Israa | ﮼إسراء

his visit at the time gained him a great reputation between Syrians because they interpreted his visit as a sign from the intl community and the US that they'll stand by us, which wasn't the case.

Now I'll talk about the two main Syrian army defectors that were created in the course of the revolution, the FSA and the Free Officers Movement, the first one to be created was the FOM (I guess I'm the first to use cause they ceased to exist by the time acronyms were the thing)

The Free Officers Movement, also called the Free Officers Brigade) was a Syrian rebel group that operated during the early phase of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. The group consisted of defected officers and soldiers from the Syrian Armed Forces. (Wikipedia)

FOM later joined arms with the Free Syrian Army and merged in one body. Also Harmoush had to flee bcz of security issues and was kidnapped from Turkey to Syria later and the regime published his "confessions" to aiding terrorists, he looked beaten and tired

Sadly no reports on him has been verified ever since and he remains one of the few icons of the revolution that wasn't tainted by anything, he's truly beloved by all , may god help him Questions about how he was kidnapped from Turkey and smuggled to Syria have been unanswered

The FSA was created by a number of defected Syrian officers and soldiers who could not shoot at their fellow Syrians, they were led by Colonel Riyad Al Asad, a colonel in the Syrian Air Forces..

..who called for his fellow military men to defect as well and to refuse to shoot at civilians (as they should obvs) he also smartly noted that the army and all its military men are exposed to Assad's propaganda so they do not know at first that they're being led to shoot at us

And that was corroborated by endless testimonies from defectors who said we were led to shoot at terrorists only to find Syrian protesters in front of us

The Free Syrian Army is in no way an organised entity that has clear branches or whatever, it was created by various defectors who were hiding in various places,often unable to organize themselves in an effective way, we can talk about their shortcomings all day but not now

Back to Lattakia August 2011, by that time one of the most effective and large protests and sit ins were happening in AlRaml AlJanoubi or AlRaml AlFisitini (Palestinian Sand), a struggling neighborhood by the sea

This neighborhood was a Palestinian refugee camp, like the typical camps that were built on tents, the houses there where close & the streets where narrow which offered a great way for activists to hide and organize protests in an effective way by eluding the Mukhabarat

August was the month of army invades all around Syria let's put it that way. So after crushing the sit in in Slaibeh and the massacre there the regime decided that they're risking a Homs like situation where the opposition will intensify in struggling hard-to-get-through places

So they decided to storm it from land and sea since AlRaml was surrounded by sea for a large part, military ships were deployed to the coast & the regime was able to invade it, the land invasion was supported by suppressive fire from ships, thousands of Palestinians& Syrians left

Ofc protestes kept happening for a long time after but the crushing or Raml and Slaibeh signaled that the regime will never tolerate any dissent in its "heartland" and the home to the Assad family Lattakia

A correction before someone goes “Actually,..” I’m no expert on military stuff and so are most Lattakians so the news was that either ships or that boats attacked but the effect was still the same, it terrorised the people and showed just how serious Assad was in crushing us