(Arrahmah.com) – Homs province, 09-06-2013, Dr Qasim Al Zein, the director of Al Qusair Field Hospital, recounts some of the harrowing events of the past few days at the hands of Assad regime killers and Hezbollah terrorists.
An ongoing trip to Hell courtesy of the Syrian regime and Hezbollah
Our worst suffering began from May 19th, 2013 when regime troops and Hezbollah launched their most barbaric attacks to date and intensified the already crippling blockade on several levels.
The regime used all its aerial and ground forces, cluster bombs, thermobaric bombs, chemical weapons, tanks, mortars and missiles, etc etc etc.
Every day there were dozens martyred, maimed or wounded, with around 1,300 people seriously wounded and 300 homes and other buildings destroyed.
The burdens on the people were immense, with rumours every day of impending massacres and the regime using psychological, as well as physical, warfare. The constant fatigue and deprivation were exhausting. Every day the regime’s and Hezbollah’s killing, destruction, displacement increased.
The world turned away.
The withdrawal from Al Qusair was tragic and heartbreaking, but necessary to avoid even more bloodshed. The evacuation of civilians and wounded civilians and rebels began with death and pain. On the night of Tuesday June 4th, we travelled to Buwayda, but Hezbollah terrorists and regime forces arrived to clear the village, killing, looting and stealing.
They say that Al Qusair fell, but in truth all humanity fell.
On the night of Wednesday June 5th, the Nakba of Al Qusair began as we set off towards safety, the safety of death, carrying hundreds of wounded on our shoulders, on foot in the darkness, silently praying and walking for more than six hours, with bullets and missiles fired at us more than once.
We tried to cross to Al Fatha, but were spotted and shot at by lookouts and we ended up sleeping in an open area of orchards on the ground in the intense summer heat. Just after sunrise the next day, we were attacked with tanks, artillery and all sorts of weapons while we were sleeping – we were more than 15,000, with wounded, civilians, women, children, the elderly, as well as rebels, our champions who defended us. The battle lasted all day, with eight killed in fighting and seven of the already wounded dying of their injuries due to lack of medical supplies and saline drips.
With that battle our journey began again to find food and drink, but to no avail, with the hunger and thirst increasing as we walked. We had no food, no water, hardly even air; all we found to eat was leaves and raw potatoes.
The next day, the second day, the scenes of attack were repeated from several directions, with violent fighting as our heroes strove to protect us. Seventeen people among us were martyred, mostly not due to the severity of their injuries but to the lack of any medical supplies. We were even unable to grant the dying wish of a child, who wanted only a drink of water – we did not even have that to give him.
The attacks by regime and Hezbollah forces continued, with more people being wounded.
In the evening we started our march of death again, with the walking wounded helping to carry those incapable of walking. They were at the head of the group. Just before we were about to reach Al Fatha, regime forces and Hezbollah mercenaries attacked us with tanks, artillery and gunfire. We still don’t know how many were killed, with people scattering in all directions as the assailants failed to discriminate between men, women, children, elderly people, with many of those who had been carrying the wounded themselves being killed along with those they were carrying. This was a crime against humanity.
People were screaming and others shouting “Death before humiliation,” in the belief that our only choice is between dying of hunger and thirst or from bombardment by tanks and warplanes.
All that was left to defend us with was a few light weapons, but our heroes succeeded, armed with pure courage and God’s mercy, in destroying a regime tank and the checkpoint at Al Fatha. After this, however, regime forces came with new tanks, preventing 150 of the wounded and those accompanying them from continuing or from having any food or drink, and holding them to this moment.
Among those killed that day were Umm Ammar and her daughter, with many more injured.
We have appealed to all the world’s humanitarian organisations but to no avail.
God alone is sufficient for us. (Coordination of Doctors in Homs/arrahmah.com)
