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[CHANTING]
HAJI-MARA: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
NARRATOR: The Free Syrian Army was formed by the Syrian armed
forces to the fact that the president Bashar Al-Assad
ordered them to open fire on civilians protesting in the
midst of the Arab Spring.
Since then, FSA brigades have sprung up in cities all
throughout the country and have grown to include
civilians of all stripes.
Once farmers, college students, blue collar workers
and small business owners, these volunteers have taken up
arms and joined the ranks of the FSA.
On the front lines with the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo, I
witnessed an underfunded group of fighters embrace death,
while finding comfort in knowing they had responded to
their brothers' calls for freedom.
HAJI-MARA: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
NARRATOR: Haji-Mara, a former commodities trader, commands
one of the largest groups of FSA fighters in Aleppo-- the
Al-Tawhid Brigade.
Under his leadership in the field, they now control over
80% of Aleppo.
[CAR IGNITION]
MAN: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
HAJI-MARA: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
INTERVIEWER: Why is he wearing such a
nice jacket into battle?
MAN: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
HAJI-MARA: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
MAN: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
MAN: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
HAJI-MARA: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
MAN: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
INTERVIEWER: You said 15 tanks--
MAN: Yeah, 15 tanks.
INTERVIEWER: Were coming here?
Well, who made these rockets?
MAN: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
INTERVIEWER: Have you killed many of Assad's soldiers?
MAN: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
INTERVIEWER: Has war made you crazy?
MAN: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
MAN: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
MAN: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
NARRATOR: FSA fighters employ homemade bombs and improvised
explosive devices in a lopsided but increasingly
successful battle against the tanks, jets, helicopters,
rockets, and mortar fire of Assad's army.
[EXPLOSION]
MAN: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
[EXPLOSION]
NARRATOR: Much of my time in Aleppo was spent under an
umbrella of heavy artillery.
The vibration of air raids, daily mortar attacks, and the
constant zips from the snipers' bullets ripped
through the air.
[MACHINE GUN FIRE]
INTERVIEWER: Where the *** are we?
MAN: Are you OK?
INTERVIEWER: No.
MAN: Are you OK?
INTERVIEWER: Of course.
[DISTANT EXPLOSIONS]
INTERVIEWER: What do you hope your Syria will look like
after the revolution?
MAN: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
INTERVIEWER: What is this place?
MAN: An Islamic secondary school.
MAN: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: Potential for use of chemical
weapons by the Assad regime, as well as [INAUDIBLE]
in the sense of proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction.
HAJI-MARA: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
NARRATOR: As the threat of chemical weapons looms,
activists say that over 40,000 Syrians have been killed in
the war so far, with another three million
displaced by the fighting.
HAJI-MARA: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
NARRATOR: The US and other Western nations still refuse
to provide the rebels with arms, citing fears that they
could fall into the hands of jihadist
elements within the FSA.
NATO has sent over 1,000 troops to the border of
Turkey, along with six Patriot missile batteries, in an
effort to prevent spillover from the conflict in
neighboring Syria.
Haji-Mara was recently shot in the arm by a
sniper, but not killed.
He will live to fight another day as his troops and many
battalion commanders like him close in on Assad in Damascus.
The fight is just heating up.
HAJI-MARA: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
MAN: Made in Syria.
INTERVIEWER: This bullet just came very close to us.
It's hot.