Syria crisis: Fighting rages around Damascus – Tuesday 28 August 2012
Our colleague Mona Mahmood has been speaking via Skype with a resident of al-Qadam district, in south Damascus, who gave his name as Abu Hamza. He described that latest killings there (which can also be seen in a horrific video).
Today at nine in the morning we found five bodies who were freshly killed in al-Qadam district near Aisha mosque. Their bodies were still bleeding. They had been slaughtered with knives and shot at close distance. Two of the bodies had smashed heads. There are many [government] checkpoints at the outskirts of al-Qadam district. Most of the people disappeared at these checkpoints.
This is not the first time we have found bodies. During August, we have found more than 25 – sometimes four, sometimes six [at a time]. The discovery of these slaughtered bodies made the people in al-Qadam district flee to another areas in fear of their lives. The population is more than 300,000 people but for two weeks now 90% of the people have fled. People are scared of repeated massacres. The big problem we have here is that al-Qadam district is surrounded by Alawite districts.
What we started to have here … people who are off work would be arrested or kidnapped by [pro-government] People's Committees based at the outskirts of the district. They would disappear for two or three days, and then we discovered the bodies at night.
The five bodies we found today are of men aged between 25 and 45. People were able to identify two of them, a body belonging to Anass Ahmed and another, of Ziyad Abdulwah al-Masseri.
Al-Qadam district has been under a heavy fire for having [an FSA presence]. The Syrian army have not been able to storm it so far, but they might come at any moment. The FSA decided not to base itself in al-Qadam for the safety of the people but in al-Bassateen, the orchards at the western part of the district. It is adjacent to Darayya.
If the Syrian army and tanks started to move to storm al-Qadam, the FSA would come from the orchards to counter them. For three weeks now, we have been shelled daily by the tanks, which are based at the highway. There are three tanks constantly there.
Every evening, these tanks would shell al-Qadam and al-Assali district. There were days when we got more than 40 shells. Most of the families decided to to go to the shelters at the mosques or the basements to spare themselves the shelling. They are scared that they will have the same fate as the people of Darayya.
More than 150 people have been wounded by the shelling by these tanks. Many houses have been damaged because the shelling is random, though sometimes it targets activists' houses.
A week ago, a tank came almost at dawn. It fired six shells against two houses for activists – they were levelled completely. Three people were killed and more than 50 wounded.
The activist Mazen Khidier who was killed in the shelling had just been released that morning from al-Khateeb security office. He was detained for four months for taking part in a demonstration against the regime. He was just receiving his friends, who came to say hello to him. Many houses near Khidier's house were hit, too.
The Syrian army and shabiha are based at al-Qadam police station. Tanks, security vehicles and other shabiha are based near the train station. It was one of the main train stations in Damascus; now it has become a station for the shabiha.
As houses are deserted by the families, shabiha vehicles storm them and confiscate most of their contents. The families fled to al-Kisswa and Sahnayia districts. They are living in mosques and schools.
The FSA in al-Qadam district is made up of defected soldiers and officers. Most of them are young – between 18 and 25 years. [While in the government army] they refused to carry out orders to kill civilians, and some of them defected because their houses were raided. They fled to the orchards of al-Qadam, along with other men who were wanted by the regime and knew they would be tortured and killed if arrested. They are co-ordinated with the FSA in Darayya, where the leaders of the FSA are based. Most of them are from al-Qadam district, others from Homs and Der Ezzour. Any FSA men who want to launch attacks in Damascus have to come to al-Qadam district.
The FSA are protecting al-Qadam district from storming by the Syrian army. We are so worried that we will face the same fate as Darayya. Families who are still in the district are warned that at any moment they might need to flee to avoid a massacre like at Darayya. There are many signs and news that we will be stormed imminently.
We have more than 500 FSA men here. They are fighting within Hudhaifa Ibn al-Yamam brigade, Liwa al-Islam and a new brigade, which just arrived. They are volunteers from Houran, in Deraa. They came to take part in the battles in Damascus.
If the FSA capture a suspected man, they form a military court to try him. If the people confirm that the man works for the regime but is in support of the revolution, the FSA release him and give him back all his belongings; otherwise, they will kill him.
Most of the people who are killed here are civilians. Their families are the founders of the revolution, and organise protests against the regime. Ninety per cent of al-Qadam district is in support of the revolution.
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