Goutha

EXCLUSIVE FROM IL GIORNALE
(Hamoriah) And a river in full. It flows from the ruins, he makes his way through the rubble, sinks into missile craters and granate. It goes back up pushing children into tears, bent under the weight of overflowing backpacks. It drags haggard and emaciated old men clinging to life and crutches. Pushes pregnant women covered in black and fatigue, folded on bellies that are now too heavy. It tows the wounded and sick leaning on wheelbarrows moved by hand in this Gruyère of destruction. It is theexodus. It's escape. It's the end of their war. How many will there be? Five thousand? Eight thousand? Fifteen thousand? Who knows it is good.

We may never find out the true number. There are certainly many. So many. They all come from Hamoryah, the town in eastern Ghouta controlled by the militants of the so-called Rahman Legion. In words it was one of the least ideologically extremist groups within that Islamist and jihadist ocean that had controlled the countryside for six years, the villages and farms of this immense eastern suburb of Damascus inhabited by 400 thousand civilians.
But that image of a secular force structured mainly on a military basis has little to do with reality. In fact, the Rahman Legion has always been a close ally of Tahrir al-Sham, the alliance led by Jabhat Al Nusra which represents the coalition of forces linked to Al Qaeda. And he collaborated and fought with Al Qaeda to maintain control of Hamoryah and the surrounding villages. Read More