{"id":29510,"date":"2013-06-03T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T11:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=29510"},"modified":"2015-05-06T12:52:57","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T11:52:57","slug":"yara-abbas-in-her-own-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/06\/yara-abbas-in-her-own-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Yara Abbas \u2013 In Her Own Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"foto1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I met Al Ikhbariya journalist Yara Abbas for the first and only time in August 2012. I was organizing my trip into Aleppo and was looking to talk to someone on the ground about safety issues. An acquaintance of Yara\u2019s who worked at my hotel told me he knew a journalist on the front lines of the conflict in Aleppo, and gave me her number. When Yara and I finally spoke, she was on her way back to Damascus and warned me down the phone line about the road between Aleppo and its airport, at the time subject to random checkpoints set up by armed rebels.<\/p>\n

The connection wasn\u2019t great. \u201cLook \u2013 I reach Damascus tonight. Why don\u2019t we meet tomorrow and talk in person,\u201d she kindly suggested via mobile.<\/p>\n

The following day I headed to her temporary offices off Ummayad Square. In June, Al Ikhbariya\u2019s headquarters had been bombed by Jabhat al Nusra, gutting the building and killing seven members of staff, including three journalists. The new facilities where I met Yara had also been recently bombed, but on a much smaller scale \u2013 I think only one studio was destroyed.<\/p>\n

Yara had rushed back to Damascus from nine straight days embedded with Syrian troops in Aleppo to await news about her roommate and fellow Al Ikhbariya colleague Yara Saleh \u2013 recently kidnapped by rebels along with three other crew members, one of whom,\u00a0Hatem Abu Yehia, was later\u00a0executed.<\/p>\n

Our conversation was interrupted by phone calls from friends and colleagues calling to commiserate over Saleh\u2019s kidnapping. Yara was clearly shaken by the news and teared up several times during these calls.<\/p>\n

She was a striking young woman in her mid 20s \u2013 slender, tall, huge green eyes framed by long dark hair. Most notable though were her immaculately manicured long fingernails. A solitary girlish vanity on the front lines of combat, I grinned to myself.<\/p>\n

I rarely have reason to interview members of the media. My only two exceptions have both been related to the Syrian conflict \u2013 the first, Paul Conroy, the freelance Sunday Times cameraman injured in Homs who I interviewed outside his London hospital \u2013 and now Yara.<\/p>\n

Although I went to meet Yara for tips on how to avoid the dangers of Aleppo, I ended up taking some notes because she was providing accounts and impressions of events that, at the time, were still novel.<\/p>\n

I wish I had taken more notes \u2013 at some point fairly early on, I just stopped writing and focused on listening to her stories. Some of the things I recall from our conversation that I didn\u2019t commit to paper are details about army tactics. The soldiers she had just left behind in Aleppo, for instance, moved in small groups from house to house, and street to street. I had looked into this subject in June during a trip to learn more about the army\u2019s recent escalation of military operations in hotspots around the country after the UN mission had failed to establish a ceasefire.<\/p>\n

Unlike what is reported widely in the media, until \u2013 and even after \u2013 the Syrian military introduced their air force into the conflict, ground troops continue to wage small-scale operations in neighborhoods occupied by opposition militias. This usually starts with gathering intelligence on where rebels store their weapons, who they are, where they live \u2013 getting the lay of the land, so to speak \u2013 and then moves on to small ground operations to target and destroy these networks.<\/p>\n

Yara\u2019s account of her nine days embedded with the army in Aleppo confirmed this for me, but she surprised me with the information that the soldiers she travelled with mostly slept in the conflict zone itself \u2013 in a vacant home or sometimes on the street. Having wrested back territory, they were unwilling to leave it for the night. \u00a0When I asked her if she was afraid, Yara was emphatic that she has never been afraid of moving in sniper-filled corridors. She told me that the soldiers \u2013 whom she had first met in Damascus and then followed into Aleppo \u2013 protected her with their lives and made her feel safe.<\/p>\n

When I heard of Yara\u2019s death this week \u2013 at the hands of a sniper, no less \u2013 my first thought, oddly, was of this. The Syrian army soldiers who she admired so much were not there to protect her as her car raced out of war-torn Qusayr.<\/p>\n

\"foto2\"<\/a>Here is Yara last August, in her own words:<\/p>\n

On the scene in Aleppo:<\/b>\u00a0 At the beginning there were still civilians in these areas (in Aleppo\u2019s contested neighborhoods), now maybe 20% remain.<\/i><\/p>\n

I went with the army and knocked at the door of one woman. She started to cry \u2013 please take me out of here. They removed her and took her to her brother\u2019s home. The militias make holes in the walls of homes to go from building to building to avoid being out in the open. Seventy percent of the destruction there is from militias. I saw 12 big bombs and 35 small ones in a home they had taken over.<\/i><\/p>\n

You see the same militia patterns in Homs as in Aleppo \u2013 there are no tactical differences. Their plan is to gain weapons, kill Syrian soldiers, hit government buildings.<\/i><\/p>\n

On the militias:<\/b> I saw three from Lebanon, one from Africa, from Libya. All of the ones whose passports we found in their hideout had travelled to Saudi Arabia, Cyprus and Turkey \u2013 there are stamps in their passports. Some of their weapons are coming on the Lebanon-Syria border via donkeys.<\/i><\/p>\n

They send out women and kids to see where the soldiers are, what they are doing. I saw a woman with a stroller myself \u2013 soldiers asked me to go talk to her. She had guns in her pram that she was delivering to militias.<\/i><\/p>\n

They sent an old man past one checkpoint saying he wants to go check on his home \u2013 he had a bomb on him and they detonated it.<\/i><\/p>\n

FSA has very developed weapons, and they have all kinds of weapons. Bombs, doshkas (heavy machine guns) and Shilkas (radar-guided anti-aircraft system), anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft weapons. An anti-aircraft weapon was just used in Idlib.<\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve become so much more determined and strong after my time in Aleppo. They put a mask of religion on their face \u2013 they are not fighting for true issues. Their demands for freedom are false. Look at what they are doing to civilians. They say they want to stop the violence, but they\u2019re making the violence.<\/i><\/p>\n

If they were true, they will not have a weapon. They will be unable to kill the Syrian people. There are a lot of Islamists who are also rejecting these militias because they know they are not fighting for Syrian progress. Yes, there are people who are helping them, but also a lot of Islamists who are refusing this way. I saw this myself in the middle of Salaheddine (heavily contested Aleppo neighborhood). They (pious Syrians) stayed home and pray, but won\u2019t open the door to the militias. They are scared.<\/i><\/p>\n

This varies in areas. In Hajjar al-Aswad (Damascus suburb) about 80% are pro-militia. About 90% in Aleppo are with the government now.<\/i><\/p>\n

On the Syrian army:<\/b> You see our soldiers when they are attacked, sometimes when they are dead. You cannot be separated from this. These soldiers know they\u2019re going to be killed. They stand in the middle of the street and shoot \u2013 they are not afraid. They have a mission.<\/i><\/p>\n

A soldier from Talbiseh (near Homs) has seven gunshots in his body from Duma and he\u2019s come back to fight.<\/i><\/p>\n

From Rastan, Deraa, Idlib \u2013 all of them don\u2019t want to go back \u2013 they want to stay and fight.<\/i><\/p>\n

One soldier, a Sunni from Idlib had a gunshot in his leg \u2013 he refused to leave the army. He went to the hospital and came back the next day to fight in Aleppo. In Idlib militias put pressure on his family to make him leave the army \u2013 they took his brother for a while, beat him up a bit. But the soldier said \u201cthey can take my whole family, but not my country.\u201d I did a story on him.<\/i><\/p>\n

The group of soldiers I\u2019m with in Aleppo, I met in Damascus. Before that they were in Homs and Deraa. They are so young, but they\u2019re so strong.<\/i><\/p>\n

Yara is listed as the 38th media casualty of the Syrian conflict \u2013 by any standard that is a shocking number of journalists to have lost their lives covering a story. In Syria, increasingly, it appears that reporters are being singled out for execution. Whichever perspective a journalist brings to this highly-contested media war over Syria, death is surely undeserved.<\/p>\n

Rest in Peace, Yara Abbas.<\/p>\n

And\u2026<\/p>\n

Abdul Raheem Kour Hassan, Watan FM
\nUnknown, in Damascus, Syria<\/p>\n

Ghaith Abd al-Jawad, Qaboun Media Center
\nMarch 10, 2013, in Damascus, Syria<\/p>\n

Amr Badir al-Deen Junaid, Qaboun Media Center
\nMarch 10, 2013, in Damascus, Syria<\/p>\n

Walid Jamil Amira, Jobar Media Center
\nMarch 3, 2013, in Damascus, Syria<\/p>\n

Mohamed al-Mesalma, Al-Jazeera
\nJanuary 18, 2013, in Daraa, Syria<\/p>\n

Yves Debay, Assault
\nJanuary 17, 2013, in Aleppo, Syria<\/p>\n

Suhail Mahmoud al-Ali, Addounia TV
\nJanuary 4, 2013, in Damascus, Syria<\/p>\n

Naji Asaad, Tishreen
\nDecember 4, 2012, in Damascus, Syria<\/p>\n

Mohamed Quratem, Enab Baladi
\nNovember 28, 2012, in Darya, Syria<\/p>\n

Mohamed al-Khal, Freelance
\nNovember 25, 2012, in Deir al-Zour, Syria<\/p>\n

Basel Tawfiq Youssef, Syrian State TV
\nNovember 21, 2012, in Damascus, Syria<\/p>\n

Hozan Abdel Halim Mahmoud, Freelance
\nNovember 19, 2012, in Ras al-Ain, Syria<\/p>\n

Mohammed al-Ashram, Al-Ikhbariya
\nOctober 10, 2012, in Deir Al-Zour, Syria<\/p>\n

Mona al-Bakkour, Al-Thawra and Syria al-Qalaa
\nOctober 3, 2012, in Aleppo, Syria<\/p>\n

Maya Naser, Press TV
\nSeptember 26, 2012, in Damascus, Syria<\/p>\n

Abdel Karim al-Oqda, Shaam News Network
\nSeptember 19, 2012, in Hama, Syria<\/p>\n

Yusuf Ahmed Deeb, Liwaa Al-Fatih
\nSeptember 16, 2012, in Aleppo, Syria<\/p>\n

Tamer al-Awam, Freelance
\nSeptember 9, 2012, in Aleppo, Syria<\/p>\n

Mosaab al-Obdaallah, Tishreen
\nAugust 22, 2012, in Damascus, Syria<\/p>\n

Mika Yamamoto, Japan Press
\nAugust 20, 2012, in Aleppo, Syria<\/p>\n

Ali Abbas, SANA
\nAugust 11, 2012, in Damascus, Syria<\/p>\n

Hatem Abu Yehia, Al-Ikhbariya
\nAugust 10, 2012, in Al-Tal, Syria<\/p>\n

Mohammad Shamma, Al-Ikhbariya
\nJune 27, 2012, in Doursha, Syria<\/p>\n

Sami Abu Amin, Al-Ikhbariya
\nJune 27, 2012, in Doursha, Syria<\/p>\n

Ahmed al-Assam, Freelance
\nMay 28, 2012, in Homs, Syria<\/p>\n

Bassel al-Shahade, Freelance
\nMay 28, 2012, in Homs, Syria<\/p>\n

Ahmed Adnan al-Ashlaq, Shaam News Network
\nMay 27, 2012, in Damascus, Syria<\/p>\n

Lawrence Fahmy al-Naimi, Shaam News Network
\nMay 27, 2012, in Damascus, Syria<\/p>\n

Ammar Mohamed Suhail Zado, Shaam News Network
\nMay 27, 2012, in Damascus, Syria<\/p>\n

Anas al-Tarsha, Freelance
\nFebruary 24, 2012, in Homs, Syria<\/p>\n

R\u00e9mi Ochlik, Freelance
\nFebruary 22, 2012, in Homs, Syria<\/p>\n

Marie Colvin, The Sunday Times
\nFebruary 22, 2012, in Homs, Syria<\/p>\n

Rami al-Sayed, Freelance
\nFebruary 21, 2012, in Homs, Syria<\/p>\n

Mazhar Tayyara, Freelance
\nFebruary 4, 2012, in Homs, Syria<\/p>\n

Gilles Jacquier, France 2
\nJanuary 11, 2012, in Homs, Syria<\/p>\n

Basil al-Sayed, Freelance
\nDecember 27, 2011, in Homs, Syria<\/p>\n

Ferzat Jarban, Freelance
\nNovember 19 or 20, 2011, in Al-Qasir, Syria<\/p>\n

-Committee to Protect Journalists<\/p>\n

_____________________________<\/p>\n

Sharmine Narwani is a commentary writer and political analyst covering the Middle East.<\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 mideastshuffle.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I went with the army and knocked at the door of one woman. She started to cry \u2013 please take me out of here. They removed her and took her to her brother\u2019s home. The militias make holes in the walls of homes to go from building to building to avoid being out in the open. Seventy percent of the destruction there is from militias. I saw 12 big bombs and 35 small ones in a home they had taken over.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-syria-in-context"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}