Posted on 09/22/2017 4:37:43 PM PDT by marshmallow
The battle for "Islamic State" stronghold Raqqa has reached its final stages, according to the Syrian Democratic Forces, the US-backed multi-ethnic alliance fighting IS. Karlos Zurutuza reports from Raqqa.
Getting to the headquarters of Syriac fighters in Raqqa involves driving mostly across a desert. The route is exhausting and not entirely safe but, for the time being, it's the only chance to avoid the area still under the control of the Islamic State (IS).
Once in the south western outskirts of the city, you just have to follow your ear: the base of the Syriac Military Council (MFS) is right next to an American base from which mortar is launched every five minutes.
Commander Matai Hannah has just returned from there with a bit of food - his "Meat Ready to Eat" combat ration.
"Their base is just behind that wall. I wouldn't mind taking you there, but I'm sure they will not like it," Hannah told DW.
At 22, Hannah has generously paid for his rank with a lost kidney, the scar that criss-crosses his chest and a bullet in the head which only grazed him.
That didn't happen in Raqqa though, but in his native town of Qamishli - 600 kilometers (370 miles) northeast of Damascus - back in 2015. The enemy, however, was the same.
Pre-war censuses in Syria placed the number of Syriac Christians at around 10 percent of a total population of 23 million. But what had been a safe haven for Eastern Christians fleeing neighboring countries - especially Iraq - turned into a lethal trap for non-Muslim minorities after 2011.
It was in 2012 when the Syriacs began to organize their own armed forces. The first one was Sutoro ("security" in Turoyo, the Syriac language) - a police unit that would eventually fracture........
(Excerpt) Read more at dw.com ...
There will be no partisan of Syria. Syria is a sovereign state under international law and this land reverts to the control on Bashar al Assad’s elected in fee simple. If you think it is going anywhere else , you will be terribly disappointed but I commend all who killed al queda dogs!!Assad has always protected the Christians.Many are now in the protected regugee camps inside Syria set up by our Russian allies and thriving. We need to get out of a country where we were’nt not invited ar threatened and kill the North Korean aggressors before4 they kill us!! Syria never did a thing to us!!
I think Trump is not in the Depose Assad business. It was never a good idea and that is why Soetoro pushed it so hard.
Exactly. Assad protected Christians.
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