Syria: 20 miles from Damascus, an oasis of fragile freedom
Zabadani is just 20 miles north-west of Damascus, but it could be on another planet. For nearly a month the mainly Sunni town of 40,000 has effectively been liberated territory, though it is a fragile liberty that is under constant siege. Last Friday government troops launched a large-scale assault backed up by artillery and up to 50 tanks. It is unlikely to be the last. Shelling was reported again on Tuesday. Nearby Madaya was also under attack, a thick pall of smoke hanging over it. Water and electricity have been cut off. Many residents have fled.
"Zabadani is 90% free and the other 10% is held by the strongest army in the Middle East," quipped teacher Ali Abdelrahman, taking part in a mourning ceremony for a man who had been killed two days earlier – the town's 14th fatality since the uprising began. "The more martyrs there are, the stronger we become and the more volunteers we get," he grinned.
Its defenders appear well organised. Anti-Assad activists operating underground in Damascus are often students or professionals. But a key member of the local co-ordination committee here is Abu Nidal, a leathery-faced middle-aged builder who led the first demonstration last March. Other members are farmers and labourers. Another is a barber. All are wanted by the mukhabarat secret police – and are proud of it.
Huddled around the stove drinking coffee in one of their homes after the march, talk turned to the Arab League monitors, whose visit on Sunday brought a brief pause in army operations. The observer's chief, the Sudanese general Muhammad al-Dabi, is himself "a war criminal", someone complained.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/17/syria-oasis-fragile-freedom
