From today's an-Nahar, here.
Only Two of al-Qusayr's Christians Remain
Only two of al-Qusayr's Christians remain from an original population of 20,000 residing there prior to the outbreak of events, alongside 40,000 Sunnis. This was before the outbreak of events and the take-over of the city by the opposition a year ago, at which point the majority of Christians fled, fearing instability and the beginnings of Islamic fundamentalist movements that were starting to show signs in al-Qusayr and imposing themselves on Leftist, secularist groups in the opposition.
Thus, when the Syrian Army and Hezbollah fighters entered the city yesterday, there were no Christians left in al-Qusayr aside from Talal Haddad and his uncle, Ajjaj Haddad, along with their secularist Sunni Muslim neighbor, Abdelkarim Zuhouri, who prefered remaining with his only two neighbors to leaving al-Qusayr with the refugees. Talal had been fired upon by armed men from Jabhat al-Nusra a while ago and was shot in the foot in order to terrorize him and force him to flee the city with his family, but the secularly-inclined Talal preferred to remain and defend the family home, with the help of the remaining Leftist members of the opposition.
Only Two of al-Qusayr's Christians Remain
Only two of al-Qusayr's Christians remain from an original population of 20,000 residing there prior to the outbreak of events, alongside 40,000 Sunnis. This was before the outbreak of events and the take-over of the city by the opposition a year ago, at which point the majority of Christians fled, fearing instability and the beginnings of Islamic fundamentalist movements that were starting to show signs in al-Qusayr and imposing themselves on Leftist, secularist groups in the opposition.
Thus, when the Syrian Army and Hezbollah fighters entered the city yesterday, there were no Christians left in al-Qusayr aside from Talal Haddad and his uncle, Ajjaj Haddad, along with their secularist Sunni Muslim neighbor, Abdelkarim Zuhouri, who prefered remaining with his only two neighbors to leaving al-Qusayr with the refugees. Talal had been fired upon by armed men from Jabhat al-Nusra a while ago and was shot in the foot in order to terrorize him and force him to flee the city with his family, but the secularly-inclined Talal preferred to remain and defend the family home, with the help of the remaining Leftist members of the opposition.
The last three Ba'athists in the Middle East...
ReplyDeleteThe Syrian army is still over half secularist Sunni. These guys were probably sympathetic to the anti-Baath breakaways from either the (generally pro-Baath) Syrian Social Nationalists or Communists.
ReplyDeleteBaathism is deader than the USSR Samn. Most Middle Easterners realize socialism just means subsidized babymaking for the Muslim Brotherhood.
ReplyDelete