After months of attacking peaceful demos with heavy artillery, FSA was created to defend Syrian civilians who are demanding freedom and democracy, and after months of defections, the FSA are finally starting to create a balance. They have been gaining more defected soldiers and high ranks from the Syrian army, yet they still aren’t getting enough funding or weapons to do their job right.
In the meantime, civilians like myself are still being held in their houses, in areas surrounded by barriers and security forces, unable to protest, work, or live a decent life.
July 15th – 17th, tanks kept coming and leaving 5-6 times a day and open fire each time. Huge areas have been destroyed in Jorat Al Shayyah, Qusoor, Karabis, and Khaldieh. Old Homs have been targeted viciously again many times, or at least what’s left of it.
In those days the situation in Damascus changed and FSA showed up in many neighborhoods inside the city and took control of parts. The regime attacked FSA and they’ve engaged in a street fight, and that spread to many more areas quickly. Midan, Kafersuseh, Tadamon, Hajar Al Aswad, and even Mazzeh and other areas. The Syrian capital changed so much in those 4 days.
July 18th, this day started with news about an explosion in Damascus in a very important building. Daoud Rajha, Assef Shawkat, Hassan Turkmani were killed. Those three names were from a list of names that the Syrian people hated and feared for so long. Rajha, the minister of defense was behind the wide military operations in Syria which harvested thousands of civilians and destroyed many cities. Shawkat was Rajha’s deputy but he’s also Bashar Assad’s brother in low, a mysterious character that we only knew by name for years. His name used to make us all scared, and he’s the one we really were glad was killed. Hassan Turkmani was the head of the “Crisis Cell” which ran the operations on the ground against protesters.
Other news said that more were killed as well like Hafez Makhloof, and many were badly injured including the minister of interior affairs Muhammad Al Shaar.
This news was the first good news we hear in months. People were talking about it in the streets of Homs and smiling. I saw many buying cakes and sweets to celebrate, and so did we.
Those names put horror in our hearts for so many years and we’re all glad they were done, and we hoped that the injured ones would die as well. This is a huge hit to the regime, and they felt it.
Many soldiers and officers defected that day all over Syria and especially in Damascus.
Good news kept coming, and this time from Aleppo. Many areas in Aleppo countryside were under control of the FSA, and they gained many tanks and weapons.
Of course all good news should come to an end, and that’s what happened that night when the death toll was more than 250. Many areas in Damascus were getting shelled for the first time, and a funeral was targeted leaving 60 dead bodies beside the one they were holding.
The passing of so many martyrs made me regret that I felt better earlier. Rest in peace.
July 19th, the heat is unbearable, Security Council failed to do anything for the third time after another Russian/Chinese veto, but we all knew this was coming so I doubt anyone really cared.
Damascus was still getting shelled, and so were Homs, Rastan, Deir Al Zour, Aleppo countryside, and so many other areas. Most of Syria is under fire now. Cellphone and 3G networks are down.
Good news: FSA keep gaining areas and weapons in Aleppo countryside and in Deir Al Zour and inside Damascus. They’re in control of many check points in the Turkish and Iraqi borders.
Bad news: More than 200 casualties, thousands of refugees heading to Lebanon (More than 18000 in one day).
The regime said that Saturday would be the first day of Ramadan unlike most of the rest of the Muslim countries, and the opposition and many sheikhs said that Friday is the first day of Ramadan, and of course everyone I know believed the opposition and decided to start fasting tomorrow.
The night was quiet and no security forces were seen anywhere around my area with the exception of the permanent check points and barriers.
July 20th, first day of Ramadan, the heat wave is getting worse and electricity is acting up in many areas all around Syria. No water, no cellphones, and no 3G internet connection.
Two tanks entered my neighborhood and opened fire like every Friday, or like every day actually.
Good news: Hisham Ikhtiyar, head of the Syrian national security is dead affected by his wounds from the bombing on the 18th. More areas are being controlled by the FSA, and many new defectors in the military.
Bad news: The number of refugees entered Lebanon increased to 30000. Midan neighborhood in Damascus was lost to the Assad’s forces.
July 21st – 29th, the heat, the fasting, and the shelling. That’s the triple threat we’re facing everyday now. The number of tanks that come and shoot from my area increased from one to three or four tanks. New vehicles come around now too and I don’t even know what they’re called. Areas like Jorat Al Shayyah and Khaldieh are being attacked day and night, and the night attacks leave the sky bright as day at times.
Good news: Aleppo finally moved on towards us, and after the FSA took over huge areas in the countryside they moved inside the many neighborhoods inside the city in an attempt to liberate it from Assad forces, and they are doing a good job.
Bad news: FSA had to leave some of Damascus neighborhoods and Assad forces took over again, and the numbers of casualties passed 100 a day. More bad news is that Assad forces have been gathering near Aleppo and started a counter attack trying to push FSA out of the city and they’re using air force, helicopters, tanks, missiles, and everything they have.
July 30th, the same as the past few days with the addition of losing electricity for 11 straight hours. No sleep at all.
July 31st, we got electricity back at 11 AM and then water. Tanks came by like any other day and morning shelling continues until 6 PM.
10:30 PM, cellphones got disconnected after they worked for a few hours.
11 PM, electricity is gone from most areas in Homs and heavy shelling started right away and didn’t stop all night. Rocket launchers, tanks, mortar, with some sniper shots and a whole a lot of shooting.
My house was shaking with every rocket, and we all heard the sounds of the launching sounded like they were being launched from our living room.
We heard the noise that the rocket makes on its way to the target which sounds like a whistle, then when it hit its target.
It was a horrible night. We couldn’t sleep for the second night in a raw.
1:30 AM, a group of men gathered and started singing despite the heavy shelling. They sang nice songs and that really cheered us all up a bit and made us feel better. The shelling sounds of course were much louder than the singing but we tried to ignore them as much as we can, and since electricity was gone we opened up the windows to hear the singing better. Some of them had nice voices and they had no instruments of course but it really was a nice tough in such a dark night.
The singing stopped after a while and we were left with the horrible shelling sounds alone once again.
5 AM, a skirmish occurred not far away from my house. There was a lot of shooting, then a BTR opened fire, and after that they used an RPG.
After that we could only hear sniper shots until 6 AM.
I went to Damascus after that and left my family with no electricity, water, cellphones, or sleep.
Good news: FSA in Aleppo caught a number of the worst criminals in the city (Barri Family) after years of their horror.
Bad news: The Barri men were executed and filmed and that video made some bad feedback from many people. I didn’t watch the video and won’t watch it but my position is clear. I support justice but I don’t support viciousness.
August 1st, Damascus was hot and quiet when I arrived. I went to Abaseen, Rawda, Saba Bahrat, Arnoos, Mazraa, and other areas and couldn’t hear a single gunshot. I didn’t have time to visit another areas like Midan, Kafersuseh, Tadamon, or even Mazzeh (Areas where things happen a lot) since I was on a tight schedule.
Saba Bahrat was very crowded, cars and people were all over the streets and I saw huge lines on ATM machines since people were withdrawing their salaries.
I saw many armed security forces in many areas in Damascus and many vehicles as well.
I went to Mazraa and did what I was going to Damascus to do, then went to Maysat square then back to Saba Bahrat where I checked the US dollar prices and they were down from last month.
However, I couldn’t find a good amount of dollars in the black market with such price.
August 2nd: Tanks kept shelling areas around my neighborhood until morning after we had Suhoor, I counted till 15 then stopped and went to bed.
I went to Qusoor in the afternoon and saw massive destruction in that neighborhood, then went home.
Electricity was on, but still no cellphones or internet, and the shelling and shooting didn’t stop at Iftar that day for the first time in Ramadan.
Later that night, Annan resigned from his UN mission. No surprise there after his failure to offer anything to solve what’s happening in Syria.
August 3rd: A sniper went nuts and started shooting at everything all night. Streets were completely empty.
August 5th: No tanks came around unlike the past few weeks, and we had a quiet morning in my area for the first time in months.
August 6th: The Syrian Prime minister defected and headed to Jordan with the help of FSA. This is the biggest defection so far. We were really happy this happened. Good news don’t come often anymore.
The next few days were somewhat quiet compared to June and July, or any other month in 2012.
August 15th: A huge explosion happened not far away from my house, couldn’t go out and see what happened since it was followed by heavy shooting.
Later that day we got news about Syrian refugees being kidnapped in Lebanon. Lebanon isn’t safe for us anymore.
August 25th: We started that day with a huge explosion, the loudest I’ve ever heard. Some windows in my street got shattered, and I heard children crying loudly after it. It really was a very scary moment for us all. A military helicopter was seen and heard in roaming the skies right after it.
I went out to see how things are after that explosion. People were back in the streets shopping and taking care of their businesses. I saw huge piles of garbage, and the smell was very bad. Then I saw little kids playing and running around barefoot near that garbage. Sanitation and health are a big issue in Homs now. I’m very concerned about diseases.
I went home, and saw some news from Daraya, a massacre happened there. More than 200 casualties. They’re still finding bodies. 300. 344. After few days the total number of that massacre exceeded 600. This is the worst massacre we’ve seen since the Syrian revolution started in 2011, but Assads did worse ones back in 1982 in Hama. More than six hundred lives were ended in that city tonight.
August 27th: 244 casualties. The number of daily deaths have risen so much in the past few days.
August 28th: I went out in the morning and found that some streets in the city are coming back to life, like Malaab Street. I saw many people there selling vegetables, fruits, and chicken sandwiches. Syriatel branch was opened as well. It has been closed since February.
August 29th: One unforgettable day. It started with tanks coming to my area since around 9 AM.
7-8 tanks passed by in less than an hour. Each opened fire 8-13 times then left.
In the meantime, reports about FSA attacking a military airport in Idleb and destroying about 10 helicopters on the ground.
At night, Bashar Assad had an interview on a local TV, I watched some of it and it sickened me. He said that the situation in Syria is “better” when we’re seeing more than 200 casualties a day for the first time! I honestly couldn’t watch the entire interview.
Right after the interview hell broke loose in many areas in Homs. Heavy shelling and massive shooting. I got news that the same thing happened in Daraa, Hama, and other cities all around Syria. Seems like they had orders to start the attacks right after his interview. What a vicious bunch.
Few hours later, news came about FSA attacking another military airport and destroying 10-13 Mig fighter jets.
Despite the fact that I got sad about these helicopters and jets since we’ve been paying them from our tax money, but they’d better off destroyed than going in the air and killing more of us.
August ended and we are once again left alone without a UN convoy, any kind of international monitoring system, and a blood hungry monster with all the Russian and Iranian weapons you can imagine. FSA has been gaining some new areas and doing some really nice operations, but that isn’t enough. Hundreds are dying every day, and more cities are being destroyed and the world is still crippled by the failure of Security Council.
