Finding Freedom: Syria in the Wake of ISIS | Pt. 1
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ม.ค. 2023
- Three heavy circle bolts hang from the ceiling in a dark basement, at the end of a long hallway, under the municipal soccer stadium here. The rope bindings cut short and frayed have turned brown with blood and age. This execution room used by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria during its three-year reign of this ancient city saw untold horrors. Tortures. Rapes. Beheadings. Now it is an empty shell, a memory of violence with broken and blown-out walls, stained ropes, rusted chains; there’s a lone plastic sandal caked in dust in one corner and a faint smell of bleach.
By one account, 2,000 prisoners were executed here. Locals called it “The Black Stadium” because of its dark stone construction. Under ISIS, the name felt all the more fitting. Yazidi women were sold as sex slaves to ISIS emirs on the stadium field above. At Na’eem Square, not far away, wrought-iron fence posts were used as pikes to display decapitated heads. The stadium track is cut with the heavy scars of tank treads and the cometlike marks of trailing small-arms fire. There is no stone wall or surface anywhere untouched by gunfire. Three days into our two-week-long road trip across this war-torn country, we entered this city of 300,000, the sixth-largest in Syria, and the self-proclaimed capital of the ISIS caliphate during its reign from 2014 to 2017, before Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the ground and US air power in the sky took it back.
A poster for an upcoming soccer match taped near the stadium entrance is a small sign things have changed. Hurdles down the track are pushed off and half-stacked to one side - like hurdles before a high school track meet anywhere. There is a small stone monument to the martyrs who gave their life in the Battle of Raqqa, but outside that - aboveground - it looks like an old football stadium anywhere in the developing world, worn out, but ready for play.
This recovery, what has become an island of democracy in hostile, violent seas, is the greatest untold story in the modern history of the Middle East. The people of Syria have survived wars and occupations and untold violence, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and twice that wounded or grieving. They live in the face of rocket attacks, terrorists, and a threatened invasion by the second-largest army in NATO. Yet despite it all, they’re practicing democracy with a new government they call the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, or the AANES. Without the world watching, these resilient people, who occupy territory that covers a third of Syria proper, are practicing democracy.
“It’s a permissive environment,” said Brandon Wheeler, CEO of Freedom Research Foundation, a US nonprofit, who’s worked in Syria since 2006. “You have to be situationally aware. You have to be smart. But it’s not a war zone,” he said of north and east Syria under the AANES.
“The people here want stability, and they’re doing it. Democracy has to be a behavior before it can be a form of government.”
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This told more truth then the last 20 years of public reporting on the conflicts
It has mot
As a syrian people we appreciate your efforts to let all world see the reality of syria and we hope see more reports on syria and AANES and Green Idlib council.
Thanks our friends
Are you Syrian? And from where?
Thanks Russia for help bthe syrian people against the foreign terrorists❤
@@facckeleins4053they weren’t any better… Putin pretends to love and support Muslims whilst bombing millions of innocent Muslim civilians
Same I’m Syrian
Been a while since I've hear anything from Raqqa. I'm thankful that things are moving forward.
thanks for providing content I don't see anywhere else. Its valuable and worthy of your efforts.
Thank you for sharing
Very few people know about this. It's not reported and for sure not taught in high schools, much less colleges. That's the worst part.
🏆🎖️🙏🇺🇲💪
Maybe because its not even a few years old? Lmfao.
Sad part is if Americans followed real news since 2014. Theyd have known. Operation Inherent Resolve. 2014. Began its operation against ISIS. Shit they even had a facebook page and everything. But hey, can lead a horse to water. Cant make it drink as they say. ;)
Thank you for these reports on my city, Raqqa. I hope for more reports on this devastated city
Amazing reporting! Thanks guys!
Awesome reporting. Thank you
What a insight. Thank you so much. Love from Australia 🇦🇺
Outstanding reporting brother!
This made me tear up. Thank you for reporting on this.
Thank you for watching.
@CoffeeorDie I watched Raqqa get liberated, and the people flooded that stadium when they took it back. Obviously, from the safety/comfort of my home... but it struck me and how those people (and a few foreign military volunteers... some posted on social) persevered with seemingly nothing. It brought a ton of happiness and hope to see these folks trying to build a new way of life and especially one that is inclusive from the beginning. This is even bigger when you look at how quickly evil organizations reclaimed land after we (and others) left. I believe you guys also did a piece on this and the comparisons of Vietnam and afgh of non-strategic military objectives at high cost of life for no real value to the battlefield. Great stuff BRCC! Keep it coming...
@@kemacal Never let wome rule or they'll cause chaos like they have to Europe now
This is some really heavy stuff and a great look at the other side. So much of what has been reported is about the evils of Syria, it's nice to see something showing how the people have taken back part of their country. I love the content you guys are putting out there.
Looking forward to this
Thanks, great work-LA or Chicago next time?
Long live Kurdistan
Prayers for Syria’s people
How do you start a democracy in a place that is either hostile or uneasy to democracy is you don't... you let the people choose what they want its not up to America or Americans to dictate what or who should rule all areas of the world...
Why don’t the Kurds just finish off those isis prisoners what is the point of keeping them??
I pray that freedom an happiness comes to Syrian people
The world is complex and absurd.
Thanks for keeping it real.
Great revelation! Happy for the Syrians. God bless!
💔 really heart breaking.
What I would do to be able to do news reporting and researching in conflict / former conflict zones... I would love to go back to Syria as a civilian
Tanks
I like the fact that they left those Isis flags as a reminder that Isis did exist in that area,,,for kids to know that Isis once lived in those homes.....
Kurdistan!!!!!!
despicable ppl
I know a Peshmerga sniper we did a bunch of interviews in AlHol.
SubhanAllah ❤
Outstanding Marine.
This video really puts perspective on war and the stupidity of it Isis, for example evil 100% evil
and turkey is constantly bombing these peaceful SDF areas
hahahahaha
Who told you that your bullshit western news media 🤣
"peaceful"
Creators of this documentary seem like they're trying to put forward a specific narrative I challenge you guys to visit the government controlled areas and allow the viewers to come to their own conclusions rather than that's what valuable journalism is about.
Great documentary
As a Syrian I find it hilarious that you're trying to pain idlib as the secular progressive part of Syria when literally its where all religious fanatics reside. This is either ignorant or blatant propaganda
HTS isn’t fanatics they’re literally backed up by US and Turkey and a number of other western/secular governments lol plus joolani also tried getting off the terror list and most of these orgs take pride in being referred as that
you guys always complain abbout something, go do a better documentary yourself then
Kurds are the ones who defeated Isis.
Backed up by the US and number of other coalitions..
How did the rest of the world allowed this atrocity to fester
We are now under the rule of organizing the Kurds. We are living the worst days in terms of life and its entrances
Nice
You still have your soul. It’s worth lots. That’s why blowing it up is a big art.
Until the yoke of oppressive religion is lifted there is only so much that can be done.
Não entendo nada. Mas me parece tudo muito tribal. Algo como uma cultura e religião há mais de 2.000 anos
hey bro ???/
Let all those isis families even children get the same harsh punishment isis gave to everyone who was against isis
That sounds like a great way for ISIS to get new recruits
Filthy kaffir, no mercy to the children...
Kids learn FOOTBALL there and not soccer! )))
You should do a report in Mexico. Or is Mexico too dangerous even for you?
Welp Syria is a hell hole right now...
Says who? You??? How much is Putin Political Commissars paying you to be their lapdog minion in here?
Guantanamo Bay = More Shocking
ads every 2 minutes amazing
I didn't get any ads
heard of adblocker? lmao.. i've not had ads ever on utube
The ISIS created by the US part 1
Cope. They created it themselves. It consisted of 95% arabs
Long love Bashar.
I love Rojava and Syrian Democratic Opposition! Bashar=ISIS, Turkey=ISIS, THS=ISIS, ISIS=ISIS
Propaganda
Agree
lmao about what?
Follow the Tanakh, Gospel, and Qur'an. The Islamic State was destroyed for disbelief. The righteous will inherit the Earth.
Very nice propaganda piece. By showing only the kurdish side you don't have to mention how the US funded the kurdish groups and helped them take over the oil fields , and the agricultural land around the river leaving the rest of the country with almost no resources, no electricity and completely broke.
Ok and? Does this change the fact Syria was committing Genocide to the local Kurdish population? Or the fact Syria was an open enemy to thw west for decades? Or the fact Syrian Government was very inactive against ISIS and it was the Kurds that mainly helped eliminate the threat? If anything the US didn't go far enough they should push to fully dismantle Syria and create a Kurdish Nation
@@OK-yy6qzKurds who r backed up by US yeah right 😂
Fr
ah yes blame "usa" as usual.. 🙂😂😂😂😂
Bashar Al Assad is secular and women have great freedom under him. The Baathist are secular.
Yankees failed to destabilise syria but russia rnded them ideas lolol glory to the shovels
Talk about how you Yanks Liberated Syria's Oil haha
With all that talk about US going for Syrian Oil. What US or even Western Oil Company even invested there? Where did they set up their operations? Did they even build oil platforms there in the first place?
@@alwayscurious3357 Yes it's been transported out of the Syrian oil fields to this day ffs lol
"We'll take the oil".... Trump
@@nab237 And now Biden
Syria doesn't have 1% of the oil production the US has. And the majority of the production that isn't owned by Syrian companies goes to India and China