Inside stories from Syria Revolution - Moving accounts of survival from Damascus, Homs, Hama and cities across Syria..
The Dar Al-Shifa Hospital in a liberated portion of Aleppo, shown here on November 29, 2012, has suffered multiple air strikes by government planes. (AP)
A 10-year-old from Dara, Bashar al-Zalfi, fled with his family to Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp after he was injured in the right eye during a bombing. On April 25, 2012, he waves a victory sign in front of a revolutionary flag that reads, “Syria, Don’t worry. We will return.” (AP)
A street in Homs shows the extent of damage by government forces during the two-year conflict in Syria. The image taken on May 14 was provided by Lens Young Homsi and authenticated by the Associated Press, based on its contents and other AP reporting.
A Syrian rebels’ mother cleans her son’s rifle in Aleppo. Insurgents detonated two car bombs on May 14, 2013 in an attempt to storm a government prison where they believe hundreds of regime opposition are being held. (AP/Aleppo Media Center)
Merchants in Aleppo’s historic Old Souk pack the remains of their goods to flee the conflict on November 6, 2012. At the time, rebels controlled several districts of the nation’s large commercial center on 3 million people and most of the city’s industrial zones were deserted. (AP)
Syrian American Shiyam Galyon took part in a humanitarian relief project distributing food and medical supplies in rebel-controlled Aleppo and its suburbs, where she discovered a new era of solidarity between countrymen and countrywomen.
Read more at Middle East Voices
When the protests began, Sami of Qusayr left his English teaching job at a nearby university and became an activist. When regime forces evacuated his hometown, Sami returned to the classroom to teach 11th graders as regime jets flew overhead.
Read more at Middle East Voices:
Ahmed Da organized Lens Young Homsi, a group of like-minded photojournalists, and created a Facebook page to tell the world about life, death and destruction in their hometown. To date, their Facebook page, featuring countless images of a city under siege, boasts over 81,000 “likes.”
There’s nothing like 20 months of civil war to force a few changes in social institutions. Sami writes from Qusayr about families demanding lower dowries, engagements getting shorter and brides who think experience as a revolutionary may be more importance than an engineering degree. The conflict has even altered the thinking of Sami, a young activist who is a bachelor.
Read more at Middle East Voices
A Damascene who identifies himself as a member of the Free Syrian Council of Damascus and Suburbs talks about a meeting with Arab League and U.N. special envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi and expresses his frustration with efforts to negotiations that fail and prolong the agony of Syria’s civil war.
Read more at Middle East Voices
Syrians recently seeking refuge in Paris, Cairo and other cities have launched a radio station called SouriaLi for the people of war-torn Syria. The station’s name is Arabic for “My Syria” but its founders think the name also sounds like “surrealist.” Programming is uncensored and available from a Cairo studio as a web-based series of podcasts on www.souriali.com. Two of the station’s founders spoke on Skype with Syria Witness about creating programs - a cooking show and another imitating the style of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - that offer a hopeful future to their countrymen.
Bombing in Kafr Batna, Damascus
Video purports destruction of a residential area of Kafr Batna, Damascus suburbs today, November 1, 2012, by Syrian government MiGs with bombs and what the reporter identified as vacuum weapons. Casualties uncertain but opposition Damascus Media Center says some deaths and many injuries.
