• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Syrian victim of jihadis: “Tell the West to leave us alone”

Nov 14, 2013 7:05 am By Robert Spencer

“What did these children do to die like this? Please tell America, Britain, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia they are bad people.” The jihadis, that is. But America, Britain, Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia aren’t listening.

“Syria conflict: Grief and anger in Damascus,” from the BBC, November 13:

“I don’t recognise him.” Samira Zakhi screamed with a mother’s piercing wail that filled the largest morgue in Damascus.

“He was blonde and had green eyes, but now his eyes are gone,” she cried.

These were Samira’s last distressing moments with her son, 35-year-old Rafid, who suffered grievous injuries to his face in the mortar attack that killed him.

Rafid was the driver who was helping children board his school bus when two mortars struck the Old City of Damascus on Monday. He and four children died on the spot.

A second shell slammed through a sandbagged window in a nearby school, injuring some children and damaging a classroom with desks painted in pastel shades of purple and pink.

“My son did no wrong,” Samira declared.

“We need President [Bashar] al-Assad to terminate all those people,” she said in a harsh rebuke to the opposition that underlined how emotions are hardening in this brutal war.

‘Pure angel’

As grief grows, so does a groundswell of anger on both sides of this bitter conflict as more of the most innocent lives are lost.

The majority of children have died on the other side in a war that will soon enter its third year.

But as violence reaches the very heart of Damascus, casualties are now rising here.

When we visited the mortuary at the Mujtahed hospital, the bodies of four children who died with their bus driver were being prepared for burial.

Antoun Mikho held his head in his hands as a doctor stitched the wounds of his eight-year-old niece Vanessa.

Her white trainers with a pink flourish rested on a metal bed nearby.

“My niece was a pure angel,” he told me. “She was in the 4th grade and loved going to school. She cried when she couldn’t go.”

Vanessa made her last journey along the cobbled streets of the Old City in a simple coffin carried by a white pick-up truck bedecked with white garlands.

A large framed photograph of a little girl with big brown eyes bobbed at the head of the large procession, which made its way to the Armenian Orthodox Church right next to her school.

Church bells rang out in the midst of a deafening din of automatic rifles fired into the air, in an Arab tradition of celebration.

In this close knit Christian community, the church was packed to say farewell to Vanessa and six-year-old schoolboy Khovanis Atokanian.

Their simple coffins, distinguished by their large wooden initials at the end, were placed next to each other.

One woman, her eyes red from crying, approached me with a tearful message.

“Tell the West to leave us alone,” Rima Haddad cried.

“What did these children do to die like this? Please tell America, Britain, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia they are bad people.”

When I asked about a war causing death on both sides, she defended the right of the Syrian army to “carry guns, to protect us”….

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Syria


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • gravenimage on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • OLD GUY on UK: Woman converts to Islam, distributes Islamic State jihad terror videos
  • OLD GUY on Al-Qaeda Calls on Jihadis to Kill Non-Muslims With Poisoned Coronavirus Masks
  • Boycott Turkey on Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France and UAE conduct joint military exercises amid rising Turkish threat
  • Michael Copeland on New study reveals that Muslim religiosity strongly linked to hatred towards the West

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.