Obituary for a Syrian Journalist

Syria 

Very Young Journalist connected to New Trend Killed in Russian Air strike.
Obituary and last interview. 


Obituary for Mahmoud Alloz 

On October 21, Mahmoud Alloz posted on facebook a photo of his martyred brother Khalid, who was a media activist killed in Russian airstrikes. Mahmoud was interviewed by New Trend on October 23, 2014. That same day in 2015, Mahmoud followed his brother in martyrdom. In commemoration of his life, I present our full interview.

Mahmoud Allouz, born in 1992 in Homs, was a journalist and a former student at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (He could not complete an education because of the war). A media activist from the beginning of the revolution, he was killed while covering the front lines of the Free Syrian Army, three days after his brother.

Earlier this year, Mahmoud got a severe head injury from an Assad barrel bomb. He lay in the hospital wearing a headband bearing the Shahada. Miraculously, he lived to return to his media activism, only to be killed by Russia.

Mahmoud Alloz (MA): hi

Karin Friedemann (KF): hi, thank you for your time 

MA: thank you

KF: Are you in Homs right now?

MA: yes

KF: what is the situation like there right now? First of all, is any of the city still standing with life going on, or is it all ruins with fighters running around?

MA: Do you have enough info on the status of Homs ?

KF: I know that it has been a site for protests and that the Syrian government attacked the protesters, since then there was fighting, and the regime bombed a lot if not everything. I do not know the ins and outs of each group who they are what they believe.

MA: Do you have inform the geographical on the nature of Homs? I mean geographical situation and regions of the control of Assad regime and armed opposition and ongoing war?

KF: no, is there a map?

MA: Mediates the Syrian cities, Homs is the capital of the Syrian revolution. Strategic importance of the system is very large.

At the beginning of the revolution protests permeated the city of Homs and its countryside

for example, the campaign the first was on the neighborhood of baba amer even dominated after it was destroyed, and then a vigorous campaign on the Homs the old and the failure of the imposition of the siege which continued to nearly two years

And a military campaign on the southern countryside lasted for several months and got violent battles and dominated by the help of the Lebanese Hezbollah after it was destroyed

KF: thank you

MA: The countryside north of Homs are still under the control of the rebels.

There is Al waer densely populated area and besieged and subjected to daily shelling.

Gets the daily massacres

This is a summary of the situation in the field.

Do you have questions ?

HEZBOLLAH 

KF: Did Hezbollah retreat or are they still active on the ground?

MA: Still is on top of any military campaign

And also present in some areas

KF: they are being paid by Lebanon but answering orders of Assad?

MA: Sorry I did not understand your question

KF: who is paying the Hezbollah? or are they volunteers

MA: Hezbollah works on the orders of the party leadership

KF: why do they want to serve Assad instead of their own country?

MA: hTey want to service their project which is sectarian Shiite

They are Fighting and they brutally destroy and commit crimes

IRAN 

There are fighters from Iran also taking part in the ranks of the Assad regime

KF: why do shiite support alawite

MA: Sorry I did not understand your question

KF: Assad is not Shiite so what are they gaining?

also, do you know anything about opium fields on syria lebanon border? to what extent is the war about drugs, about oil, about land, or what other factors?

MA: Assad, Iran and Hezbollah interests are on one common list on a sectarian basis. Assad is a spoiled child with Iran and Hezbollah

The fall of the Assad regime is the demise of the interests of Iran and Hezbollah from Syria

HAMA 
MA: In the countryside of Hama, there are battles. But the city of Hama is under the control of the Assad regime, and there being many cases of arrests and violations.

[At this point the discussion switches to a photo of a rocket which hit Assad's death squads known as shabeeha near Homs]

Chat Conversation Start

You're friends on Facebook

‎Student طالب جامعي‎

Lives in Homs, Syria

10/25/2014 7:01PM

KF: what is the story of this photo? [photo unknown]

10/25/2014 8:44PM

MA: Unfortunately not be aware of your question

I see a rocket. who is shooting the rocket at whom, and where 

The Grad missiles 'Corps Homs' launch on gatherings shabeeha in Homs in response to the massacres of the regime in the neighborhood of the forest

The Grad missiles 'Corps Homs' launch on gatherings shabeeha in Homs in response to the massacres of the regime in the neighborhood of the waer

missiles are launched by rebels?

what is the meaning of shabeeha 

Homs Corps is the largest faction of the Free Army in Homs

what are shabeeha gatherings? 

Shabeeha groups of mercenaries fighting in the ranks of the Assad regime, mostly of the Alawite sect, have committed several massacres in Syria and Homs

so they have a camp or where is the missile going to hit 

Rebels firing rockets at gatherings shabeeha in camps and neighborhoods in the occupied city of Homs

did they hit anyone 

What ??

did they destroy anyone or anything or it was just a cute rocket 

Yes, it is destroying the camps that are stationed where the thugs, and thugs fired all kinds of shells toward the neighborhood Al waer

did that stop them or invigorate them to retaliate? 

Shabeeha not stop bombing and criminality, but this is an attempt by the rebels to stop the bombing as much as possible and with available weapons 


http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1629.htm

Web of Chaos in Syria

TMO 

Shocking photos have been leaked of the Syrian regime’s 215 Intelligence Branch in Damascus, where detainees are sent to die. Many are summarily executed without any formal charges or military trial.

The Violation Documentation Center in Syria has published satellite photography of the regime’s detention centers near Damascus, documenting the growth of cemeteries and “irregular digging.” The report states that “many of the locals testified about the burying operations that required bulldozers and about the arrival of big refrigerated lorries (fruits and vegetables refrigerator trucks).” This led to the VDC’s confirmation of mass graves.

According to VDC collected eyewitness statements on Assad’s detention centers, “most of the death cases happen almost exclusively in the first ten days of the detention.”

A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman denounced the Iranian regime for siding with Assad, saying, “Iran should remain silent out of shame over its support for Damascus which is the true terrorism,” according to the Anatolia News Agency.

Assad forces and Shiite militias fiercely attacked the al-Waer neighborhood in Homs, in order to control the city last week. Al-Waer neighborhood is currently a haven to more than three hundred thousand civilians. The neighborhood, which is crowded with displaced persons who fled there to escape fighting in other neighborhoods of Homs, is experiencing ongoing fierce shelling after the violent attack a week ago. Al-Waer has become a daily target for the missiles, artillery and explosive barrel bombs from Assad forces and allied sectarian militias. Within 3 days last week, more than 24 civilians were killed, most of them women and children.

The western media is focusing only on “Kobanî,” a Syrian town near the Turkish border where armed Kurds, including many women fighters, are battling against ISIS.

“US air strikes have hit ISIS targets near the town in recent days but do not appear to have stopped the militants’ advance,” reports the Independent.

The Free Syrian Army, which reportedly represents 90% of the rebels against the regime, is also present in Kobani. The FSA is at odds with ISIS as well as the Kurds, who are using this situation to split off and form an independent Kurdistan, while the FSA wants to keep Syria as one nation.

However, activists in Homs, condemning the silence of the international community, insist that “people’s lives in Al-Waer are as precious as those of Kobanî.” The residents of Al-Waer have been suffering under siege for more than a year. The activists insisted that the international community should intervene to save civilians regardless of their race or origins.
TMO interviewed 22 year old Mahmoud Allouz in Homs about the situation. The young man, who identifies with the Free Syrian Army, said that “Homs is the capital of the Syrian revolution.”
He explained that the first neighborhood in Homs to be destroyed in 2011 by Assad was Baba Amr. The military campaign continued for months in the southern countryside. The violent battles were “dominated by the help of the Lebanese Hezbollah after [Baba Amr] was destroyed,” stated Allouz. “They want to serve their project [of] sectarian Shiite fighting. They brutally destroy and commit crimes. There are fighters from Iran who are also taking part in the ranks of the Assad regime.”

Although anti-government rebels fought long and valiantly, as of May 2014, the city of Homs is now completely under control of the government, whose snipers continue to shoot civilians including children in a sadistic manner. For example, some video footage was recently released of a dead or dying person, who was just laying in full view on the road, but because of all the sniper shooting, no one could go collect him. Assad’s soldiers take these videos as trophies to brag about their accomplishments.

Al Waer neighborhood “gets the daily massacres,” said Allouz. However, “The countryside north of Homs is still under the control of the rebels,” he explained.

When asked about the rumored opium fields, Allouz stated that they are located mostly in the middle of Syria and are now under the control of ISIS.

“Who do you think ISIS are?” TMO inquired.

Allouz stated that they are a “takfiri criminal gang” whose murders are “working in favor of the Assad regime.” He observed that ISIS is more interested in fighting other rebels than against the regime. “More [ISIS] battles were against the FSA, trying to control the positions held by FSA and the oil fields and assaults on civilians… They are battling the Free Syrian Army, and slaughtering Syrian civilians as does the Assad regime.”

I asked him, “Do you think ISIS is a local movement or are they foreign employees?”

He answered that the gang is not being paid by any country but is “self-financing” through seizure of oil fields, theft of territory and stealing money. They are “trying to lure poor people with money to join them, placing ideas in their mind” about committing “criminality and murder.”

Al Jazeera however put ISIS into context, reporting this week that Mexican drug cartels have murdered exponentially more people than ISIS including 57 journalists and almost 300 Americans visiting Mexico. They have beheaded hundreds of people and displayed mutilated corpses in public squares and on social media in order to intimidate detractors. It is truly astonishing how Americans are more concerned about criminal gangs in Syria than violence happening next door.