On April 13th 2014, Syrians in Douma (East Ghouta) and Hama were faced with more terror from the Assad regime. There is no way to explain the continuing rain of terror in Syria. This is certainly not a fight against terrorists as the Assad regime continues to claim. Simply put … this war is about “the Assad regime against the People of Syria.”
The Syrian War should not be considered a war of faiths (Sunni, Alawite, Christian, Druze, and Judaism). It is a war of Assad against any Syrian who does not agree with his desires. When a human disaster rains down on a town in Syria there is no immediate government response to help with rescue, because the government is the perpetrator. The towns are besieged by the Assad regime, so in most cases no humanitarian response arrives as you might expect in an environmental disaster. No one can help.
The local people who are “shell shocked” by the horror and the loss of life, who know they are going to find loved ones and friends, are the only ones available to immediately fall into “search & rescue mode” to get the job done. And … so over and over they do!
There is no outside media in these towns either, so it is also up to each town to provide their own media activist who will document the horror often with nothing more than a smartphone. Once again, these incredibly brave civilian journalists put their very lives on the line to document these atrocities perpetrated by the Assad regime to ensure the story of the people gets out. Often, the media activist is taking pictures or videos of family and friends. No time for emotional breakdown … the world must know what is going on.
The photo below is of the recovery in Douma of a dead child. Look once – and if you can look really close at this child’s body, you really see and feel the pain that this tiny child certainly experienced in her very young life at the hands of the Assad Regime who is “rooting out terrorists.”
Death has become so commonplace for people, and the fear of the Assad regime disrupting public funerals so great, that people have quick and quiet ceremonies, bury their dead [even their children] then move on. What will they be moving on to?
In another frightening man-made disaster, the Assad Regime released Chlorine Gas bombs in Kaferzeta, Hama for two consecutive days. Hama-based citizen journalist Mamoun Abu Zeid said a Friday (April 11th) attack was followed by two attacks on Saturday.
According to EA World View, Mamoun Abu Zeid said, “Three have been killed by the poison gas, among them two children, in addition to almost 200 serious injuries.” Mamoun said, “immediately after the bombs exploded cases of suffocation and severe injuries amongst the residents began to occur as a result of the poisonous gases.
The Assad regime also used a non-lethal chemical weapon on rebel fighters March 27 in Harasta, an Israeli security source said on April 7th. The “Syria Deeply” website cited the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), a group of Syrian-American doctors and surgeons traveling in and out of Syria, as condemning what it described as a “poisonous gas attack” in Harasta. SAMS said, “Symptoms suffered by patients included hallucination, accelerated pulse, trouble breathing and, in some cases, suffocation,” according to SAMS. Syrian security sources hold to an assertion that the chemical is nonlethal.
Kaferzeta: Shelling the town once again with… by SRLW
Residents of Hama are appealing to the International Community to interfere to protect them and prevent the regime from using the chemical weapons. This is not just an appeal from Hama. The entire community of Syria who are not in Assad’s close community call upon the International Community for help.
How much more must the Syrian People endure on their own without support from the International community. Standing alone, losing their children, husbands, families and friends. What is taking place in Syria is a lot to ask the people to bear on their own. We know that Syrian people have strong hearts … they must! I asked an activist how the people can keep going on – keeping their spirits up, fighting the good fight and singing in protest. His response was, “The WILL of GOD is with us.”
Research credit to Belal Muhmad, media activist E. Ghouta.
