey or Turkey-controlled areas east of Euphrates, should he survive.

 However, so long as the deal exists, it means that for now the revolution is not yet at its end, giving him room to dream. One day, when there are free and fair elections in Syria, he says he will revisit Aleppo and take his daughters to see the citadel and the old city.

 Not everywhere, though; there are places which will remind him forever of the deaths and mangled remains of the dead, children included. These are the places he never wants to visit, that he never wants to be in again, not even in his dreams.'



Tuesday 25 September 2018

Corpses left rotting under rubble in régime attacks on Ghouta

A child is treated following an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria. Pic:

 'The intensity of a Russia-backed assault on a former rebel stronghold in Syria using suspected chemical weapons and cluster bombs has been laid bare in a new report by the Atlantic Council, which said 16,934 strikes were documented in eastern Ghouta during a 49-day assault in April of this year.

 This amounted to an average of 345.6 per day. The heaviest day of bombardment was 21 February, with 1,658 attacks recorded, it said.

 "Locals reported that corpses and body parts were often left rotting under the rubble and even strewn in the streets due to the danger and difficulty in retrieving them," according to the report.

 "Multiple victims were buried in mass graves with merely numbers attached to their improvised shrouds, as relatives and friends were unable to reach the hospitals and morgues to identify their loved ones."


 The report counted "at least six suspected chemical weapon attacks, five of which were verified". The deadliest chemical weapons attack was on the besieged town of Douma on 7 April in which dozens of people died.

 The report said: "The régime's takeover of Ghouta… was the culmination of years of 'kneel or starve' siege tactics, indiscriminate aerial bombardment, cynical manipulation of truce and ceasefire, and the likely use of chemical weapons against population zones. The significance lies less in the régime using these tactics - it was reasonable to expect it would do anything it could to ensure its own survival-than in the fact that it not only went unpunished for, but ultimately was rewarded by, the fall of Ghouta."

 The Atlantic Council heavily criticised the international community for failing to respond to stop all of the other deadly assaults by Assad forces and their Russian and Iranian backers, below the level of chemical weapons.

 "Not once in six years of war in Ghouta was there a meaningful international effort to disrupt Assad's atrocities or exact a serious price for them," the report said.'

Monday 24 September 2018

Exiled Syrian artist draws torture to "continue the revolution"

Image result for Exiled Syrian artist Najah al-Bukai

 'The characters drawn in black-and-white ball-pen by Najah al-Bukai look broken, left in pain and despair by the torture the exiled Syrian artist says he went through and witnessed when imprisoned twice in government jails.

 One drawing shows a group of half-naked men being beaten up. Another depicts a man bent double, lying on his back with his feet over his head, tied up between two heavy wooden boards.

 “We were around 190 to 220 persons in this room which was 16 metres long and 3 metres wide. This is where the questioning sessions took place, where the torturers were using different techniques,” said Bukai, who now lives in France.

 “But the worst was unloading corpses. Once we had to unload three corpses while another (day) we could have to unload 13. They were prisoners who died under torture during questioning or of diseases because of deplorable hygienic conditions.”


 Syrian government officials have denied past accusations of systematic torture during the country’s seven-year-long war and also denied accusations that authorities have carried out mass executions in jails.

 But after years of government silence about the fate of tens of thousands of people that rights groups say have been forcibly disappeared in the conflict, authorities have begun quietly updating registers to acknowledge hundreds of their deaths.

 “I feel like it is my duty to continue the revolution,” Bukai said in his home in a Paris suburb he would not name for safety reasons.

 “If I stop drawing on this topic, it means I have given up and I have said to Bashar al-Assad: ‘Yes, you won your war against us.’ ”

 Bukai said he was first imprisoned for 11 months in 2011, in camp number 227 near the Syrian capital Damascus. He was arrested after he helped organise a protest against Assad.


 In 2014, he was arrested again at the Syrian-Lebanese border as he tried to leave the country after two years of hiding at his in-laws’ house.

 Bukai returned to France, where he first lived as an art student in the early 1990s, 2-1/2 years ago with his wife, Abir, and their 16-year-old daughter.

 Art is a therapy for him. Haunted by his experiences, he has not been able to draw any other subject for years.

 “Each time I try to change topic and find another path into my drawing, an exit, a window, I finally come back to the same,” he said.'


Image result for Exiled Syrian artist Najah al-Bukai

Monday 17 September 2018

In the line of fire: Free Syria's police brace for regime's Idlib offensive

In the line of fire: Free Syria's police brace for regime's Idlib offensive

 'As Syrian regime forces mobilise for a new offensive on Idlib, a group of men and women continue to maintain safety and security in the opposition-held province, amid an atmosphere of panic, dread and terror.                                                       
 
 The Free Syrian Police (FSP) have been key to the establishment of law and order in Syria's north over the past six years, preventing outbreaks of looting and lawlessness in opposition territories.

 Their pursuit of thieves, as well as their work with the White Helmets, or more ordinary tasks such as directing traffic, have seen their roles as officers transformed since they defected from the regime.

 The trust the unarmed officers have earned from the community and ability to maintain order, without brutality, has made them among the most popular institutions operating in opposition areas.

 Their ability to halt the spread of extremist groups - such as Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) - has also seen the Free Syrian Police become one of the Syrian opposition's great success stories.

 Many predict the whole revolutionary enterprise appears doomed with the police hit by US and UK funding cuts and soon to face the full wrath of the régime.



 When the bombs rain down, the officers expect to be among the first targets of Russian missiles, as has happened during other recent regime offensives on opposition areas.

 Operating since 2012, the police commanders said that they - and their officers - will continue their work amid the bombing.

 Plans have been made to help civilians access air raid shelters, aid in rescue operations, and clear roads for refugees uprooted from régime bombing.

 "There have been constant attacks and air raids [on FSP facilities] from the régime. Our headquarters, our centres, and all the FSP facilities have all been regularly targeted," said Brigadier Adeeb Sharraf, the founder of the FSP.

 The FSP command has given orders for officers to be on call 24/7, when Assad orders the assault on the people of Idlib.

 Their training and experience gained during the revolution will be put to the test, but Brigadier Adeeb is confident the officers will fulfill their duties.

 "The police's role is to help the medical teams and civil defence provide aid and save the people. There is a big fear that a mass offensive could lead to tens of thousands of casualties in the north," he added.



 If the regime takes Idlib, then officers will also have to think of their own safety.

 Along with the White Helmets, the police will likely be among the regime's most wanted, for daring to defy the brutal government and for their ability to run state-level institutions outside Assad's command.

 "The liberated areas have shown there is no need for the regime [to provide security], so this is why they have targeting the FSP more than [rebel] fighters," he added.


 Colonel Ali Alzzain helps operate the FSP in Idlib, and was one of the first commanders to defect from the regime to the new opposition police force.

 "The Syrian régime has always hated the revolutionary institutions, and the FSP are among the largest. We don't know what the fate will be for the officers if the regime takes Idlib, but we expect it to be torture and death," said Colonel Ali.

 "When the régime took Daraa this summer, the first thing they did was to photograph officers outside FSP centres."



 The message was clear. Not only did such tactics serve in intimidating supporters of the revolution, but also signify to the Syrians that the security of the FSP was over, and the brutality and murder of Assad had returned.

 The unarmed police force formed one year after the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011, with armed uprisings breaking out across the country in the following months.

 At the time, Bashar al-Assad's gangs operated with impunity, breaking up pro-democracy demonstrations and rounding up opposition activists in their thousands.

 Recent reports suggest most have been murdered and tortured to death in the régime's prisons.

 When state violence against the demonstrations intensified in late 2011, many of the soldiers sent to quell the uprisings joined the protesters, taking up arms and becoming revolutionary fighters.

 Less well-known were the defectors from Syria's security forces, who had grown disgusted with the regime's barbarous methods of maintaining control and left.

 Hoping to serve the country in more dignified and honourable roles, they formed an unarmed volunteer security force, serving the people and ensuring their safety in liberated areas.

 "Before the establishment of the FSP, there was no security institutions in the north of Syria. We were established to help people, keep them safe and ensure security," Colonel Ali said, speaking from Idlib province.



 The FSP now operates 54 police stations - known as centres - in Idlib and 17 in Aleppo, with officers serving almost four million people.

 They have defied not only the regime but also the Islamic State group, as well as common criminals who are said to be prolific in regime and Islamist-controlled areas.

 The FSP's day-to-day work varies, from chasing down car thieves, to protecting women and children from kidnappers.

 It is dangerous work with at least 153 officers killed in the line of duty in Idlib and Aleppo, mostly from regime and Russian airstrikes, but also by armed groups or criminals.

 The FSP's ability to provide security in areas outside government control has brought them the ire of the regime, with FSP centres among the most heavily bombed targets of Russia and the regime.

 Colonel Ali said that although officers are committed to the ideals of the revolution, they maintain their independence from armed actors in the conflict.



 "We are civilian police that cooperate with local councils and civil communities only. We don't deal with armed groups and are neutral. We don't allow anyone to interfere in our work, and the people of Idlib want us here," he said.

 Idlib and Aleppo provinces are covered by two main security forces. One is the FSP, while an Islamic police force operate in areas under HTS control.

 The people - particularly in refugee camps - have made it clear which group they prefer to govern their communities.

 When HTS took over opposition territories run by revolutionary civil councils, protests broke out. A key demand from the people was the withdrawal of the fighters and the return of the FSP.

 The armed groups backed down and the areas were handed back to the civil police force and councils, and peace returned.

 "There are many more thefts, abductions and assassinations in HTS-controlled areas, while security more or less prevails in the FSP territories, and much fewer incidences of crime," said Colonel Ali.

 Kidnappings have become commonplace in HTS areas, but almost completely unheard of in places where the FSP has authority.



 Much of the FSP's success is down to officers' professionalism and ability to win the confidence and support of the people.

 "When you join the [regime] police force you swear an oath to serve your country and protect the people's rights, but it really became tools of torture and oppression," the colonel adds.

 "We work to change this mentality, but we cannot forget that huge numbers of officers defected because they refused to serve in the regime oppression and wanted to honour the code of ethics they swore to when they joined the police."

 Serving in the FSP has seen the officers' roles transformed. They have adopted the concept of community policing - a common concept among European police forces - and work with locals to solve crimes.

 They are also more focused on conflict resolution, rather than using intimidation and cajoling to get results, as is common in regime areas.

 Their hard-won successes are not only threatened by the regime but also the UK and US' announcement that they have pulled funding from the force.

 "The impact will be a weakening of security in opposition areas. Police officers and generals will face cuts to their wages, forcing them to find other sources of income to support their families."

 Yet with régime forces building-up around Idlib and Aleppo, their attention is directed at ensuring the safety of people, as rebel fighters dig-in to protect the opposition territories.

 "We have offered a lot of martyrs, and many FSP officers have become paralysed and lost limbs, but this is all part of the bigger purpose and pursuit of protecting the people and their property," Colonel Ali added.

 Regardless of the outcome of the battle, they have shown the world that law-and-order can be achieved without the regime's brutality.'


Doctors, nurses rally against Syrian régime in Idlib



 'More than 300 doctors and nurses rallied Sunday in the rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib, urging the international community to protect them against an expected offensive by Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

 Brandishing roses and wearing white coats and blue surgical uniforms, the demonstrators gathered in front of the hospital in Atme, near the border with Turkey.

 Backed by its ally Russia, the Syrian regime has targeted several areas of Idlib with artillery and air strikes, sometimes hitting hospitals and rescue centres in the country’s last major opposition stronghold.

 The protesters in Atme, both men and women, waved the flag of the Syrian revolution as well as placards in English that read “UN, protecting us is your responsibility”.

 Another directly addressed UN Syria envoy Staffan De Mistura, telling him that “protecting health worker in Idlib is part of your mission”.

 “We call for an end to the strikes against hospitals and our protection by the United Nations,” said nurse Fadi Al Amur.

 “Medical staff are neutral. We treat civilians affected by the Russian and Syrian air strikes,” he said.

 An air strike on September 6 struck an NGO-backed hospital in Kafr Zita, a town in the neighbouring province of Hama, putting it out of service.

 The UN said information on the location of the hospital had been provided to parties whose aircraft are involved in the conflict in order to avoid such incidents.

 Two days after the attack on the hospital in Hama, a strike hit and damaged an underground hospital on the outskirts of Hass in Idlib.'

Saturday 15 September 2018

One Syrian's Harrowing Journey to Freedom



 'One warm night in July, a young Syrian ventured into the darkness in hopes of escaping what he once called home. He plodded across valleys and fields, atop mountains and walls, all the while carrying his younger brother in his arms. From documenting the horrors of the war to traveling through tenebrous fields as hyenas howled in the distance, this is the story of Firas al-Abdullah.

 Firas hails from Douma, a Syrian city in the region of Ghouta, located northeast of the capital. The region has witnessed some of the most inconceivable atrocities throughout the course of the war that has now spanned seven years.

 After two rebel offensives that drove out régime forces, the Assad régime, backed by Iran and Hezbollah, counterattacked and laid a siege around Eastern Ghouta in 2013.

 Among the besieged cities was Firas’ hometown of Douma. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria described the siege as ‘barbaric and medieval’. Numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed during the 5-year long siege, ranging from the use of prohibited weapons to deploying starvation as a method of warfare.


 The deadliest single incident against civilians in the area was the chemical attack of August 21, 2013. This attack also constituted the deadliest use of chemical weapons in 25 years.

 A UN report confirmed that the attack was carried out using rockets filled with up to 60 litres of the nerve agent sarin. According to a preliminary U.S. government assessment, the attack claimed the lives of over 1,400 people including at least 426 children.

 While the UN report failed to assign blame for the attack, several independent sources reported it was executed by the Syrian régime. Peter Bouckaert, a weapons specialist at Human Rights Watch, explained that the rocket systems identified in the UN report are known to be within the arsenal of the Syrian armed forces.

 In early 2018, the persistent attacks on Eastern Ghouta intensified. A publication from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) described the situation as “an outrageous, relentless mass-casualty disaster.”

 The report released medical data from facilities that the organisation supports gathered during the first two week period of the military offensive. It revealed that from 18 February to 3 March, an average of 71 people were killed per day.


 By the end of March, Douma remained the last rebel enclave in the Eastern Ghouta.

 The following month, a barrel bomb carrying sarin was dropped over the city, killing at least 70 people. Medics on the ground reported that the symptoms of those being treated were consistent with that of nerve agent exposure.

 The attack was attributed to the Syrian régime by local activists, aid workers, and a number of nations. Russia, a key ally of the régime, claimed no attack took place and that video evidence of it was staged and directed by British intelligence.


 For all five years of the siege, Firas and his companions would traverse the rubbled streets making video reports of the many massacres committed, which he would then post on his social media accounts.

 After a ruthless military campaign, Firas and his family were forcibly displaced to northern Syria as part of an evacuation deal on April 1.

 “Life in the north was very difficult. We’d hear of assassinations and kidnappings regularly, especially of activists. So it was very hard for me there.” Consequently, his family made the decision to move to Turkey. He explains, “We wanted to go on with our lives but of course, that doesn’t mean we wanted to forget. One cannot forget the revolution…to do that would be to let down all the people that have been martyred, all the people still detained, everyone.”


 Firas and his family had made a deal with a smuggler to reach Turkey. Their perilous journey had begun late at night on July 21 as they walked through the groves of Deir Sawwan. The sound of hyenas howling loudly did not weaken their resolve. They rested under an olive tree as they waited for the smuggler's signal that the coast was clear.

 Later into the night, they finally reached the border wall that was perched on a mountain. Firas, along with his parents and siblings, walked in a straight line on top of the wall, which was a mere 15 centimetres (approximately 6 inches) in width. There was no room to put one foot to the left. The further they walked along this narrow edge, the higher they got off the ground. Firas looked below only to find himself above a 30-metre deep valley.

 Firas’ younger brother Muhammed is as old as the war. He had told him before leaving, “you'll be happy in Turkey. You'll be able to leave the house and play in nice, clean streets.” As they continued to tread the edge of the 1km-long wall, Muhammed's foot suddenly slipped off to the left and just as he was about to fall, Firas grabbed his wrist in mid-air.

 Among the items in the 20 kg backpack Firas carried were the keys to his house, which was heavily damaged by airstrikes.


 In the early hours of the morning the al-Abdullahs had finally reached the end of the wall, whose construction was not completed. By stepping off its edge, they had taken their first steps on Turkish soil.

 Their strenuous journey continued as they walked for another three hours between mountains and through rock valleys. At one point, Firas had to carry Muhammed as he jumped over a river. His mother too grew tired, so he alternated between carrying her and his brother. “It was an extremely tiring course, and it was all so dark. The moonlight wasn't enough,” he says.

 After walking over 5 kilometres since stepping off the border wall, they reached the Turkish city of Kilis. Parched and weary, a taxi with whom the smuggler had a deal took them to a flat to rest. Shortly after, another taxi picked them up for a 16-hour drive to Istanbul where their relatives awaited them. They reached Istanbul at 10:30 PM on July 22.

 When asked to express his thoughts upon reaching Istanbul, he explained, “I was feeling quite shocked for about a week and in disbelief that I left [Syria] and am now in a place where people live normally. I had reached the ‘real world’ – that’s what I call it – the real world that everyone was living in but we were excluded from on account of the brutal oppression we had to endure under the Syrian régime. [The régime] made us live in a sort of regressive, barbaric age within this larger ‘real world’.”

 He expressed his delight at the sight of streetlights for the first time in seven years. “For the first time in years we saw streets undamaged by missiles, sidewalks unmarred by shrapnel, and walls unblemished by war,” he said.

 The terrors Firas experienced in Syria, however, followed him to his new home.

 “The second a commercial airplane or helicopter flies over us, we automatically bury our heads between our shoulders and are overcome with fear. It instantly occurs to me to warn the others that the warplanes are above us, as if I was still in Ghouta,” Firas explained. “It may sound crazy,” he chuckled, “but we need some time to forget the horror we lived.”

 He concluded, “things are, of course, better here, especially for my family. And my family is all that matters to me.” '

Friday 14 September 2018

The rebels are our hope; Turks are our brothers; the terrorists are Bashar, Hezbollah and Russia



 'In cities and towns across Syria's last opposition-held province, Idlib, residents poured into the streets on Friday to demonstrate against Bashar al-Assad's régime in defiance of an expected offensive to retake the territory.

 In the provincial capital, Idlib city, and in towns including Kafranbel, Dana, Azaz, Maaret al-Numan and al-Bab, demonstrators filled the streets after noon prayers and chanted against Assad, raising the tricolor green, white and black flag that has become the banner of Syria's 2011 uprising.

 "The rebels are our hope; Turks are our brothers; the terrorists are Bashar, Hezbollah and Russia," read a banner carried by residents in the village of Kneiset Bani Omar, referring to Turkey which backs the opposition, and Lebanon's Hezbollah and Russia that have joined the war along with Assad's forces.

 "There will be no solution in Syria without Assad's fall," read another banner carried in the northern village of Mhambel.


 Fridays have become the customary day for protests throughout the Arab world since the 2011 uprisings that swept through the region.

 Assad's government and its backers, Russia and Iran, say Idlib is ruled by terrorists, and have threatened to seize it by force.

 Wissam Zarqa, a university teacher in Idlib, said demonstrators were flying the tricolor flag to rebut the government line that Idlib is dominated by terrorists.

 The province, population 3 million, is now the final shelter for close to 1.5 million displaced Syrians that fled fighting in other parts of Syria. Many say they will not return to régime-controlled areas.

 Régime and Russian forces bombed towns and villages in the province earlier this week, killing more than a dozen civilians and damaging two hospitals. But the strikes eased on Wednesday amid talks between the opposition's main regional sponsor Turkey, and Russia.
'
The Associated Press

Wednesday 12 September 2018

Turkey boosts arms to Syrian rebels as Idlib attack looms

Image result for Turkey boosts arms to Syrian rebels as Idlib attack looms

 'Turkey has stepped up arms supplies to Syrian rebels to help them stave off an expected offensive by the Syrian army and its Russian and Iran-backed allies in the northwest near the Turkish frontier.

 Senior rebel officials said Turkey had sent more military aid to rebels in and around the Idlib region since a summit meeting with Iran and Russia last week failed to agree a deal to avert a government offensive into the area.

 Turkey, which is already hosting 3.5 million Syrian refugees, is warning against such an attack, fearing it could force more Syrians over the border. President Tayyip Erdogan has warned of a humanitarian disaster and security risks for Turkey.

 “They pledged complete Turkish military support for a long, protracted battle,” a senior FSA commander who was privy to talks in recent days with senior Turkish officials said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly.

 The weapons, which have entered Syria in large quantities in recent days, include ammunition and GRAD rockets.

 “These arms supplies and munitions will allow the battle to extend and ensure our supplies are not drained in a war of attrition,” the commander added.
 A second rebel commander said: “They are getting new shipments of munitions — they don’t need more than munitions. The Turks are making sure they have enough munitions that keep them going for a long while,” he added.



 The Idlib area forms part of an arc of territory in the northwest representing the last big area held by the opposition.

 Some three million people are living in Idlib, half of them Syrians who have fled from other parts of the country.

 Russian and Syrian warplanes have stepped up air strikes on southern Idlib and adjacent areas of Hama province in an apparent prelude to a ground offensive. The Syrian army is building up troops near frontlines.

 Turkey has backed an array of Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels during the war that spiraled out of an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011. With decisive Iranian and Russian help, Assad has now recovered most of Syria.

 Idlib’s main towns and cities are under the control of jihadists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), though they are outnumbered by Turkey-backed FSA fighters grouped under “The National Front for Liberation”.



 The Turkish army has also deployed in the last week more troops and heavy weaponary to 12 positions in the Idlib region that observe a “de-escalation zone” agreed with Iran and Russia. The Turkish army has also sent troops into Syrian rebel-held territory further east, in an area north of Aleppo city.

 With extensive Turkish support, efforts have been underway to organize FSA groups north of Aleppo into a unified force known as the “Syrian National Army” numbering some 30,000 fighters.

 Two rebel commanders said Turkey had ordered the bulk of this force to move toward the Idlib frontlines.

 At the summit in Tehran, Erdogan, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Hassan Rouhani agreed in a statement that there could be no military solution to the conflict and it could only end through a negotiated political process.

 But while Erdogan had also called for a truce, Putin said this would be pointless as it would not involve the Islamist militant groups that Russia deems terrorists, and Rouhani said Syria must regain control over all its territory.

 Russia has said Turkey has the job of separating Islamist militants from the moderate opposition in Idlib.

 Rebel sources said Turkey had pledged to take strong measures against the jihadists once Russia holds back the Syrian army from waging a major assault.'


Israel’s Failure to Support Syrian Rebels



 'The worst injuries Raed sustained during his six years fighting the Assad regime were in late 2014. The car he was driving was hit by a mortar shell, leaving him with two broken legs and severe burns to the face and arms.

 “I found myself in a field on the Israeli side, a few feet from the border fence. Injured people were all around me,” Raed recalled. “I woke up in pain, screaming for anesthetics. An Israeli officer approached me and asked why I was screaming. I said: ‘Send me in [to Israel]! Why have you left me here?’ The soldier pointed to a woman next to me whose leg had been amputated and said: ‘This women isn’t screaming. You’re a man, why are you?’”

 An argument ensued, ending with Raed being sent back to Syria for treatment. It was his fourth time entering Israel after being injured on the battlefield. “He was making fun of me,” Raed explained. “I never returned to Israel for treatment after that.”

 In the grand scheme of things, this anecdote may seem trivial. But in the aftermath of rebel capitulation to the Assad forces along the Israeli border in early August, it resonates with the bitterness of humiliation and betrayal.


 “Many people relied on Israel. In my unit, people believed the Assad regime wouldn’t dare enter the buffer zone, that it would be a red line for Israel. I told them that’s a lie. No way. There are agreements between the countries, and [Israel] will allow the regime to return to Israeli-Jordanian border. I would jokingly add that the regime will take the last spoonful of Syrian land.”

 Sitting at a café in the Aksaray neighborhood of Istanbul, where Syrian refugees gravitate to buy shawarma sandwiches at Anas Restaurant and get a taste of home, Raed and his friend Jalal relived the dashed hopes of their failed revolution. It took Jalal three crossing attempts before he managed to enter Turkey. Two weeks earlier, he fled Quneitra on the first bus for the rebel stronghold of Idlib in northern Syria. The bus was commissioned for the rebels as part of a surrender agreement with the regime. On his first attempt to smuggle his way across the border—for which he paid a local smuggler $1,300—his group of 20 refugees climbed a steep mountain until he could proceed no more. The second time, the smuggler turned them back due to increased policing on the Turkish side. Finally, Jalal paid the smuggler an additional $1,200 for an easier route across. He and 25 others climbed a concrete border wall on ladders, then scurried to the Turkish town of Reyhanli. From there, they fled by bus to Istanbul through country roads.

 “I should forget Syria. I can’t return,” he said. “Only Idlib is left [in rebel hands], and the regime could retake it. We don’t have anywhere to return to. I will start a new life far away from Syria.”


 Seven years after their families first took to the streets of south Damascus demanding better wages and human rights, they are now defeated men, partisans of a lost cause that was once full of hope for a better future for Syria—and perhaps better relations between the Syrian people and Israel. Rebel groups affiliated with the Free Syrian Army captured the Quneitra province along the border with Israel from the Assad army in February 2013, and quickly started to work with the Israelis. Jubatha al-Khashab, just across the border from the Golan Druze villages of Mas’ada and Buq’ata, was the first village in the province to fall to the opposition.

 Jalal, a 23-year-old opposition activist and citizen journalist, arrived at Jubatha in early 2013 from the battlefields south of Damascus. In the village, he worked with a small group of journalists that called themselves Al-Quneitra Voice, distributing their footage to Arab satellite channels like Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya. Jalal said the townspeople had high hopes from Israel, which sent them fuel for their generators and distributed drinking water. In 2016, the IDF’s newly established Good Neighborhood Directorate began sending tons of dry food and medical supplies.

 “Jubatha really collaborated with Israel,” Jalal said. “People in the village believed it was impossible for Israel to forsake them, but that was an illusion. Israel disappointed us a lot.”


 Jalal’s family originates from a village in the central Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Today, Moshav Yonatan, population 662, sits on its ruins. In the early days of the revolution, Jalal attended a meeting between his clan elders and a delegation of Assad’s Baath Party which came to absorb their anger. His family members accused the regime of handing over the Golan Heights to Israel and demanded compensation for property lost in the war. No reply ever came, and the impoverished tribe was soon on the streets, shouting “the son of a bitch sold the Golan.” “Our morale was very high,” he recalled. “We’d broken the fear barrier.”

 Ever since he was young, Jalal loved cameras. But it was on an old Nokia cellphone that he used to record the first anti-government demonstrations in April 2011, when he was just 17. Soon, he would split his time between videography and the battlefield, where he delivered ammunition to fighters in the trenches.

 The Palestinian group Hamas, its headquarters in Damascus, sent fighters to join the rebels too, Jalal recalled. “They were fierce fighters,” he said, noting one man in particular, Abu-Ahmad Mushir—believed to be the personal bodyguard of Political Bureau chief Khaled Mashal. Once, Jalal saw Mushir fire an outdated anti-aircraft missile at a regime helicopter and miss. Mashal abandoned Damascus and his patron Assad in January 2012.

 For many rebels, the revolutionary dynamic bred an understanding that Assad’s belligerent stance against Israel was nothing but a charade. “Forty years of so-called resistance have given us nothing,” he said. “On the contrary, everything moved backwards. The Syrian army was weak. In 2014 and 2015 Israeli aircraft would fly over Syrian army units with impunity. At some point the army started firing at them with machine guns. Seriously, can a machine gun down a plane?”

 Assad’s inability to challenge Israeli incursions should have given Jalal and his friends pause to realistically evaluate the Israeli stance vis-a-vis the rebels. They also knew, or should have known, that Israel was unsentimental in leaving behind many of its former allies from the South Lebanon Army (SLA) when they withdrew from Southern Lebanon in May 2000. But Syrian contact men, the so-called collaborators tasked with coordinating the transfer of injured fighters and civilians to Israeli hospitals, painted a rosy picture of life in Israel that for some oppositionists was too alluring to ignore.

 “The patient coordinators would travel to Israel and return with news of how good life is there,” Jalal said. “We asked them why Israel won’t open its borders to us. I thought I could go study in Palestinian universities. Many people hoped to export goods to Israel.”

 But others, like former combatant Raed, were more skeptical. “A verse in the Quran says: ‘Never will the Jews or the Christians approve of you until you follow their creed.’” he said. “Most people here didn’t count on Israel for help. We knew Israel considered us terrorists. The [Assad] regime defended Israel for 40 years, and Israel believes we just came to disrupt things on the border.” When Israeli food products began entering Syrian villages, he burned them, encouraging others to do the same.


 “If Israel wanted to help us, it would have offered weapons,” he told me. “What did it offer? Sugar, rice, tea. Do the Syrian people really need tea and sugar? I need something I can use to fight the Iranian expansion.”

 Ahead of battles with the regime, Raed’s rebel group would send Israel detailed requests for ammunition through the Syrian coordinators. Israel would habitually reply with offers of money for rebels to purchase arms in the free market, where very little ammunition existed. The assistance Israel did offer was nothing but an attempt to hedge its bets in case the opposition somehow prevailed over Assad, Raed now realized. “We the rebels could have won, and Israel wanted to have a stake in that.”

 Nevertheless, Raed did not refuse medical treatment in Israel when offered to him throughout the war, understanding full well, he says, that Israel was doing so for its own reasons. “We were treated in Israel because we had to be,” he says. “Jordan didn’t help us. During the early stages of fighting, we implored Israel to send us bandages and medication, but they gave us nothing. Later, we in the various fighting units designated a representative from the Al-Furqan Brigades named Abu-Diaa and he coordinated the transfer of wounded men.”

 Raed said Israel did not ask questions about the identity of the wounded fighters it admitted. But in hospital, he was asked more than once “what Israel meant to him.” He assumed his questioners belonged to Israeli intelligence. “I would tell them Israel doesn’t mean anything to me,” he recalled. “Assad is my main enemy, then Iran, and we’ll see about the rest later. In the future, there may be battles with the Jews, but at the moment, the fight against Shia expansion is the most important thing. Shia expansion is the most dangerous thing for us in Syria.”

 Jalal and Raed point to regime attempts to establish Husseiniyat, Shiite learning centers, in their province—attempts they say have been thwarted by the local population. Jalal said he expected the menace of Iranian influence to spur Israel into action.


 “I’d hoped Israel would defend the area, intervene, stop the war,” he said. “But as soon as the battle for Quneitra began, our hopes were dashed and the cards were exposed: Israel was in coordination with the regime against the people. In the final battles, regime and Russian aircraft struck villages like Quseiba and Nasiriyah situated no more than 1-1.5 miles from the armistice line with Israel. It became clear to me that Israel prefers Iran on its borders, because as soon as we leave, Iran will enter.”

 Confident that “no dictator lasts forever” and that Assad’s rule will come to an end only in the distant future, Jalal nevertheless insists that Israel has committed a grave mistake by siding with the strongman.

 “There could have been better relations between us,” he said. “In 50 or 60 years Assad will be gone, but the Syrian people will remain. Israel bet on Assad, but it will be a losing bet.” '