Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
This is the approach to Mennagh Airbase, one of the last government-held military strongholds
in the north of Syria's Aleppo province. The base has been besieged for 3 months by hundreds
of opposition fighters from this region. Defectors who have managed to escape say that as many
as 350 government soldiers are still trapped inside, and supplies are running out. We're
with a small detachment of local men from Northern Storm Brigade, They they're here
to fight for God, their land and their families.This is as close as we can get to the base without
giving away our position in the open fields.
We're now about 400 meters from the airport.
We try to strike every day, but its vey hard because there are many heavy weapons in the
airport, more than 40 tanks and maybe some chemical weapons. They warn us to wear masks
because our commander is afraid they many shell us with chemical weapons here.
It's now almost impossible for the Government to resupply Mennagh with food fuel and ammunition.
Rebel antiaircraft guns positioned around the base shot this helicopter down a few weeks
ago as it came in low to try and drop off barrels of fuel. The rebels said Six incinerated
bodies were pulled from the wreckage, among them was this man, Hassan Aldiab, his ID card
apparently survived the blaze. If you go inside the base you will see the army are desperate
and bored sitting like this and have no clue what to do.
This is Najim'adeen, the commander of this small unit. He was a
fruit seller in Beirut before the war, but is now a self-proclaimed jihadist. He also
claimed he went to fight the Americans in Iraq for a month after the invasion in 2003.
As Muslims, there is Jihad for the sake of God, to liberate the honor and the land. For
Muslims, honor is precious, and land is even more so. That's why you see so many civilians
fighting. This is a civilian, that's a civilian, I'm civilian. I live in Beruit.
When Jihad was announced, gave up everything and came here
and I've been battling against Bashar al-Assad for 2 years.
Abu was a schoolteacher before the war. He said some government soldiers had pretended
to defect to try and escape from the base, but their plan was short-lived. They were
fighting us, but when they reached hopelessness, (to the point that) that they will die, they
said, 'we escape, we want to break away'.So they killed them. Because they didn't break
away for the revolution, for these people, they did it just to survive. We have connected
with some soldiers in the airport now who can't break away, and when they get the chance,
we will forgive them. But the other soldiers ... there is no way. You don't have to look
far to find some of the reason for the anger consuming these people. This is the nearby
town of Marra'naz, more than 6000 people once lived here but the streets are now abandoned,
littered with unexploded cluster bombs and these enormous bomb-craters. observers have
said that this deliberate targeting of civilian areas is part of a policy of collective punishment,
designed to destroy communities that are thought to have spawned the uprising. We lost one
person, he was a commander here in our detachment around the airport. And now we will go to
the cemetery and you will see him. Their
commander, Abdul Haadi Saalu, was married 3 months ago. Today it's his funeral, he was
shot by a sniper. This graveyard in Azaz was specially built for the town's war dead and
it's filling up. Such a large gathering of opposition men would make a tempting target
for government bombers, but the funeral goes ahead. The grief provides fertile ground for
those calling for Islamic rule in Syria. 'I wonder, when will the past return? Because
I long for that time. We promise God that we will fulfill the prophecy brought to us
by the Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, and reestablish the Caliphate. With the help
of God, the one who never closes his eyes and never sleeps.
Before we used to be very
sad when someone was martyred, but now it has become normal. We started with 15 men,
then we became 33. We built a camp in the mountains, we don't want to take you there
now. We endured the cold weather and rain. Now we have 1500 or 2000 fighters and we have
our own brigade on the frontline, now we are called 'Northern Storm'.