PHOTO
ESSAY Inside free Syria By Derek Henry Flood
AIN AL-BAIDA,
Northern Syria - Asia Times Online provides a
unique look into one of the most remote corner's
of the Syrian conflict.
After trekking
several hours over snow-covered mountains dividing
Turkey's Hatay province with northwestern Syria's
Idlib governorate, Asia Times Online was given
access to the group of Free Syrian Army (FSA)
fighters manning a hardscrabble frontline outpost
above the hamlet of Ain al-Baida.
The
woefully under-armed FSA volunteers face off
against dug-in
regime troops with the
villagers trapped in between living in an isolated
war zone.
Contrary to some popular
speculation, the FSA fighters stated to Asia Times
Online that they receive no outside support nor
are they a party to any grand internationalist
conspiracy to overthrow the regime of President
Bashar al-Assad.
To that point, they
decried the absolute absence of any military or
political assistance. Occupying an abandoned
multi-unit private home on desolate outcropping,
FSA fighters slog through dense mud after days of
rain and snowfall in a purely defensive manner to
assist defecting regime soldiers and the odd
refugee who manages to make it into their
protection.
The FSA tell of coming under
daily sniper and mortar fire at their pock-marked
limestone dwelling that stands for a makeshift
barracks. Their only possible regional ally,
Turkey, has thus far refused to help.
These solitary men know they cannot defeat
the Assad regime on their own, but they insist too
much blood has been spilled in Syria's cities and
towns since the uprising began in mid-March 2011
for them to turn back now.
They have vowed
to resist the Syrian armed forces, intelligence
services and the irregular shabiha
militiamen until Assad falls from power in
Damascus, and they are prepared to be "martyred".
The scene Asia Times Online witnessed
first-hand in Ain al-Baida was no longer an
"uprising", nor a "crackdown", but an armed
conflict between two distinct belligerents.
Asia Times Online was guided
inside rebel-held Syrian territory by a smuggler
hauling loaves of bread from the nearby Turkish
border village of Guvecci. The Free Syrian Army
fighters in the battle-scarred hamlet of Ain
al-Baida depend on this clandestine network to
sustain their defensive positions along the
frontier. All images by Derek Henry
Flood. (Copyright 2012 Derek Henry
Flood.)
A Syrian smuggler threads
himself through rows of concertina wire
demarcating the Syrian border. In his right hand
he grabs a thin cord strung along the mountainside
in order to rapidly repel down the steep,
mud-soaked track. The descent must be made quickly
to avoid incoming fire from Syrian government
forces.
On arrival at the front, Asia
Times Online is greeted by Yassin, the local Free
Syrian Army commander (subordinate to Abu Mohammed
pictured further below), who patrols the FSA's
frontline position. Yassin turned to armed
rebellion after participating in months of
non-violent protests that did little to shake the
Assad regime's resolve.
Yassin peers through a
machine gun-mounted scope at a regime position
across the valley. The villagers of Ain al-Baida
are essentially captive in their homes as the two
sides trade fire over the rooftops.
Government troops occupy a
sandbagged three-story, unfinished home in Ain
al-Baida that regularly harasses the Free Syrian
Army with sniper rounds and mortar fire. Regime
soldiers can be seen on the upper right balcony
and on the corrugated roof canopy.
Many of the fighters insisted
on keeping their faces covered in front of the
camera for fear of families still living in the
Idlib region that could potentially be victims of
government reprisals.
The property where the Free
Syrian Army had set up camp was littered with the
detritus of the family that fled. Here hangs a
portrait of a Ba'athist military officer in one of
the many quarters of the compound.
Despite their lack of
external backing or international recognition, the
Free Syrian Army men told Asia Times Online their
morale remained high because they genuinely
believed their cause - the liberation of Syria
from the Ba'athist rule of Bashar al-Assad - was
just.
Abu Mohammed, the Free Syrian
Army commander for the border region, looks out of
a window with his worn Kalashnikov on alert for
regime hardware movements.
The Free Syrian Army shows a
hole in a steel door made by a high-velocity round
from a regime sniper. In this particular assault,
an FSA comrade was wounded and had to be
hand-carried over the mountains separating Turkey
and Syria to a hospital in Antakya. The fighter
survived and remains in stable condition in
Turkey.
A Free Syrian Army fighter
returns from his lookout post. The rebels
described themselves as being in a state of
constant vigilance.
A gregarious Free Syrian Army
fighter whose comrades laughingly refer to as
"Osama bin Laden" for his thick black beard stands
in front of the FSA's bullet-riddled limestone
quarters. The rebels described fierce daily
attacks by the regime.
Cigarettes are virtually the
only pleasure in which the rebels partake. They
subsist on food and tobacco ferried in on the
backs of local smugglers. Their intense, quiet
isolation is interrupted only by unpredictable
volleys of fire from enemy troops stationed in Ain
al-Baida.
Commander Abu Mohammed scans
Ain al-Baida for regime troop movements.
A Free Syrian Army outpost in
the forest that is part of a network protecting
the route for defectors along the Turkish
border.
Hiking back over the
mountains to safety into southern Turkey, Asia
Times Online silently passed a Turkish
jandarma (gendarmerie) guard tower in the
dark of night.
Derek
Henry Flood is a freelance journalist
specializing in the Middle East and South and
Central Asia and is the editor of the Jamestown
Foundation's Militant Leadership Monitor. He blogs
at the-war-diaries.com. Follow Derek on Twiiter
@DerekHenryFlood
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