*Entering Aleppo city, a 500 metre stretch of the Ramouseh road is lethal due to terrorists’ sniping and shelling.
I have been visiting different regions of Syria since June 13, 2016, and have not had sufficient time to post regularly. However, until then, I will share some brief updates I had shared on social media, and otherwise will share writings/photos/videos from my prior 4 visits.
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August 8, 2016: Down the Terrorist Sniper Road to Aleppo
While looking for something in my files I found two short clips. The first clip has the driver saying terrorists are 200 metres from the cement factory we will pass. The second video is driving along the road next to Ramouseh, a road which is heavily sniped by terrorists occupying the region beyond the cement factory in Sheikh Saeed…
*earlier text I shared on this leg of the trip:
When I visited Aleppo a few weeks ago, I wrote the following in a notebook:
“Entering the outskirts of the city, driver points to a cement factory roughly 400 m away. Beyond that factory, in Sheikh Saeed, terrorists, he says. We pass barrels stacked to screen cars from terrorist snipers’ bullets, then embankments of sand and earth, for the same purpose. Dipping into a small valley, a block of apartments in al-Ramouseh is in view.
The driver opens the car windows, explaining that, “here many mortars fall” (in which case, better to have window open, in case a mortar landed, so windows won’t shatter from the pressure). He says for the next 500 metres the risk of snipers’ bullets is high, that five of his friends were killed along this stretch. The car speeds along the road until a safe point is reached.”
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SANA reports that on Jul 27, “One woman was killed and five others were injured by a terrorist sniper attack in al-Ramouseh neighborhood in Aleppo city. …terrorists targeted citizens’ homes in al-Ramouseh neighborhood on Wednesday morning with sniper gunfire in an indiscriminate manner, claiming the life of one woman and inflicting injuries of varying severity on five others.” (http://sana.sy/en/?p=83711)
Sincere condolences to the family of the martyred woman and families of the injured, and all respect to the Syrian Arab Army for their continued gains against terrorists, particularly yesterday’s liberation of Lairamoun industrial zone and Bani Zeid. Looking forward to the liberation of all of Aleppo and cessation to terrorist sniper and bomb attacks.
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August 6th: Ta’aouna, 300 metres from terrorist snipers in Aqrab village
Yesterday, via a winding road through the Masyaf region hills, descending to the village of Ta’aouna, I met with residents of neighbouring Aqrab, which in December 2012 was attacked by the so-called “Free Syrian Army” who massacred between 120-150 Aqrab residents (more on their testimonies soon).
Standing on the roof of the home to which three Aqrab survivors had come to give their testimonies, the village of Aqrab, roughly 500 metres away, was distinctly visible—as are any people in Ta’aouna who go rooftop (for laundry, water or other reasons) to terrorist snipers in the hills near Aqrab. The home owner pointed out holes from such snipers’ bullets prior.
Two hundred metres down a lane, some fifteen houses remain inhabited by local Ta’aouna families (including children), in homes 300 metres from where terrorists and their snipers lie.
Rooftop the home closest to the dirt embankment beyond (this particular house uninhabited, although only 5 metres from the next inhabited one), Abu Abdo, a local defense volunteer explains how he and others in the village take night shifts to watch for attempted terrorist infiltrations. The Syrian Arab Army has hilltop posts around Ta’aouna, but nonetheless the village defenders (including many who are family men and formerly served in the SAA) watch to see if/where terrorists are shooting from/at. “We organized ourselves, since 2011. We communicate with the army and give them targets, and they do the same with us,” he says of the watch for terrorist attacks.
We sit behind a wall of tires, some concrete blocks to one side serving as a defensive wall from behind which to watch for and shoot at terrorists. A second local defender appears, greets me with a friendly handshake, explains that in late 2013 terrorists managed to advance to the low hills to our right. But not since.
I ask Abu Abdo what he did prior to the war on Syria. A school principal, and he still is, he does the defense volunteering after hours. I ask about his family. He has 5 kids, including the pretty 9th grade girl with long curly hair who had served us coffee and cold water in the home where Aqrab residents gave their testimonies.
“I’m a principal. I used to teach in Raqqa years ago. We all got along, were peaceful. I’d walk for many kilometres in areas I wasn’t familiar with but I never had problems. I also taught in Aqrab for two years.”
They point to the land between Ta’aouna and the low hills flanking the village, and the start of Aqrab beyond.
“That small cement building on the land, right near there, about one month ago, a university student was shot in his head and killed, by a terrorist sniper. He was an engineering student.”
Earlier they’d told me about this, and about another university student who roughly 2 weeks ago was torn apart by shelling from terrorists in Aqrab. “He had just finished his exams,” they had said.
Descending from the roof, we walk past a nearby house, the children on the porch stoop. The second defense soldier tells me, with a proud smile, they are his kids. He takes me to the side of the house to show three creatively covered holes, “Dushkie” shots from the terrorists about 10 days ago.
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Someone commented on a post of mine from a few days ago, something to the effect of not being able to imagine living peacefully in a village and another village nearby was suddenly being massacred. Too sadly, this has become the reality in Syria flooded with foreign, western-backed mercenaries who, in the words of many Syrians I have spoken with, “know no religion, have no humanity”.
The villagers of Ta’aouna took in displaced people from Aqrab when the FSA attack occurred in 2012, as have residents of villages and cities around Syria over the years sheltered internally displaced Syrians fleeing terrorists.
The other day, hilltop above the village I’m in, we stopped at a small shrine. My hosts told me that three years ago, three refugee families from Keeseen village (near Houla) fled to this village when terrorists attacked their own village. They stayed for one year in two rooms in the shrine, with locals from the village bringing them food. Since then, they have been able to build homes in a nearby village.
This–generosity and compassion–is Syria, not the sadism of the terrorists, sanctioned by western governments.
The defenders I’ve met, whether local groups or the Syrian Arab Army and allies, are defending Syria from the most vile of mercenaries whose interest lies not in protecting the Syrian people–much less “freedom or human rights”–but in destroying the country.
These defenders and their families have suffered immensely, for Syria and its people. If there are any heroes in this unjust world, it is those who fight for a just cause, like those who defend Syria.
All respect to the Syrian Arab Army and allies.
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August 4: En Route to Masyaf, we pass the massacred village of Zara and at times are flanked by terrorist a few hundred metres away
The last leg of the trip from Damascus to Masyaf followed a road which at times was 500 metres away from terrorist factions (including Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam, Jebhat al-Nusra and Da’esh [ISIS]) occupying Houla villages (including: Kafrlaha, Tel Dow, Tel Dahab, Aqrab, Taiba, Houla and Zara).
Three large chimneys of the power plant in the distance are a landmark with Zara village just beyond. Zara civilians were savagely massacred in May 2016, by Ahrar al-Sham, a terrorist faction the west refuses to dub as terrorist, in spite of the horrific massacre of at least 115, Syrian civilians (as well as Ahrar al-Sham’s [among other western-backed terrorists] continued firing of rockets and gas canister bombs on the 1.5 million people of Aleppo).
http://sana.sy/en/?p=77063
https://www.rt.com/news/342983-syria-zara-carnage-alsham/
At one point as the van drove along, we passed a hospital 300 metres away, secured by the Syrian Arab Army. Some few hundred metres beyond, however, are terrorist factions.
Along the road, we stopped at a spring to fill water bottles with pure cold water, and wash dust and sweat off our faces and arms.
After climbing a winding road through olive-tree dotted hills, passing through small villages in Masyaf, and dipping back down again, the van passed an intersection. “That’s the road we should have taken,” I was told, “but there are terrorist snipers along that road.”
Yesterday, along one of the roads we traversed, the Syrian Arab Army defused 8 landmines set by terrorists in the region.
At the village in the mountains, we took a walk to family land, where a variety of vegetables grown were harvested for the day’s meal.
Later on the family’s balcony in town, looking down on the greater Houla region, the village hubs of Aqrab and Houla can be seen.
Houla was site of a horrific terrorist massacre of over 100 Syrian civilians in May 2012, and nearby Aqrab the site of a horrific terrorist massacre of between 120-150 Syrian civilians in December 2012, both by the so-called “Free Syrian Army”.
(See Prof. Tim Anderson’s “The Houla Massacre Revisited: “Official Truth” in the Dirty War on Syria” http://www.globalresearch.ca/houla-revisited-offici…/5438441)
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July 31: Palmyra visit and the brave Syrian soldiers who died protecting it
Some photos and a brief overview of a very moving trip to Palmyra yesterday. Palmyra, ancient site of so many customs and traditions, recent site of Da’esh (ISIS) 10 month occupation and savage slaughter of Syrian Arab Army (SAA) soldiers and Palmyra citizens.
Like so many other places in Syria, when the SAA and allies liberated Palmyra, western media downplayed or misreported on the momentous liberation. In the case of Palmyra, the liberation by the Syrian Arab Army was also in great part due to Russian air support. Following liberation, western media relaunched anti-Russian baseless smear campaigns.
When on May 5, 2016 a concert featuring prominent Russian musicians was held, honouring the liberating of Palmyra and the sacrifices of the fallen, and when the following day on Martyr’s Day in Syria a second concert was held comprising Syrian musicians, corporate media again misrepresented or mocked the events, ignoring the significance to Syrians themselves. [see: Concerts at Palmyra represent liberation, resilience, revival ]
Standing in the amphitheatre, looking towards the stage, one is overcome with the knowledge of the murders of not only the elderly Syrian archaeologist and patriot, Khaled al-Asaad, who was savagely beheaded by Da’esh, but also at least 25 Syrian Arab Army soldiers, assassinated on the stage of the amphitheatre by Da’esh-indoctrinated child executioners, as well as over 600 civilians throughout the Da’esh occupation, over 300 SAA soldiers during the fights to liberate Palmyra, according to Palmyra hero, Major Malak. The rusty metal frame which once held the Da’esh flag leans against rocks beyond the stage, and a rope that was used to hang the bodies of murdered Syrian soldiers is still visible.
The crimes of Da’esh and other western-backed terrorists will not be forgotten, not in Palmyra, Aleppo, Homs, nor anywhere throughout Syria. The liberation of Palmyra and plans for its restoration, like that of Ma’loula before it, and government-secured-Homs in between, were momentous moments for Syrians in this savage war on the Syrian people, history, culture and land.
Processing the notes from yesterday’s trip and writing a more thorough account will take a bit of time. For the moment, I will link below to excellent writings of colleagues and friends who visited Palmyra in earlier months.
Sincere thanks to the SAA accompaniment on site, kind and professional soldiers, and to the wonderful Colonel who accompanied the car along for the last length of about 140 km on the road to Palmyra. One length of around 100 km stretch of road is even now quite risky. At an SAA checkpoint near the start of this stretch of road, a car which had been the evening prior attacked by Da’esh (in an ambush possibly to abduct the passengers within) sat riddled with machine-gun fire.
As we drove, the Colonel narrated the proximity of Da’esh in the hills beyond, at times less than 10 kilometers. I was reminded of the drive to Aleppo, where at times Da’esh was just two kilometers to one side of the road, and al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists the same to the other side of the road, particularly when approaching the start of the Khanaser road to Aleppo.
Attached are a smattering of photos from the trip to/from Palmyra and the sites themselves. The sacrifices of the Syrian Arab Army in securing Syria, protecting Syria and the Syrian people, cannot be highlighted enough.
Palmyra: The bride of the desert, Ken Stone, April 2016
How the US Backed the ISIS Takeover and Destruction of Palmyra, Prof. Tim Anderson, April 16, 2016
Liberated Palmyra, a Photo Essay, Prof. Tim Anderson
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July 24: “The Syrian Arab Army is the Syrian people’s army.”
While listening to a clip of a casual chat with two great Damascus residents, I came to the part where one says “We don’t have Assad’s army, whoever gets to 18 years old, if you are not in college or university, you have to go to the army. From every house, he has to go to the army. So, it’s not ‘Assad’s Army’ it’s the Syrian Army, it’s all the Syrian people’s army.” (note: the exception is that if one is an only son, no army service)
Earlier, I went out to get some water and Ayran (the salty yogurt drink I love) from a nearby sandwich place. I was asking the young man behind the counter about the mortar I heard earlier today (in Damascus in recent months terrorist mortars are not common, not like prior to 2016 when they rained down all over the city), and while he said he’d been sleeping at the time, I learned off-hand while chatting that he is a soldier in the army, working in a sandwich shop when not on duty.
A young man driving me a few weeks ago was a soldier who on days off drives a taxi, as is another friend in Damascus who does the same. All over Syria, the streets and walls are lined with photos of martyred soldiers, killed by or while fighting terrorists, often in battles far from their home areas. They are the children, siblings or parents of the people I met on Tartous streets, same in Latakia, Homs, Jableh, Nubl, Aleppo, Maloula, Sweida, Damascus…everywhere I’ve been in Syria.
The media tries to vilify Syria and its leaders in any way possible, and by calling the Syrian Arab Army “Assad’s forces” or variations on that, and not by its name, the Syrian Arab Army, the media attempts to paint the Syrian Arab Army (and its allies) as some monolithic evil slaughtering its people.
The Syrian Arab Army ARE the people. They are Syrians from all backgrounds, defending Syria against a terrorism the world (specifically the NATO-GCC-Turkish-Zionist alliance) has brewed and inflicted on this proud nation.
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July 12: Ma’loula by day and night
Last night and this morning in Ma’loula, with a welcomed monastery bed for the night. More on the visit soon
Prior visit (June 2014)
Devastation and Inspiration: recalling liberated Ma’loulaDevastation and Inspiration: recalling liberated Ma’loula
(also at: https://uprootedpalestinians.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/306788/ )
Back in Damascus from 5 days in Aleppo. I had the opportunity to meet with some amazing Aleppo doctors, the Aleppo Medical Association, the very articulate Rev. Ibrahim Nseir, and more, as well as to travel to liberated #Nubl / #Zahraa. I will share more of this soon.
Filed under: Aleppo, media lies, Syria, Syria--my writings