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“one’s man meat is another man’s poison”, Abo Amir sat on a rock on the sideway of the road while his eyes were filled with grieve telling miseries to whose bitterness one stand speechless. You can see him looking all around bidding farewell to the place he comes from “Wadi Barada” where his memories were rolling in his imagination remembering all his memories and moments he spent in Wadi Barada.
Abo Amir did not expect to leave his village “Basema” some day. However, the Syrian regime has forced the citizens of the area to leave after committing against them scores massacres in a methodological military operation aiming to displace them and sending them to the northern Syria which turn to be a gathering for the Syrian opposition.
Then departure of the fighters in Wadi Barada along with their families comes according to a deal issuing the departure of who refuse settlement and yielding themselves to regime forces to head Idlib province, as well as regime forces and Hezbollah militias entrance to the area. Probably the goal and the policy of regime become so clear to everyone which depend in the first place on focusing the military efforts on an area after another till its citizens kneel down and accept regime’s conditions where the destination is always the northern Syria.
While the citizens of Wadi Barada were parting from their cities and towns against their will on since they had no other choice on last Monday morning, pro regime social media was taken by storm with joy for rebels departure from the area, as if they had achieved great victory after water cut off from Damascus and its countryside. Regime officials started to give promises of pumping again water from Ain Fijeh within few hours as workshops entered the facility in order to fix the pumpers because the spring and pumpers were affected severely. They also checked the water to reassure the citizens that the water was not polluted, where earlier they circulated a news of rebels had polluted the water with fuel, but their advantages right now require denying this news.
Pro regime in Damascus were living the happiest moments at the time of the departure of who they call the armed believing that they the reason of water crisis which had befallen them and caused their suffering; while the truth is just the opposite. Cause Fijeh Spring which is considered the main source to provide Damascus and its countryside with drinking water, was mainly destroyed by the raids of regime and Russian warplanes which directly bombed it so that the photos tells for real the perpetrators.
Abo Amir’s wife in an attempt to calm her husband before leaving their village, told him:” Let them have water as they can and get overjoyed with our departure; Allah willing we will come back to the land we watered with our blood someday, oppression will conquer”.
As the last bunch of Wadi Barada” citizens leaves the area, many Syrians wonder what is regime’s next goal in its military operations that aiming to displacement?
By Samah Alkhaled
Translated by Sabah Najem
Syrian press center
