‘We
were living in security and peace. These areas are being targeted,
they want to force us to leave. Every Syrian is being targeted,’
one Syrian religious leader told a delegation of reporters who
visited Aleppo earlier this month.
by
Eva Bartlett
Part
6 - Displaced by terrorists
For around four years, simple shelters at the Hafez
al-Assad Mosque have housed around 1,000 people, all Sunni families
displaced from areas occupied by militants.
Most of those with whom I spoke listed similar reasons
for leaving their homes and described being in fear for their lives
because of the terrorist presence.
“They came and destroyed houses and killed
civilians before they attacked the state. The army is protecting us,
it’s the gangs [that] are the ones destroying the country,”
one man told me.
He said his two brothers in terrorist-controlled areas
in eastern Aleppo are “not allowed to leave.”
“They’ve tried many times but they are prevented.
If the armed groups see anyone carrying luggage, they’ll arrest
them right away.”
He and others at the shelter complained that, according
to their family members, the terrorist factions horde and control any
food within the areas they occupy.
Like elsewhere in the city, the shelter and area
immediately surrounding the mosque are routinely hit with mortars and
explosive bullets.
An older man led me around a corner, pointing to a spot
where he said a 29-year-old man was killed by a terrorist-fired
explosive bullet.
“He was standing here. His stomach was torn open,”
he told me.
Source:
Comments
Post a Comment