LEBANON: Syrian family flees to Lebanon, speaks about relative killed in crackdown

Record ID: 278671

  • Title: LEBANON: Syrian family flees to Lebanon, speaks about relative killed in crackdown
  • Date: 18th May 2011
  • Summary: MORE OF THE FAMILY
  • Embargoed: 2nd June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon, Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA7BHMI6EL11BAWF43AZSRTA67F
  • Story Text: This Syrian family is taking shelter in the Lebanese village of Debbabiyeh - just right across the border.
    They fled their home over the weekend during a crackdown launched by security forces.
    But they are the lucky ones. One of their loved ones did not make it.
    Rehab's brother, Majed, was killed.
    She blames gunmen loyal to the cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Maher.
    For the thirty-year-old Rehab, the death of Majed in the hands of the government is too much to bear.
    She says another brother was killed last year by Syrian intelligence.
    ''They killed another brother of mine yesterday and he has not been buried yet. They killed him in Tel Kelakh, the heroes of Maher al-Assad. They killed him in the street. What were they asking for? They were asking for freedom and nothing more. But they want to be lords and Bashar al-Assad wants to be God," cried Rehab as she sat next to her brother's grieving children.
    Rehab is from Tel Kelakh but is married to a man from the Lebanese village of Dabbabiyeh where she and Majed's children fled to over the weekend.
    The nightmare in Tel Kelakh began on Friday (May 13) after residents of the mostly Sunni Muslim town near Lebanon's northern border called for the downfall of Assad's regime, joining a country-wide uprising now in its third month.
    By Saturday (May 14), at least 10 buses brought Syrian security forces and Assad's irregular forces, known as 'shabbiha', who wore red armbands, on Tel Kelakh.
    By Sunday (May 15), tanks surrounded the town's perimeter and the shelling started, several residents who escaped, said.
    Activists who are in touch with the residents say at least 12 people have been killed in Tel Kelakh village alone.
    Majed's angry daughter, Monya, vows revenge.
    ''They killed my father yesterday evening at 6 o'clock. I did not see him and I have three uncles who are arrested and now two dead. They killed my father. May God kill those who killed him. I will take my revenge, you will see,'' the young girl said adding that her mother was still in Tel Kelakh. The family preferred to keep their last name hidden to protect the men who the Syrian forces have arrested.
    The international media has largely been banned from reporting in Syria since the unprecedented unrest began against Assad in mid-March, making it difficult to corroborate witness accounts.
    All the residents Reuters spoke to said Assad's forces were deliberately targeting Sunni Muslims.
    Some said they were checking I.D. cards for those that began with the numbers 041 or that indicated they were from Tel Kalakh or a nearby Sunni Muslim village.
    Tel Kalakh lies in a valley and is surrounded by many Alawite villages as well as a few other Sunni villages.
    Assad and most of the ruling elite are Alawites, an offshoot sect of Shi'ite Islam.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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