ZCZC
BFF-09,10
SYRIA-CONFLICT-IDLIB-CAVES
Fearing attacks from above, Syrians in Idlib head underground
KAFR AIN, Syria, Sept 17, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The grotto in northwestern Syria
has already saved his children’s lives once. Fearing more air attacks,
Abdulmonem is expanding the makeshift bomb shelter in case they need to take
refuge there again.
Residents of Idlib province and surrounding areas have been bracing
themselves for a Russian-backed government offensive on the country’s largest
remaining rebel-held zone.
Some three million people live in the area and the United Nations has
warned that a full-scale regime assault could spark the century’s worst
humanitarian catastrophe.
Residents’ fears have been heightened by Russian and Syrian air strikes,
artillery fire and barrel bombs that have killed more than 30 civilians
across the province in the past month, according to the Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights.
Sat outside the craggy cave opening in his hometown of Kafr Ain, in
Idlib’s south, Abdulmonem Sheikh Jassem explains how he is trying to keep his
family safe.
“About 10 days ago, we started digging out, expanding, and equipping the
cave in case there’s new bombing,” says Jassem, a 55-year-old former truck
driver.
Citing a bad back and knee problems, he has hired a labourer to transform
the grotto into a full shelter.
Working by the dim light filtering in through the mouth of the cave, the
elderly worker chips away at the rock face with a pickaxe to widen the
cramped space.
The builder’s two scrawny children, covered in a thick layer of dust, move
rocks torn loose from the wall to a wheelbarrow outside, which they
periodically dump in the nearby hills.
“We’re expanding it out, then we’ll paint it and put stairs at the
entrance so you can go up and down easily,” says Jassem, who has four
daughters and two sons of his own.
– ‘Scared for my children’ –
Two years ago, Jassem and his family rushed to the very same cave to hide
from an incoming regime helicopter.
“Our house was demolished but we were in the cave, thank God, so no one
was wounded or hurt,” he says, his coarse salt-and-pepper hair tapering down
into stubble on his tanned, wrinkled face.
“I’m the most scared for my children,” he says. “Fear is normal for those
who have a family.”
Syria’s conflict erupted in 2011. Within four years, rebels and hardline
jihadists had overrun swathes of territory, including Idlib province.
MORE/MSY/0921 hrs
ZCZC
BFF-10
SYRIA-CONFLICT-IDLIB-CAVES-2-LAST
But since then, government troops have made a fierce comeback and
recaptured nearly two-thirds of the country, bolstered by Syrian and Russian
warplanes.
The regime’s use of air raids across Syria has sent residents fleeing to
basements or caves, even forcing hospitals, community centres and schools to
move underground.
Medics in rural parts of Idlib have done the same.
On September 8, an underground hospital on the outskirts of Hass in the
south of the province was damaged by an air strike, according to the
Observatory.
A recent wave of strikes near the town of Hobeit further south sent Abu
Mohammad, his uncle and his young cousins into their homemade bomb shelter,
he tells AFP.
The family dug out the large cellar during the early years of Syria’s war.
The floors and walls have been smoothed over with concrete and painted, and
several fluorescent bulbs cast a blue-white light into the room.
A shelf carved into one wall holds water and jars of pickles and other
preserves.
– Stocking up –
“The bombing got worse on this area because it’s close to regime territory
in northern Hama province,” just south of Idlib, says Abu Mohammad, 25.
“We had to clean the shelter out again, bring preserves and everything we
might need so that we won’t have to go back up to the house.”
The UN has urged the conflict’s top powerbrokers — Russia, fellow regime
ally Iran, and rebel backer Turkey — to engage in talks to avoid a
“bloodbath” in Idlib.
Bombardment has slowed over the past week, and on Friday, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov denied that Syrian troops were planning a major
offensive on Idlib.
For eight-year-old Omran, a cousin of Abu Mohammad, the most important
thing is being able to go to school safely.
The threat of air attacks has prevented the dark-eyed boy going to class
for more than a week. “I have lots of friends who have been wounded and some
of them died,” says Omran.
“I want to read, write, and go to school every day.”
BSS/AFP/MSY/0921 hrs