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 Trump's victory, Assad has been given free rein

 '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

 '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

 ' “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

 '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.'

A regime that is depriving Syrians from telling their stories

 Samer al-Ahmad:

 'Whenever I hear the word Aleppo I think of my friend, a lawyer called Ibrahim Malki. This time last year he and I were fellow detainees in a crowded cell where we slept next to each other – it was only three metres long and six metres wide but was home to more than 20 prisoners. We’d both been arrested by the regime. I had been accused of sending news to opposition media. Ibrahim was arrested for being a political and human rights activist.

 After 20 days of living together, talking and sharing torture sessions our friendship was cemented. But soon we would be transferred to different facilities.

 While I continued to be tortured, accused of being a terrorist, Ibrahim was witnessing his worst nightmare in a tiny cell in the capital, Damascus: he later told me how he watched young men die, their bodies thrown out like animals.

 A month later, I was released after paying a bribe to a regime officer. A week after that, I heard that Ibrahim had also been released. Soon the regime started harassing me again so I left for Turkey; Ibrahim moved to Switzerland after the regime shut down his law firm. We talk weekly on Skype and he always says how what is happening in Aleppo breaks his heart, his beloved city that President Bashar al-Assad is trying to destroy.'

Sadek Abdul Rahman, a pseudonym used by an editor and writer at Al-Jumhuriya:

 'I spent the first three years of the revolution moving between areas under the regime’s control. I witnessed people’s sadness, their fear and the deaths of their loved ones but persuading them to talk was the hardest part.

 Everyone is scared to speak and even if they agree they only talk about what they should say, not what they want to say. Even if you are able to reassure them that you won’t reveal their names and identities you can feel their fear and confusion coming through in their words, but with time some people slowly started to trust me.

 I was using a pseudonym to protect my identity so people were seeing an unknown person talking to unknown witnesses, and while this documentation is still important it is not the ideal way to do journalism.

 Once, I wanted to document the story of a friend who was forced to fight in the regime forces: he was not pro-regime but he was not on the revolution’s side either – he didn’t want to fight anyone.

 We tried to document his story during one of his holidays but it was impossible. Leaving out personal information rendered the story meaningless, but anything that hinted at either of our identities would have put us in danger.

 Three years later we met in Istanbul, where we laughed, cried and talked for hours. He was preparing himself to go to Europe after successfully escaping from Syria.

 But even in exile writing his story was impossible because it could implicate his family and friends who helped him to come to Turkey and are still living in areas under the regime’s control. A regime that is depriving Syrians from telling their stories even when they leave.'

 Raed Razzouk:

 'One day last September, after an excessive attack from jets and helicopters on my region of Idlib in northern Syria I decided it was time to to travel with my family, my wife and two kids, towards Turkey in search of safety.

 Our first attempt to cross the borders failed and some of us almost got killed by gunfire from Turkish soldiers on the border. One man was shot in the leg and women and children were screaming and crying.

 We fled to a nearby village where we found a mosque that we could rest in and found many people like us. At 3am we went back tried again and found a 1.5-metre-deep ditch to crawl through.

 With my wife, holding my six-month-old in one arm and the eight-year-old in another, we reached a Turkish village and our first safe sunrise in three years.'

The sectarianization of Syria and smearing a revolution

Leila al-Shami:

 'As the brief lull in Russian bombing comes to an end, Aleppo is entering its biggest and perhaps its last battle. For most people in the liberated east of the city, this is a battle of survival against a genocidal regime, and a battle for democracy too, because in their hard-won liberty they have built democratic councils and a free media.
Yet to the outside world, Aleppo often looks like a battle between sects - and with good reason. A small proportion of the city's defenders are Sunni jihadis with previous links to al-Qaeda. On the Assad regime's side, up to 80 percent of its fighters are foreign Shia jihadis organised, trained and funded by Iran.

 It didn't have to be this way. The year 2011 marked a turning point in the collective consciousness of Syrian society. In a country divided by sect, ethnicity, region and class, a protest movement for freedom, dignity and social justice united people from a wide range of backgrounds. Suddenly the term "Syrian people" gained a new, practical significance and became much more than a state-directed slogan.

 Men and women took to the streets calling for the downfall of the four-decade dictatorship. As the "fear barrier" famously broke, Syrians discovered themselves, each other, and their country anew. Few, for instance, had previously heard of the small town of Kafrnabel, in the rural north. But the witty banners activists in the town produced every Friday for its demonstrations brought it to national attention.

 Revolutionaries chanted in solidarity with towns resisting the regime's brutal crackdown - "Oh Homs (or Deraa, or Hama) we are with you until death". Slogans such as "One, One, One, the Syrian People are One" called for national unity and were against sectarianism. Groups such as "Nabd" ("Pulse") were established to promote diversity and coexistence.

 Young Kurdish and Arab activists established the Kurdish-Arab Fraternity Coordination Committee, which launched campaigns such as "Khorzi, I am your brother - Arabs and Kurds are one". Well-known Alawites (from the sect to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs) lent their support to the revolutionaries. One was the actress Fadwa Suleiman, who led protests in the Sunni-majority city of Homs.

 The first task of the counter-revolution - practicing age old tactics of divide and rule - was to destroy this developing organic unity. One of the early methods the regime employed was the unequal distribution of violence in its response to the uprising. Areas which were wealthier or had a higher proportion of minorities were treated more gently; teargas instead of bullets was used on protesters. The regime withdrew from Kurdish majority areas without a fight, handing over security installations to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

 Working class Sunni-majority towns and suburbs, on the other hand, were barrel-bombed and gassed. This helped form cleavages between Arab and Kurdish revolutionaries, and between Sunnis and religious minorities.

 The non-sectarian democracy movement was portrayed by the regime as an extremist "Salafi-Jihadist" plot from the outset, with the hope of frightening minorities into loyalty. This began with false flag operations, described in detail by Alawite writer Samar Yazbek in her wonderful book A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution. Regime thugs known as Shabiha instrumentalised sectarian hatred by carrying out violent acts in the coastal cities of Banyas, Jebleh and Latakia, spreading rumours amongst each sect that the other was responsible. Then came a spate of sectarian massacres.

 The Syrian Network for Human Rights documented 56 sectarian massacres between March 2011 and June 2015. Of these, 49 were carried out by regime forces (both local and foreign militias) and included sexual crimes, the burning of homes, and the slaughter of entire families. According to the network, no other group resorted to ethnic or sectarian massacres until June 2013. The purpose was to incite other groups to revenge - and it worked.

 The second target of these provocations was the international community. The regime couldn't win support for a crackdown on peaceful protesters, but it could win support for a "War on Terror". As the regime rounded up civil activists and protesters en-masse for indefinite detention - and often death by torture - it released 1,500 Salafi prisoners in 2011. The beneficiaries of the amnesty included Abu Muhammed al-Jolani, who went on to lead al-Qaeda's ex-affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra. There was also Hassan Aboud, who led Ahrar al-Sham, and Zahran Alloush, who led Jaish al-Islam until his death in an airstrike.

 For many months after the arrival of the Islamic State group on the scene, the regime in effect pursued an undeclared non-aggression pact with the group. IS is a great excuse for the continuation of violence perpetrated by the regime and its supporters. Russia claimed its intervention was directed against the terror group, but over 80 percent of its bombs have fallen nowhere near IS-controlled areas. Iran tells its people that its presence in Syria is to defend them from "Sunni-jihadism".

 Yet most Iranian-backed forces are fighting rebel groups that are defending democratically-organised communities, including the Free Syrian Army militias. The presence of Iran's Shia-jihadi militants greatly assists the Sunni-jihadi narrative.

 When the town of Daraya - close to the capital - fell to the regime in August, its residents (both civilians and fighters) were cleansed and sent to rebel-controlled Idlib far to the north. Iraqi Shia families were then moved into vacant homes. Reports have also emerged of Iran buying property and real estate in Homs and around the capital Damascus, after local inhabitants were forcibly expelled from their homes following heavy bombardment, massacres or starvation sieges in an attempt to change Syria's demographics.

 In a speech in July 2015, Assad declared, "Syria is not for those who hold its passport or reside in it, Syria is for those who defend it".

 In a remarkable echo of this sentiment, IS' leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said: "Syria is not for Syrians and Iraq is not for Iraqis. The land is for the Muslims, all Muslims." In areas controlled by IS, religious minorities have been driven out, murdered, forcibly converted, or enslaved - even those Sunni Muslims who dare to dissent from Baghdadi’s perverse definition of Islam.

 Some commentators hold that this process of ethnic-sectarian soft partition was an historical inevitability. Close attention to realities on the ground proves otherwise. In 2011, revolutionary Syrians expressed their desire for social unity, tolerance and diversity in order to achieve their dream of a free and democratic Syria. Many still do. It took the sustained violence of the forces of counter-revolution, backed by the full weight of foreign military intervention, to smash this possibility.'

"Syrians see through the west's lying propaganda"

 "Despite all the statements of concern..."

Rebels Strike Back

 'Rebels launched a major offensive near Syria’s largest city Aleppo on Friday, making significant gains against pro-Assad forces.

 Attacks began at dawn southwest of Aleppo, an area which has been fiercely contested since the spring and where Russia and the Assad regime re-imposed a siege of the city in late August.

 The rebels quickly took most of the district of Dahiyat al-Assad, which they had never held even at the height of gains this spring and summer. By evening, they had secured almost all of the 1070 Housing Complex, most of which they occupied despite the pro-Assad advances this autumn. And they had moved for the first time into part of the neighboring 3000 Housing area.

 The rebel objective may be to capture the Assad Academy, a facility for basic educational and training institution for infantry and armored corps conscripts and for advanced training for Army engineers.

 The attacks included at least six vehicle-borne bombs, one of which was remote-controlled. Photographs showed large explosions in Hamdaniyah, where the 3000 Housing area is located.

 Hundreds of rockets were also fired on regime facilities and bases, notably the Nayrab airbase southeast of Aleppo.

 Rebels were assisted by cloud cover which prevented any resumption of Russian airstrikes. The Kremlin maintained that President Vladimir Putin had ruled out immediate strikes because he “believes it is possible to extend the humanitarian pause” which Russia declared on October 18, as it faced growing political pressure over the siege and bombing of civilian areas in eastern Aleppo city.

 Rebel commanders are saying that they hope to move through the 3000 Housing Complex and military positions — possibly the Assad academy — to break the Russian-regime siege.'

A Message for the West

 Yassin al-Haj Saleh:

 'As a university student in the late 1970s, I was a member of one of two Communist Party organizations actively opposing the regime. At that time, there was an uprising in Syria that involved students, trade unionists, lawyers, and members of other professions who were fighting against the Assad government, as well as a separate conflict between the regime and the Muslim Brotherhood. There were regular worker strikes in Aleppo, where I was living, and I saw with my own eyes security forces breaking down the doors of homes and businesses.

 To be arrested in Assad’s Syria, you didn’t need reasons. But in 1980, hundreds of my comrades and I were detained as part of a campaign by the government to break Syrian society.

 I was young, and the early years in jail were very difficult. We suffered harsh treatment. In later years, our conditions were not so bad and we were allowed books and dictionaries. I learned English inside prison, and for 13 years, I read maybe 100 books or more per year. In the last year of my imprisonment, I was transferred to Tadmor prison, which is one of the most vicious places on the planet — a concentration camp for torture, humiliation, hunger, and fear. I was then released in 1996.

 The experience of prison transformed me and my ideas about the world. In many ways, it was an emancipatory experience. I developed the belief that to protect our fundamental values of justice, freedom, human dignity, and equality, we had to change our concepts and theories. The Soviet Union had fallen and many changes were occurring in the world. My comrades who refused to change, those who adhered to their old methods and tools, found themselves in a position of leaving their values behind. This is one reason why many leftists today are against the Syrian revolution — because they adhere to the dead letter of their beliefs, rather than the living struggle of the people for justice.

 It came to me as a shock, actually, that most of them have sided with Bashar al-Assad. I don’t expect much out of the international left, but I thought they would understand our situation and see us as a people who were struggling against a very despotic, very corrupt, and very sectarian regime. I thought they would see us and side with us. What I found, unfortunately, is that most people on the left know absolutely nothing about Syria. They know nothing of its history, political economy, or contemporary circumstances, and they don’t see us.

 In America, the leftists are against the establishment in their own country. In a way, they thought that the U.S. establishment was siding with the Syrian revolution — something that is completely false and an utter lie — and for this reason they have stood against us. And this applies to leftists almost everywhere in the world. They are obsessed with the White House and the establishment powers of their own countries. The majority are also still obsessed with the old Cold War-era struggles against imperialism and capitalism.

 Recently, an event in Rome that displayed images of those tortured and killed by Assad was attacked by fascists. Just days before, it had also been attacked in a local communist newspaper for promoting “imperialism.” There is a growing convergence between the views of fascists and the far-left about Syria and other issues. The reason for this is that perspectives on the left are outdated. They are interested in high-politics, not grassroots struggles. They are dealing with grand ideologies and historical narratives, but they don’t see people — the Syrian people aren’t represented. They are holding on to depopulated discourses that don’t represent human struggle, life, and death.

 The Assad regime, the junta that rules Syria today, has transformed the country from a republic into a monarchy. As you are aware, Bashar al-Assad inherited the post of president from his father in 2000. I am not aware of a statement from one Western leftist protesting against this transformation of a republic into a monarchy. The state has become the private property of the regime, while the economy has been restructured according to the neoliberal agenda.

 In the genes of this regime, it is inscribed that there must be no rights for the Syrian people. We are not citizens. We cannot say “no” to our rulers. We cannot organize, we cannot own the politics of our country, let alone organize in the public space or take part in it actively. They force us to suppress ourselves. We are, under their rule, politically speaking, enslaved.

 Many on the left look at Syria and know nothing about the relationship between the Assad regime and the Western powers. The Assad regime was never a power against imperialism in the Middle East. In fact, it always sought a role for itself in the imperial game in the region. But let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that Assad was against imperialism. Even if that were the case, the Syrian people would still be a part of the deal! We as a people are not merely a tool for the narratives of the Western left. This is our country. We are not guests.

 Over the past several years, there has been, in effect, a “Palestinization” of the Syrian people. We are being dealt with by the regime, and the world, as a people who will be annihilated politically. Maybe they won’t kill all of us. Many of us are still living. After all, only around half a million or so have been killed so far. But politically, they are annihilating us the same way that the Palestinians are being annihilated.

 At the same time, there is a corresponding “Israelization” of the Syrian regime. The same way that Israel relies on the United States for United Nations Security Council vetoes to protect it internationally, the Syrian regime now relies on vetoes from Russia. In Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians, only one side — Israel’s — has air power. The same is true in the conflict between Assad and the opposition.

 The Assad regime has become a representative of the internal First World in Syria, the Syrian whites. I think the elites in the West find Bashar al-Assad more palatable than other potential interlocutors. He wears expensive suits and has a necktie, and, ultimately, these elites prefer a fascist with a necktie to a fascist with a beard. Meanwhile, they don’t see us, the Syrian people. Those who are trying to own the politics of their own country have been rendered invisible.

 Under the umbrella of Islam we have many things. There is the religion of Muslims, which should be respected. Then there is political Islam, which includes parties and groups with which one should negotiate and find compromises — groups such as Ennahda in Tunisia and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Then we have what I call nihilist groups like ISIS, which must be fought. But to be successful in fighting against these groups you must give a chance to politics. You cannot isolate nihilists like al Qaeda and ISIS without giving something to other parties with whom you can negotiate.

 I am a secularist and a nonbeliever, an atheist. But I don’t find it democratic to fight against ISIS while being Islamophobic, while hating Muslims and expressing suspicion toward them, and at the same time stating that you don’t want any political role at all for Islamists! This is extremism, it is an extremist position, and it is what reactionary Islamic extremism is built on. When you refuse to accept the moderate groups, practically speaking you are supporting the extremists.

 I think there is something Islamophobic about the position that the Assad régime is a bulwark of secularism in Syria. The Assad regime is not secular. It is a sectarian regime. You don’t need anything related to progress or the enlightenment to be loyal to one sect and fight against other sects. They employ sectarianism as a strategy of control, as a means to seize power forever. In their own slogans they openly say, “Assad or we burn the country,” and “forever, forever,” in reference to holding absolute power over the country.

 In secularism, there is inherently the idea of not discriminating between people on the basis of their religion or confessional community. Is this the case in Syria now? No, it is not. If you are an Alawite, your chances of getting a job or having real power in society are greater than if you are a Sunni or a member of another group.

 After the revolution began, I was in Eastern Ghouta [near Damascus]. My travels also led me to the eastern parts of Homs and Raqqa. When the Salafists came, I never once saw people celebrating. I am not saying that people were angry, but these groups didn’t have real popularity. People are against the regime, and these groups are against the regime. Their presence filled a gap.

 For 30 years, the Baath Party has made a project of crushing all political life in Syria. So when the uprising came, we had no real political organizations, only individuals here and there. Islam, in our society, is the limit of political poverty. When you don’t have any political life, people will mobilize according to the lowest stratum of an imaginary community. This deeper identity is religion. When you have political and cultural life, you can have trade unions, leftist groups, and people are able to organize along any number of identities. But when you crush politics, when there is no political life, religious identity will prosper.

 Let me give you as an example the Syrian Kurds. Over the years of Baath Party rule, they were manipulated, divided, and even denied their very existence as Kurdish people in what was called the “Syrian Arab Republic.” Despite this, Kurds were still allowed to organize politically. Not one of their political parties was exterminated. When I was in prison, many of my friends were from Kurdish political organizations. They would only ever spend a year or two in prison at a time, never 15 or 20 years.

 The Baath Party crushed all political life for Syrian Arabs, including the Muslim Brotherhood parties. When they were confronted by the Syrian revolution, they strove to crush that as well, and this has now resulted in ISIS. ISIS is not an expression of the Syrian revolution. It is an expression of the destruction of Syrian society, and of Iraqi society before it.

 The war on terror narrative that Assad has adopted is one that is based on empowering states and empowering the powerful against the weak. That narrative weakens those who are already weak, which is why he has used it to present himself to the world as a partner in the campaign against terrorism.

 I don’t think that there is anything democratic or progressive about this narrative, or about the practices and institutions related to this war on terror framing. The reason the world is now in a crisis is that the major global narrative now is not democracy, justice, socialism, or even liberalism — it is all about security and immigration. This means that Trump is better than Clinton, Marine Le Pen is better than Hollande. It means that a fascist is always better than a democrat, which means that Bashar Assad is better than the opposition.

 Accepting this terrorism narrative makes people like us, those who were active in the revolution, in its peaceful stage, and then in the armed struggle, effectively invisible. All those opposing the regime are ISIS — as Bashar al-Assad is always saying — and the only other choice is him. Accepting this war on terror narrative weakens and disempowers people like us. It disempowers leftist, democratic, and feminist Syrian organizations and activists, while empowering the regime and the extremists.

 Yes, we have a chance to win people back to secularism. But only provided that Bashar al-Assad is not there. For us to be a real alternative in the country, Bashar and this junta regime that has killed hundreds and thousands of our people cannot be there. I am a leftist and I am an atheist, but I will not fight against ISIS if, behind my back, you put your hand in the hand of Bashar al-Assad.

 If the proposal is, “Let’s focus on defeating ISIS and then afterward, maybe he will still be around,” I will not do it. The one who tortured, humiliated, killed, and despised my people — Bashar al-Assad — is a criminal who must be held accountable. This accountability will furnish a basis for secularists, nationalists, and democrats to compete against mainstream Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood, and to fight against nihilist groups like ISIS. Both ISIS and Bashar al-Assad are the extremist powers that must be eradicated in order to build an inclusive Syria.

 I am not saying that things will be OK when these groups are gone. There will be huge problems to deal with in Syrian society. But right now, we don’t have problems in Syria. We have tragedies, we have massacres, we have a horrific human condition. We have a destroyed country and a destroyed society. When Bashar is gone and ISIS is gone, we can hope for a dynamic of rebuilding and reconciliation, in which Syrians can start to put their country back together. But as long as he remains, this will never be possible.

 For us, as Syrians, let me be frank: ISIS is the lesser evil. They have killed maybe 10,000 people, whereas Bashar al-Assad has killed hundreds of thousands. Ask yourself how anyone could tolerate such a situation. Could you imagine that in 10 or 15 years, after crushing all opposition, perhaps the son of Bashar al-Assad will proceed to rule the country after him? How horrible. How criminal. If Bashar al-Assad survives, after killing hundreds of thousands of people, expatriating 5 million more, displacing 6 million within the country, inviting the Iranians and the Russians and Shia militias from around the world to invade Syria, if such an abhorrent criminal survives and maintains his political power, the world will be a much worse place for everyone.

 It is a fable that Western countries did not intervene in Syria. The reality is that they intervened in a very specific way that prevented Assad from falling but guaranteed that the country would be destroyed. The United States pressured Turkey and other countries very early on to prevent them from providing decisive assistance to the Syrian opposition. In doing so, these countries vetoed Assad’s being toppled by the Syrian people by force. Meanwhile, as we can see, they have no problem watching the Syrian revolution be crushed by force.

 The United States also negotiated the sordid chemical weapons deal with Russia in 2013 — a deal that solved a big problem for America, Russia, Israel, and for the Assad regime, but did nothing for the Syrian people. The United States also led the “Friends of the Syrian People” group, which it then sidelined and destroyed. Leftists in the West should know this: In many important ways, the Americans have been supporting Bashar al-Assad. The United States helped create a situation in which Syria would be plunged into chaos, but the regime would remain in power.

 I want Assad to be hanged now, not tomorrow. But there needs to be a vision, the cornerstone of which is to change the political environment of Syria substantially — to build a new Syria on an inclusive basis, with a new majority in the country. For such a majority to be built, you must both overthrow Bashar al-Assad and fight ISIS. This will help Alawites to be independent from the Assad regime and will isolate the extremists among the Sunnis. It will be good for the Christians and Druze and other minorities and will help unite them around issues that transcend sectarian divisions. We have people who are Sunnis who still refuse to be identified by their sect. There are many people like me and others who want real change and want to be part of this new Syrian majority. Only such a solution could be sustainable, and it will be the beginning of solving this crisis that is aggravating the entire world now.

 Ultimately, it is not a matter of intervention against Assad. It is a matter of helping Syrians to regain ownership of their country and to hold the criminals accountable. ISIS is not that big of a monster. It can be easily defeated. Many of us are people from Raqqa [ISIS’s capital], scattered around the world, and we are all ready to go and fight them. But we are not ready to go back to slavery under Bashar al-Assad. This is a clique and junta that killed and tortured on an industrial scale. Under international law, it is meant to be held accountable. This is not something that we are inventing. We don’t ask Obama or Hollande to come solve our problems. International law was breached several times, and those who did this should be held accountable. We have a special tribunal at The Hague and Bashar al-Assad should be referred there.

 We are resilient people. We still believe in human dignity and in a better future for ourselves and others. We have a cause, and it is a just cause. I think that the Syrian revolution liberated us from an inferiority complex we had toward the other people of the world. We don’t wait for others to solve our problems now, or to define for us what is just and what is fair. We are struggling for our emancipation, without illusions. We are hopeful that more people will join us in this struggle. It is not just about Syria any longer. It is about the world.'

Smuggled in a hearse, Syrian lives to tell of torture

 'Sami Al Sari will never forget the sheer terror of lying next to so many corpses in the back of the hearse.

 "They were naked, signs of torture were obvious on their bodies and faces," he recalled of the day when he was finally reunited with his family after four months of vicious torture in the hands of Syria’s regime forces.

 The 25-year-old Syrian was smuggled out of a notorious prison in a hearse full of dead inmates, and dumped in a desolate area outside Damascus in November 2012. His escape was possible only because his family paid a hefty sum of two million Syrian pounds (Dh34,440) to rescue him.

 "I was surrounded by horror for a whole hour that felt like a decade."

 When the Syrian revolution started in 2011, Sami was only 20 years old and a final year student studying political science at Damascus University. Like many other youths at that time, he could not sit and watch the uprising happening in his country without taking part in it. On July 16 the following year, more than a year after the Arab Spring started, Syrian security forces stormed Sami’s house, and arrested him and his four friends for taking part in a protest in front of the Iranian embassy.

 "At that moment, everything turned dark in front of my eyes. Not just because I was blindfolded, but also for knowing where I was taken to. I heard many horror stories of that place, and I thought I would be one lucky guy if I ever made it out alive," Sami said.

 He and his friends were taken to the so-called "Apparatus 215" – an infamous detention centre run by forces loyal to president Bashar Al Assad. It was there that the "torture festival" began, said Sami.

 The guards separated the friends, and placed Sami in solitary confinement. He has not seen or heard any news of his friends since then.

 "The cell was very dirty. I couldn’t sleep or sit at the beginning. There were bugs and rodents everywhere. I was getting just one meal a day that contained a piece of bread with a barely edible potato, and one dirty bottle of water," Sami recalled.

 "I was beaten and lashed with a whip on my whole body, put on a torturing chair called ‘Nazi’s chair’ that almost broke my back, cigarettes were put out in my body, and I was hung from a windowsill for hours. It was four months of non-stop torture," Sami said.

 "Then came the electrocution. They would shock me on my head, my neck and all over. It was extremely painful."



 Sami was heavily and routinely electrocuted, until one day when he lost consciousness during one of the sessions. He thinks it was around this time that he suffered a temporary loss of memory and has little recollection of what his tormentors did to him after that.

 He believes, however, that they continued to torture him even when he was experiencing amnesia. "When I eventually gained some of my memory back, I was able to see clearly the signs of torture all over my body," he said. It was when he was next to all the dead bodies that he "started recalling everything I went through until that moment", he said.

 Following months on the run, Sami’s family decided to relocate with him from Damascus to the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, where they were originally from. He finally made it to Turkey in April this year after obtaining fake identification papers and enduring an arduous journey through many checkpoints.

 It was only when his family managed to escape to Turkey that he broke his silence. But, like so many other Syrian refugees who have escaped torture and death under the tyranny of war, Sami is still struggling to get back on his feet.

 "The screaming of other inmates echoed all over the place through the day and night," he recalls of his time in prison. "It was a horrifying thing by itself. It was unbelievably inhuman." '

Rebel goals not all shared by Turkish backers

 ' "Our most important target is to break the siege of Aleppo. There, our FSA brothers are trapped," Ismail, a commander from the Sultan Murad group, an FSA faction, told Reuters in Jarablus, wearing camouflage fatigues and Adidas sneakers. "This is our own idea, but in the coming days we will discuss this with our Turkish brothers," he said.

 The answer may not be what he wants to hear. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russia's Vladimir Putin agreed at a meeting in Istanbul last week to try to seek common ground on Syria, despite backing opposing sides, although there has been little sign of concrete progress. Erdogan said he had spoken with Putin on Tuesday and agreed to try to help meet a Russian demand that fighters from the group formally known as the Nusra Front, now called Jabhat Fatah al Sham, be removed from Aleppo.

 "The necessary orders were given to our friends, and they will do what is needed," Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.

 Such willingness to do Moscow's bidding is unlikely to go down well with the FSA fighters Turkey is backing.

 "Russia says they are bombing terrorists, but be it al Nusra or Ahrar al Sham, these are people who have fought with us to save our land," Sighli Sighli, another commander from the Sultan Murad brigade, told Reuters in Jarablus.

 He said he was grateful for the backing of the Turkish military, and that the FSA's recent advances could not have been achieved without it, but that Aleppo was the strategic goal.

 "It's not possible for us to accept what Russia or Iran or the PYD (Kurdish militia) wants to do with our country. This land belongs to Syrians, not Russians or Iranians," he said.

 Some of the civilians in Jarablus, where shops have gradually reopened selling fruit and cloth as rebel fighters patrol the streets on foot and in pick-up trucks, are also suspicious of Ankara's warming ties with Moscow.

 "My family is starving in Aleppo. Thousands are starving... Erdogan has left our people there to die, he has abandoned us," said one Turkmen resident who gave his name only as Yahya, and who said his wife and five children were in Aleppo.

 "We have put aside our desire to fight Assad just for now. We haven’t abandoned it ... it's not like we've dropped our target," Bessam Muhammed, a 40-year-old rebel fighter, told Reuters in the garden of a Turkish-run field hospital.

 "We haven’t come all the way and fought this war to seize Jarablus and then stay here," he said.

 Operation Euphrates Shield has made good progress. Backed by Turkish tanks and warplanes, the rebels captured the village of Dabiq, southwest of Jarablus, from Islamic State on Sunday, a stronghold where the jihadist group had promised a final, apocalyptic battle with the West.

 Turkey's military has said border security has now been largely achieved. But as the offensive moves towards al-Bab, 35 km (22 miles) northeast of Aleppo, the battle may get harder.

 "The fight here for Jarablus was easy, but the fight for al-Bab will be much harder. Here there wasn't much resistance. They fled the town and we moved in," said Mahmut, 26, an FSA fighter wearing a Turkish police helmet.

 "We don’t want to stop here or in al Bab. Next is Aleppo." '

The people demand the downfall of the régime

Note 3/6/25, post originally included video [https://youtu.be/ES0sFPMwmP0], now unavailable.

Rebels reject Aleppo withdrawal after Russian statement

 'Syrian rebels said on Tuesday they rejected any withdrawal of fighters from Aleppo after Russia announced a halt in air raids which it said was designed to allow insurgents to leave and to separate moderate fighters from extremist militants.

 "The factions completely reject any exit - this is surrender," said Zakaria Malahifji, the political officer of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim group.

 Al-Farouk Abu Bakr, an Aleppo commander in the powerful Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, said the rebels would fight on.

 "When we took up arms at the start of the revolution to defend our abandoned people we promised God that we would not lay them down until the downfall of this criminal regime," he said, referring to President Bashar al-Assad's government.

 "There are no terrorists in Aleppo," he said, speaking from Aleppo.'

Are You Silent Because There Are Muslims?

 'Last week was the worst yet for the besieged neighborhoods of eastern Aleppo. Russian and Syrian government warplanes launched a new campaign of indiscriminate bombing Tuesday, terrorizing the city and causing a wave of casualties. On Friday, the warplanes targeted the area’s food supply, destroying a bread distribution facility and attacking a flour mill.

 A staggering 174 airstrikes were launched over the course of the week on eastern Aleppo, the rebel-controlled portion of the city, and 159 deaths were reported through mid-afternoon Friday.

 For one resident of eastern Aleppo, the silence of the United States and its allies — which have not taken any military steps to stop the onslaught — has made an already intolerable situation even worse.

 “I want to ask the Western world, which has laws to protect animals: Where are you when it comes to protecting women, children, the elderly, and the disabled?” said Fatima Kaddour, “Are you silent because there are Muslims in our country and they should be exterminated?”

 Kaddour, a 56-year-old housewife and mother of 11 children, lives in a one-room apartment, along with her son and two daughters, close to the front lines with government forces. It is not her flat. Like so many of their neighbors, her family was internally displaced, forced to move from their old home in the Salahuddin district of eastern Aleppo when their house was destroyed in January.

 She railed at the ruling regime for attacking Syrians but said she’s ready to leave the rebel-held areas if given a chance. Like many other Syrians, she is perplexed by the U.S. fixation on destroying Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the al Qaeda affiliate formerly known as the Nusra Front, rather than acting to stop the regime’s assault on civilians. Jabhat Fatah al Sham is a relatively small player in Aleppo and runs the areas under its control in an orderly, nonabusive fashion, she said.

 Although she and her children have tried to fix up their new home, the bombing campaign has broken the windows and damaged the doors. It is full of sunlight, and there is room for the children to study, she said. But when they hear warplanes overhead, usually once or twice a day, “We run to the bathroom or the hall.”

 Compared with some other residents of eastern Aleppo, they are lucky. Not long ago, the Russian or Syrian air force bombed a building nearby that had housed five families, reducing it to a heap of rubble. All 20 inhabitants were killed, and most are still under the debris, she said.

 The sole survivor from one of the families was a girl of 10, who had not been in the building. For a full week, she slept in the street, waiting for the civil defense volunteers to dig out her relatives, Kaddour said. But the volunteers lacked the equipment to recover the bodies, and the ruins have become their grave. The girl was so traumatized that she would not speak to a family that offered to informally adopt her, and in frustration they took her to an orphanage in the Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo.

 “She never laughs. She never cries. She never asks for anything, even food,” Kaddour said. “The other children feed her.”

 Meals for those living in besieged Aleppo are spartan, consisting of Syrian flat bread, which humanitarian aid groups distribute every other day, rice, lentils, and bulgur, a local grain that can be cooked or consumed raw when mixed with water. The grains are distributed in food packets every second or third month. Residents obtain water from a water delivery service, which provides 250 gallons to fill a tank for $10 — as long as the purchaser can supply the fuel to power the delivery truck. But fuel is almost impossible to find.

 Because of the cost of cooking fuel, residents comb destroyed buildings for scrap wood, which they use for a fire to boil water, Kaddour said.

 The situation in Aleppo is at the edge of a still bigger disaster, with the main vulnerabilities in the area being fuel and water, according to the top official in rebel-held parts of the province. The city had built up supplies in anticipation of a siege of up to six months, said the official, Mohammad Fadelah, in a phone call Friday. But it cannot use them all due to a fuel shortage.

 “We brought in substantial amounts of wheat, but the problem is we don’t have the fuel to run the mills to make the flour,” said Fadelah, the president of the provincial council.

 The fuel shortage also threatens to paralyze water filtration systems, which make the area’s well water fit for human consumption. The enclave also suffers from a growing crisis in health care, as two of the 10 hospitals in the area were recently destroyed, and a shortage of medicine grows worse.

 “We had our strategic plan before the siege to keep functioning for six months,” he said. “But with the recent escalation, I don’t think we would be able to serve that long.”

 The children of eastern Aleppo, however, are forced to take on tasks that would terrify even the bravest adults. Kaddour is both proud of and worried for her teenage son, Amir, who volunteers at a local hospital, helping rescue people pinned down when buildings collapse. He got involved in the job after enrolling in a first-aid course without telling her, using his pocket money to buy a first-aid kit.

 “I don’t want him to leave the house when there is bombing,” she said. “Sometimes he listens to me. Other times he sneaks out and leaves without telling me.”

 On one occasion, when Amir was working, two missiles struck the building next door to her and set it on fire. Neighbors told her that they’d seen her son and he was safe. But when she began searching for him, she came upon the bodies of two young men who’d died in the attack.

 “I lost consciousness. I didn’t feel anything for six hours. Even when I was awake, I couldn’t remember anything for a week,” she said.

 Now she and her family live in fear for their future. Bashar al-Assad’s regime and Russia appear determined to reconquer all of Aleppo, which was once the country’s largest city. Kaddour believes they want to expel the people of eastern Aleppo, as they have the population of Darayya and other towns near Damascus.

 “They have destroyed us, expelled us, and killed us only because a group of youths protested and asked for freedom, the freedom of opinion, of education, and to live as you like,” she said. “They took away everything from us, even the air, which they polluted with chlorine gas, with phosphorus and the smell of ruin.”

 “Now after all the suffering, we are worried they will take us out in the green buses,” she said — referring to the state-owned fleet used to deport Darayya residents from their hometown to rebel-held areas. She said she’d go willingly to Gaziantep, Turkey, where she has a married daughter, and others would go to rebel-held Idlib or even to the regime-held areas.

 “The international community has ignored us,” she said. “We are unarmed. And we are fed up.” '

Aleppo to the Ivy League

 'Khaled Almilaji coordinated a campaign that vaccinated 1.4 million Syrian children and risked his life to provide medical care. He is one of three Syrian scholars studying at Brown University, which said last year it would welcome Syrians after dozens of governors attempted to block refugees.

 He said he feels lucky because many other Syrian doctors have had to give up their work after sacrificing for five years, watching their families suffer and seeing their children go without an education.

 "Every time I go inside Syria, I see the smile on the face of families and people. They say, 'We will stay here. We will never go out, and we will still fight this regime,'" he said. "You cannot go out with less energy, just to continue supporting those people."

 Almilaji was born in Aleppo, now the epicenter of Syria's conflict. He studied in the coastal city of Latakia to treat disorders of the ear, nose and throat. He was preparing to go to Stuttgart, Germany, for a residency in March 2011 when anti-government protests sparked the conflict.

 He treated protesters who likely would have been arrested or killed if they went to government-run hospitals, he said, and he set up field hospitals.

 "They accept to be killed if this is the way to show the world we are in a revolution here," he said. "But I cannot accept that those people will never go to a protest because they don't have any hospitals to receive them in case they are injured."

 Almilaji said he was arrested in September 2011 in Damascus, interrogated and tortured. The savagery he witnessed during six months in prison convinced him he was "one thousand percent correct" in opposing the regime, he added.

 Almilaji returned to Aleppo after his release and cared for protesters' families, considered a crime. A friend who was helping those families was arrested in April 2012. Almilaji escaped to Gaziantep, Turkey, and his parents soon followed.

 A U.N. commission found government forces in Syria deliberately target medical personnel to gain a military advantage, by depriving the opposition and those perceived to support them of medical assistance. The commission called the targeting of medical personnel one of the most insidious trends of the war.

 Almilaji translated for Syrians in Turkish hospitals and worked to equip Turkey with ambulances to transfer Syrians from the border. He made trips into Syria to work in a medical clinic in Aleppo and deliver medical supplies. He successfully pushed for the building of underground hospitals because he expected health facilities to come under increasing attack, a fear that proved true.

 He said he joined the humanitarian arm of the opposition and began monitoring the spread of communicable diseases in northern Syria by setting up an early warning response and alert network.

 The first case of polio was discovered through the network in October 2013 in eastern Syria, he said. Almilaji planned the vaccination campaign as the administrative director. Teams went house to house and vaccinated 1.4 million Syrian children.

 He is working with Canadian doctors to establish safe health facilities in Syria, train medical workers and connect hospitals. The group formed the Canadian International Medical Relief Organization, and Almilaji reviews the projects from Providence.

 If insurgents are still fighting President Bashar Assad's forces when he graduates in two years, Almilaji plans to work from Turkey on relief efforts that can later facilitate redevelopment. When Syria is stable enough, he wants to return and work on preventing diseases and other health problems, since resources for treating ailments will continue to be scarce.'

First video footage of FSA rebels in Syria's Dabiq

 'In this video footage filmed by a Rudaw news partner in Syria, rebel fighters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are seen in the town of Dabiq in northern Aleppo on Sunday morning.

 The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) said its forces captured Dabiq from ISIS after violent clashes.

 “Free Syrian Army forces have taken control of the strategic town of Dabiq in the northern Aleppo countryside after violent clashes with Daesh (ISIS),” the FSA said in a tweet.

 Backed by Turkish air strikes the FSA launched an offensive against ISIS in Dabiq on Saturday as part of their drive against the extremist group.

 According to the US-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights ISIS had stationed 1,200 of its fighters in Dabiq, to protect a town so important to ISIS that it gives its name to the militants' main magazine.'