A dangerous road trip reveals extent of the devastation in Syria

Amal Hanano
The National

Protesters in the liberated town of Salqeen gather on the Friday of Bloodied Bread, in honour of the victims of the Hilfaya massacre in Hama the previous week. Amal Hanano for The National

"......Journalists have a habit of placing the word "liberated" in quotation marks, as in "so-called-liberated", or "not-really-liberated-but-they-say-so" liberated. This is far from the truth. On the ground, liberation is an important part of daily life. The town is free of street warfare, snipers, and shabiha (pro-regime militia). Free of arrest and intimidation. In Salqeen, citizens are able to focus on other aspects of civic life, such as forming the civil counsels and local committees that are dedicated to cleaning the streets and organising local elections. Liberated means that you can live almost without fear. Your only fear is that bombs will drop on you. As one activist told me, "If you're killed by a bomb falling from the sky, you must be very unlucky." Another popular belief was the indisputable, "No one dies before his time."

The main street was blocked by a black FSA jeep. I waited in the car with Ammar until the prayers were over. Ammar, 20, was a construction worker before he became a FSA fighter. He said there was a family in Idlib who had 55 martyrs, explaining the reason why they try not to fight in the same battles together so the mothers don't lose all their sons at once.
I watched anxiously from the car, waiting for the prayers to end, waiting for what I never dreamed I would see before March 15, 2011. The men walked from the mosque to the central circle and began chanting and waving flags. They sang song after song, both ones I knew and ones I didn't, but I was standing with them this time - the only woman in the circle - on the other side of the lens, calling for freedom in the land of the oppressed, chanting "We will die so Syria can live."......."