Rund, our source in Syria, writes about young mothers who are coping with government tanks that fire ordinances on the homes of rebel sympathizers. Rund is not the writer’s real name.
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Rund in Izraa, July 24, 2012
Since the regime is no longer satisfied with shooting rifles and automatic weapons at demonstrators, the use of heavy artillery like mortars and shells from tanks, and even from helicopter gunships flying over Syrian cities, has become more prevalent.
I’d like to highlight two locations in this drama of our war in Syria. The first is the town from which shells are launched. The other is the town where these shells hit.
In case you were wondering how the Syrian military fires at us, it differs from one town to the next, but it always starts with a soldier in the regime’s army who fires a shell.
“These were fireworks, my child! Don’t you like fireworks?” – A mother in Izraa
In the case of our town of Izraa, the 12th Brigade surrounds us. Their barracks used to be about three kilometers away the town’s residential neighborhoods. Izraa grew over the years, so some houses, like my uncle’s, are only about 100 meters from the barracks.
It’s just like last year’s Eid celebration
About two months ago, the first shell in my area was fired. I was at my grandmother’s with my uncles, aunts and cousins. We were all shocked. My four year-old cousin was terrified and started crying. As we were trying to soothe her, the second and third shells were fired.
I can’t describe this child’s state of mind. Her mother carried her, set her on her lap, and in a soft voice said, “These were fireworks, my child! Don’t you like fireworks? Don’t you remember when your brother brought some home last Eid, and how happy you were?”
The next day when the shelling resumed, my niece ran to me as if to calm me down and said, “It’s fireworks… It’s fireworks!” She did not cry.
Another mother in Izraa had the same problem with her seven year-old child, but she had a hard time using the same explanantion.
“Everybody was running for their life while the old man could do nothing but watch his children, all of his children, leaving him behind.” – A woman from Bosr al-Harir
Then, she had an idea. She brought home many balloons and asked her children to laugh and clap their hands when she burst each of the balloons. She wanted her children to get used to such sounds and even think that it is something to laugh at. And it worked.
Bombs explode louder than balloons
Let’s move now to where the shells hit.
I heard this story from a young woman whose family evacuated from Bosr al-Harir to Izraa.
“We gathered in what we thought was the safest room in the house,” she said. “The sound of shelling and bombing was very powerful and scary. You are listening and helplessly waiting your turn, your death.”
“Anyway, my father is very ill and can’t move. Suddenly, a shell hit the house. Everybody was running for their life while the old man could do nothing but watch his children, all of his children, leaving him behind.”
I wonder what an emotionally-charged scene it was when all of the members of the family came back into the room, and their eyes met their father’s.
Unable to focus
Because of the deteriorating situation, students of the towns of Bosr al-Harir and al-Hiraq had to apply for baccalaureate exams in Izraa between June 4 and 27.
“I preferred to die under bombardment rather than to die of suffocation.” – A student from Bosr al-Harir
My sister met a girl from Bosr al-Harir who could barely study the key points of the curriculum during the month the baccalaureate students take off to prepare for the exam.
Right before sunset most people would go to shelters, she told my sister, but one day she was very ill and refused to go with her family because the shelters were very crowded and hot.
“I preferred to die under bombardment rather than to die of suffocation,” she said. “Believe it or not, a shell did hit the house that day, but I was too weak to move. Anyway, I survived.”
Videos of Izraa, Syrian tanks firing on other towns
David Arnold
David Arnold coordinates the Syria Witness project at Middle East Voices and reports on Middle East and North Africa affairs for both Voice of America and MEV. The Syria Witness project publishes on-the-ground citizen reporting, giving Syrians the opportunity to offer to a global audience their first-person narratives of life on the streets of their war-torn country.
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