I would cry blood for them. ibid. Khaled, re dangers of sending children to Turkey
Sitting with you guys makes it all worth it, I swear. ibid.
We’ve run out of options now so we’re going for a last resort Plan B which is just to break out of Baba Amr. Storyville: Under the Wire, Paul Conroy, BBC 2021
Marie [Colvin]: One of the greatest war correspondents of our generation. Exceptionally driven. ibid. Sean Ryan, Sunday Times
It really hit me at that point [in cellar with wounded civilians] just what the regime was doing to its own people, its own children. ibid. Paul
‘The foreign correspondent Marie Colvin was killed while covering the bombardment of the city of Homs in Syria.’ ibid. news
There is a threat against me on a social media channel that belongs to Isis. But I can’t be scared. As we say in Raqqa, ‘Death is death’. City of Ghosts, 2017
This is a story about Raqqa. One forgotten Syrian city on the Euphrates river that is now known as the capital of Islamic State. ibid.
In the power vacuum left by the revolution a new group invaded Raqqa. Its members held a black flag. ibid.
They painted our city black and shrouded it in darkness. ibid.
Executions and detentions were happening randomly. ibid.
These were the first screams of RBSS: Raqqa is being slaughtered silently. ibid.
Isis has been able to gather information about us. ibid.
They exploit Islam for their personal gain. ibid.
Children are Isis’ firewood. ibid.
Syria: long celebrated for its breathtaking beauty. For centuries people of different faiths lived here side by side. Then in 2011 Syrians took to these streets to protest against decades of repressive rule. And Syria spiralled into one of the worst human disasters of our time. This is the story of Syria’s war told by people who lived through it. Lyse Doucet, Syria: The World’s War I, BBC 2018
Protests flared in other places. And bloodshed too as security forces moved to quell the uprising … The crackdown intensified. ibid.
Syria’s army was under mounting strain: deaths, desertions, defections were taking their toll. ibid.
In May 2015 to the horror of the watching world so-called Islamic State seized the ancient ruined city of Palmyra in Syria. They began destroying it in an act of barbaric cultural terrorism. Dan Cruickshank & Don McCullin, The Road to Palmyra, BBC 2018
Our first stop is a national museum. ibid.
Tragically, Palmyra fell again to IS in December 2016 before finally being retaken in March 2017 by the Syrian government and their Russian ally. ibid.
Childlike frenzy of hatred. ibid.
London 1993 Western Eye Hospital, Paddington: ‘And we had a middle eastern doctor, I think it was Bashar … That is the enigma.’ A Dangerous Dynasty: House of Assad, BBC 2018
Many have wondered how this former eye doctor and his British-born wife ended up running a regime accused of war crimes. Of gassing their own people. The answers lie with their family, a dynasty that has ruled Syria for over 40 years. Understand their saga and you’ll understand why their country now lies in ruins. ibid.
‘She wanted to be the first lady of Syria. Power became very important.’ ibid.
‘There’s a mafia-like character to the Assad family itself.’ ibid.
‘Bashar wanted to be loved by his people; he craved attention.’ ibid.
Bashar’s father, the man who started the dynasty, Hafez al-Assad … ‘This is a guy who lives in a world of conspiracy and paranoia.’ ibid.
In 1970 they masterminded a coup and threw the previous military leader in jail. And that is how the Assad family got control of Syria. ibid.
The next president will be Bashar’s elder brother, Bassel … ‘Bassel had been killed in a car accident.’ ibid. Bassel’s English teacher
Asma had been working as an investment banker for J P Morgan. She was then offered an MBA at Harvard … ‘It came at a time when I found the man I loved.’ ibid.
An election is held with only his [Bashar’s] name on the ballot. ibid.
Bashar and Asma are invited to London. ibid.
The reality of his government is just like their father’s. ibid.
He secretly releases Islamic fundamentalists from his prisons, arms them and sends them over the border to fight the Americans. ibid.
The Muslim fundamentalists that Bashar released will cross the border back into Syria and try to set up an Islamic state there. ibid.
Bashar al-Assad, a former eye doctor in West London, is now president of Syria. It’s a role he never expected. His older brother who had been groomed for the job had died in a car crash. A Dangerous Dynasty: House of Assad II
Controlling Lebanon was Bashar’s father’s legacy … He kept his troops there and slowly took a stranglehold over Lebanon’s politics and economy. He had to fight two wars against Israel to keep it. ibid.
It’s all gone wrong for Bashar. ibid.
More and more writers and political activists are sent to prison often without trial, many facing torture for criticising the regime. ibid.
Their government has been accused of killing political opponents and massacring prisoners. A Dangerous Dynasty: House of Assad III
‘Bashar al-Assad immediately began to feel a danger approaching him. But he did not admit this. On the contrary, he began to say, ‘Syria is not Tunisia.’’ ibid. Fiad Nassan Agha, former minister of culture
‘Putting down rebellion is a national, moral and religious duty.’ ibid. Bashar al-Assad
In June 2012 the United Nations declares that Syria is in a state of civil war. ibid.
The truth about a toxic war. The chemical weapons that have terrorised people across Syria. While President Assad denies all responsibility, our investigation shows they’ve been used time and time again. A crucial part of a war-winning strategy. Panorama: Syria’s Chemical War, BBC 2018
We know Syria has used chemical weapons in the past. Hundreds of people died in a huge attack near Damascus in 2013. ibid.
One chemical used again and again in Syria didn’t need to be declared to the weapons inspectors – chlorine. It has many everyday uses and can’t be banned. But using chlorine as a weapon is illegal. Our research shows seventy-nine chlorine attacks, fifteen of them in just one city. ibid.
Trump has jolted the entire establishment by announcing the withdrawal of US troops from Syria. Abby Martin & The Empire Files: Trump’s Syria Deception, 2019
Trump is simply withdrawing the troops he himself added. ibid.
Trump has drastically ramped up US bombing in every region of the world. ibid.
‘We don’t want Syria … We’re not talking about vast wealth, we’re talking about sand and death.’ ibid. Trump
‘Why don’t we just take over the oil?’ ibid.
I’ve come to Syria to meet women who left the West to join the so-called Islamic State. Now IS has been defeated, their home countries don’t want them back: they see them as a threat. Most now claim the didn’t know anything about the brutality of IS. They say they stayed at home and cooked. Stacey Dooley for Panorama, Stacey Meets the IS Brides, BBC 2019
Since then the Kurds who fought IS to gain control of this part of Syria have been left with radicalised foreigners nobody wants. ibid.
One of the female guards was stabbed to death. Shamima Begum, who left the UK when she was fifteen … is no longer here, but I would like to talk to other British women in the camp. ibid.
Support for IS is still very strong. ibid.
… Inside their tents, but with the atmosphere so tense [sic] … ibid.
They [Yazidi women] were saying some of the Isis women were far worse than the men … No-one saw anything apart from an oven. ibid.
I finally hear British accents. ibid.