Hi, I'm a med student from Damascus University, I wanted to share parts of my daily life after the fall of the assad regime, to give a different perspective far away from the media and to shed some light on the chaotic situation, the new government, and HTS. I hope that through my posts you can come to a decision on whether New Syria is just another Al-Qaeda/ISIS stronghold that should be eradicated or a new country rising from the ashes that should be given a chance.
Keep in mind this post contains many opinions that may not be representative of the population. I can't promise that I won't be biased or even ill-informed, but I can say that I won't lie or intentionally mislead. I also have to state that I am a sunni arab, so I cannot claim to know the worries and problems of Alawites, christians or Kurds.
I believe this content is appropriate for this sub, it's not exactly news but it gives information on whether shared content is exaggerated propaganda or the truth. If the mods still find this inappropriate, then please inform me so I can stop posting.
The following was written 2 days ago and posted as a comment on this sub (Reposting it so more people can see it). The remainder of day 1 should be posted within 24 hours and will tackle the regime's presence in universities. To the people that already read it, sorry nothing new is here yet (except for the last sentence), I was busy and didn't want to write some low-quality account, as it is a serious topic, So I had to delay it for now ( Just like George R. R. Martin, hopefully my next post doesn't take 13+ years though).
[REPOST]
A-Chaos:
Background:
Damascus fell before any HTS fighters reached it which resulted in the looting of public institutions and some businesses (no homes as far as I am aware). Furthermore, since Assad's army disbanded they just threw away their rifles and even RPGs in the streets, wore civilian clothes, and left with their families to the coast (which was quite a disheartening sight, seeing children walking at 3 am in the cold towards a location hundreds of kilometers away is heartbreaking).
The result is that random civilians who never touched a rifle suddenly had a whole arsenal at their disposal (this includes children, There are pictures of children holding aks and I heard stories of RPGs as well. Terrifying, imagine justifiably staring at an armed kid and he decides you pissed him off, not fun).
Stray Bullets:
When the official announcement of the regime's fall came, everyone started celebrating in the only way they know: emptying mags straight into the sky. Now this would be expected and sort of acceptable under normal circumstances, but not when you have a weaponized mob. The shooting started as soon as the news was confirmed (I forgot when exactly, something like 6-7 am?) and did not stop FOR THE REST OF THE DAY, THE REST OF THE F-ING DAY. I think I still heard some shooting around 10 pm. We joked that Israel started bombing because we ran out of bullets to shoot.
Two main problems resulted from this, bodily damage from bullets falling back down and NOISE. The shooting resulted in dozens of injuries and some deaths (not sure of the exact figure), I think a 6th-year med student died from one stray bullet. I personally did not risk it and did not leave my home due to this. The NOISE however still very much affected me. Honestly, I don't know what the hell people think when they empty magazines into the air, I mean doing it once out of curiosity I can understand, but doing it for hours??
Looting
To keep it short, people entered public institutions (The presidential palace, the Central bank, Police Stations, universities, and more) Stole everything including furniture, and left. Oh, and they were armed with aks obviously so no do-gooder could do anything.
"AK-47s FOR EVERYBODY"
Israeli Bombing
Didn't take long for them to take advantage, I think they started bombing around midday. Rockets coming down make one hell of a bang and send earthquake-like shockwaves. I am used to one or two rockets a day and usually a good distance away. However, this time the bombing campaign was on an unprecedented scale and they were VERY close (note: bombing campaign is still ongoing as of midnight 12/9/2024-12/10/2024).
Credit where it's due though, I have not heard of a single civilian death as Israel is accurately targeting military installations and equipment, which is sort of fine? if it will get them to stay away and never come back. Most equipment is Soviet-era and poses no real threat to the state of Israel so it isn't exactly going to be used anyway (assuming we aren't going to suddenly invade our other neighbors), but it still hurts. Billions of dollars just vanishing into thin air an entire army's arsenal disappearing in mere days, and above all, we are stuck being Israel's b**ch for the foreseeable future.
Anyhow the noises are terrifying, I really hope Israel stops at that, HTS has been doing the right thing (not kamikazing into the Golan) and just ignoring everything (they haven't even mentioned it) they are completely focused on administration and stability. I hope peace and some sort of treaty that allows open borders ( and perhaps dual citizenship?) for the Syrians of the Golan can be negotiated.
HTS arrival:
HTS troops started flowing in around 12-1 pm, but they were overwhelmed to say the least. They started taking the guns, stoping the looting and the blind firing, and imposed a curfew (very much needed). They did their best given how much time they had, but chaos is chaos. I spoke with a few of them, and they were very reassuring.
Day 1 (9/12/2024)
B- Stability
1- HTS Crackdown
Following the previous day's events, HTS cracked down hard on looters and anyone possessing illegal firearms. Imposing prison sentences and opening channels for complaints. They post some of the complaints they receive to show that they are being processed (and in some cases already finished), which is a very beneficial step, no one is gonna go around looting if he knows there will be a reckoning.
So for the second day the situation was mostly stabilized, there were still car thefts and some other petty crimes but no more AKs roaming the streets. In my opinion, they did an impressive job in 24 hours given the circumstances. I mean even the U.S. struggled with riots for longer than that, and they didn't have AKs roaming the streets. Most of the public ( I met, very biased) are currently heavily on their side. If there are elections, Ahmad al sharaa/Jolani will win. The HTS soldiers are not the ISIS beheaders the media likes to portray, they are normal people just like us who were dealt a shitty hand in life and decided to do something about it. I talked to a few of them, and they are friendly, respectful, and disciplined. If Command says they want no one entering buildings, then no one enters buildings. Sure some of them may look "scary" (long beards and such) but they really are just normal people who sacrificed a lot to free this country, they fought when we were cowards, they gave us our future, they gave us hope that Syria can change and that we can be a part of that.
There are also no reports of any HTS members harming any minority groups. There are reports of armed men shooting at cars, stealing cars from Alawites heading to the coast, and threatening citizens in Alawite majority neighborhoods in Damascus. However, I want to believe those men are not the trained HTS, they are either random Civilians with Aks, or members of the southern front. The level of discipline they are showing is quite impressive and I don't believe they would break it to take a car which they have no use for. HTS has not imposed any sort of clothing restrictions but instead stated that anyone trying to impose restrictions on women will be jailed for a month. Furthermore, they have not segregated any minority group and have been in open talks with all of them, they also stated that segregation and cursing ethnicities (or even asking about that for no reason) would also get you a one-month sentence.
Overall I am very hopeful, HTS is very organized and focused on stability. They are doing exemplary work, especially considering how overstretched they are. You may accuse me of whitewashing "Al-Qaeda" or "ISIS". Almost all Syrians hate ISIS, they killed thousands and tricked /forced Syrian youth into joining them, they increased islamophobia and racism against Middle Easterners even further (especially in Europe). But HTS is NOT ISIS, and time will prove that.
Anyhow, I have been writing for about two hours, yeah apparently I have a lot to yap about. If you made it this far thank you for reading my TED talk, for context I am a Sunni ( biased I guess) Uni student. I have a lot of other information to share about universities and how the Assad Regime turned students and doctors into informants and torturers, a truly depressing story. I was thinking of making posts about my experience with an unnecessarily epic title like "Chronicles of a Free Damascus University Student" Would you read something like that?
[REPOST]
Post note: Sadly I have read about a university student who died due to Israeli bombing. They appear to have mostly stopped their bombing campaign (as of 11/12/2024), so hopefully this doesn't happen again
