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FIGHTING AND CHAOS SPREAD THROUGH SYRIAN CITY, AS SERVICES VANISH
The New York Times
October 2, 2012 Tuesday
Late Edition - Final
By ANNE BARNARD; An employee of The New York Times contributed
reporting from Aleppo, Syria.
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Chaos continued to spread in Syria's largest city,
Aleppo, on Monday, as rebels attacked the towering municipality
building with rockets, sending civil servants fleeing from one of
the few government buildings still functioning as dozens of soldiers
worked to defend the city center.
"We don't want to hurt the employees, but we want them not to come to
work or they will be killed," Sa'id Abu Abdo, 25, an armed insurgent,
said in Aleppo after the attack. "We will liberate each building in
the city."
In a city that was once considered a bastion of support for President
Bashar al-Assad, and for a time was spared armed conflict, two months
of pitched battles have taken a heavy toll, disrupting the city and
threatening to open new rifts among ethnic groups that have long
coexisted there.
Compared to six weeks ago, the contrast observed on Monday
was striking. Municipal services have collapsed in many areas,
and Christian, Kurdish and wealthy Sunni Muslim neighborhoods that
had felt secure when fighting began have been the site of clashes
once limited to the poorer Sunni areas. In one Aleppo neighborhood,
corpses lay uncollected, gnawed by cats and dogs, and piles of garbage
attracted clouds of black flies.
Most of the city's malls and many health centers in antigovernment
neighborhoods were closed. Even police stations appeared abandoned;
the force draws mostly from rural and working-class areas where
support for the uprising is strong. Some residents reported that their
neighborhoods had been without drinking water or electricity for weeks.
Some Christians, historically a vital part of Aleppo's bustling ethnic
mix, have taken up arms to guard their neighborhoods and churches.
Many of Syria's minority communities have either sided with President
Assad, fearing his fall would leave them vulnerable to the Sunni-led
opposition, or stayed out of the conflict because they did not trust
either side. One man patrolling his largely Christian neighborhood
with a Kalashnikov rifle said the government was arming Armenian
Christians in what he called an attempt to draw them into the conflict.
"Today it is clear for us that the Muslims from the countryside want
to destroy our city," he said. "They have nothing to lose."
He identified himself as Gano, an Armenian member of what he called
a popular committee recently organized to defend the neighborhood,
Aziziyah, which was sheltering refugees from other Christian
neighborhoods where fighting had broken out.
But he said he mistrusted the government, which he said was trying
to revive an armed Armenian group it had once supported against Turkey.
"No way, because we will be a legitimate target for the Muslim
rebels," he said. "The regime wants to use us. We want to live in
peace or leave. We are a minority in this country and cannot face
the Muslim majority."
As the fighting raged across the city Monday, 11 people were killed
and 20 wounded when a shell fell on the Othman Bin Matghoon Mosque
in the neighborhood of Masaken Hnano during dawn prayers, the Local
Coordinating Committees, an anti-Assad group, said. The Syrian state
news service said that government forces had retaken control of two
rebel neighborhoods and quoted residents as saying they "stressed
their rejection of all acts of terrorism and sabotage committed by
the mercenary terrorists," its shorthand for rebels.
The road from Damascus to Aleppo was crowded on Saturday with
government troops headed for the city.
In a city that has been a commercial hub for millenniums, business
seemed to have almost halted; shopping malls were closed, and the
few open shops were selling bread for five times its normal price.
In the city's medieval center, much of the old marketplace lay in
smoking ruins on Monday. Heavy, ancient stone walls had collapsed.
Nearby, the 12th-century citadel at the heart of the old city appeared
to be damaged, its heavy wooden door pockmarked with bullets and a
few stones broken from its gate. Government soldiers had taken up
positions there, as well as in the old city's Umayyad Mosque, where
snipers could be seen on the minaret.
Even residents who supported the uprising appeared dejected about
the damage to the city, where traces of fire and ash littered the old
city and smoke lingered from a blaze the day before in the paint and
chemical supply shops of Bab al-Nasr.
"It is a very sad city -- it has been sad for the past few months,"
said an anti-Assad activist who gave his name as Mohammed.
Abu Mahmoud, a wealthy, white-bearded garment merchant, exuded sadness
even inside his well-appointed, undamaged home. He said he was on
the verge of fleeing to Turkey, where his sons had opened a small
clothing business.
"The rebels came to liberate the city," he said. "But we got
destruction, not freedom. The Assad forces don't care about the
stones or the people. The regime is ready to destroy each house,
each shop and each building to keep the power for the Assad family."
URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/world/middleeast/fighting-spreads-through-aleppo-as-services-vanish.html
The New York Times
October 2, 2012 Tuesday
Late Edition - Final
By ANNE BARNARD; An employee of The New York Times contributed
reporting from Aleppo, Syria.
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Chaos continued to spread in Syria's largest city,
Aleppo, on Monday, as rebels attacked the towering municipality
building with rockets, sending civil servants fleeing from one of
the few government buildings still functioning as dozens of soldiers
worked to defend the city center.
"We don't want to hurt the employees, but we want them not to come to
work or they will be killed," Sa'id Abu Abdo, 25, an armed insurgent,
said in Aleppo after the attack. "We will liberate each building in
the city."
In a city that was once considered a bastion of support for President
Bashar al-Assad, and for a time was spared armed conflict, two months
of pitched battles have taken a heavy toll, disrupting the city and
threatening to open new rifts among ethnic groups that have long
coexisted there.
Compared to six weeks ago, the contrast observed on Monday
was striking. Municipal services have collapsed in many areas,
and Christian, Kurdish and wealthy Sunni Muslim neighborhoods that
had felt secure when fighting began have been the site of clashes
once limited to the poorer Sunni areas. In one Aleppo neighborhood,
corpses lay uncollected, gnawed by cats and dogs, and piles of garbage
attracted clouds of black flies.
Most of the city's malls and many health centers in antigovernment
neighborhoods were closed. Even police stations appeared abandoned;
the force draws mostly from rural and working-class areas where
support for the uprising is strong. Some residents reported that their
neighborhoods had been without drinking water or electricity for weeks.
Some Christians, historically a vital part of Aleppo's bustling ethnic
mix, have taken up arms to guard their neighborhoods and churches.
Many of Syria's minority communities have either sided with President
Assad, fearing his fall would leave them vulnerable to the Sunni-led
opposition, or stayed out of the conflict because they did not trust
either side. One man patrolling his largely Christian neighborhood
with a Kalashnikov rifle said the government was arming Armenian
Christians in what he called an attempt to draw them into the conflict.
"Today it is clear for us that the Muslims from the countryside want
to destroy our city," he said. "They have nothing to lose."
He identified himself as Gano, an Armenian member of what he called
a popular committee recently organized to defend the neighborhood,
Aziziyah, which was sheltering refugees from other Christian
neighborhoods where fighting had broken out.
But he said he mistrusted the government, which he said was trying
to revive an armed Armenian group it had once supported against Turkey.
"No way, because we will be a legitimate target for the Muslim
rebels," he said. "The regime wants to use us. We want to live in
peace or leave. We are a minority in this country and cannot face
the Muslim majority."
As the fighting raged across the city Monday, 11 people were killed
and 20 wounded when a shell fell on the Othman Bin Matghoon Mosque
in the neighborhood of Masaken Hnano during dawn prayers, the Local
Coordinating Committees, an anti-Assad group, said. The Syrian state
news service said that government forces had retaken control of two
rebel neighborhoods and quoted residents as saying they "stressed
their rejection of all acts of terrorism and sabotage committed by
the mercenary terrorists," its shorthand for rebels.
The road from Damascus to Aleppo was crowded on Saturday with
government troops headed for the city.
In a city that has been a commercial hub for millenniums, business
seemed to have almost halted; shopping malls were closed, and the
few open shops were selling bread for five times its normal price.
In the city's medieval center, much of the old marketplace lay in
smoking ruins on Monday. Heavy, ancient stone walls had collapsed.
Nearby, the 12th-century citadel at the heart of the old city appeared
to be damaged, its heavy wooden door pockmarked with bullets and a
few stones broken from its gate. Government soldiers had taken up
positions there, as well as in the old city's Umayyad Mosque, where
snipers could be seen on the minaret.
Even residents who supported the uprising appeared dejected about
the damage to the city, where traces of fire and ash littered the old
city and smoke lingered from a blaze the day before in the paint and
chemical supply shops of Bab al-Nasr.
"It is a very sad city -- it has been sad for the past few months,"
said an anti-Assad activist who gave his name as Mohammed.
Abu Mahmoud, a wealthy, white-bearded garment merchant, exuded sadness
even inside his well-appointed, undamaged home. He said he was on
the verge of fleeing to Turkey, where his sons had opened a small
clothing business.
"The rebels came to liberate the city," he said. "But we got
destruction, not freedom. The Assad forces don't care about the
stones or the people. The regime is ready to destroy each house,
each shop and each building to keep the power for the Assad family."
URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/world/middleeast/fighting-spreads-through-aleppo-as-services-vanish.html