Abu Ahmad flashes the torch from his phone onto an explosive found in a former regime military outpost that housed soldiers, tanks, and other weapons during the Syrian civil war.
The Syrian Civil Defense, or White Helmets, are now based in the building under the command of Abu Ahmad.
Throughout the entire conflict and in the wake of the 2023 earthquakes, the volunteers in the White Helmets worked tirelessly to rescue survivors trapped beneath rubble and provide them with emergency aid.
After Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led an opposition offensive that seized Aleppo on November 30 and then led to the ouster of Bashar al-Assad eight days later, they moved into the building.
As people fled the area, discarded military uniforms, tank shells, and soldiers’ personal belongings were scattered throughout, according to Abu Ahmad.
Graffiti still displays pro-regime imagery. We’ll give our lives to you, Bashar, with our souls and blood, according to one message.
A red X has been used to substitute “Bashar.”
The work is still going on.
There are still many things the White Helmets can do in the wake of 13 years of war.
They are demining buildings, locating mass graves, and clearing rubble as evidence of a conflict that shook the city between 2012 and 2016 and that saw the regime retake control of Aleppo and make it one of Syria’s cities that the war had devastated the most.
Abu Ahmad, one of the first White Helmets volunteers in 2013, witnessed it all.
The White Helmets rescued people from the rubble in Aleppo as Russia launched rocket-propelled forces from the air.
After an initial attack, Russia bombed with “double taps,” waiting for rescue workers to arrive before striking once more at the first responders.
Abu Ahmad recalled that because of this Russian strategy, I lost five people close to me. The helicopters dropped barrel bombs, though, which was the worst.
The building had been a fire station prior to the Aleppo wars, and the government had re-established the city’s share of space with the military in 2016.
Despite their previous service to al-Assad, Abu Ahmad now wants to integrate the fire crews into the White Helmets’ activities.
Source: Aljazeera
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