I have been bringing you interviews from around Syria the last couple of weeks. It is always such an honour for me to meet with and hear the testimony of all these Syrian people who have really gone through such tragedy, it is hard to process the level of suffering they have had to confront and deal with.

My dear friend, Diaa Abo Ammar from Shbeki village is an extraordinary human being. He has dedicated himself to the healing of his community and country, training in trauma support to be able to council and aid the recovery of his family and neighbours.

For those who don’t know this village and 6 others to the East of #Sweida city (also targeted by suicide bombers on the same day) were attacked by ISIS terrorists before dawn on the 25th July 2018. More than 250 civilians in total were massacred, many children, 300 civilians were grievously injured, all were traumatised by this U.S enabled blood-letting of their people.

29 women and children (one man) were abducted from Shbeki, finally all were liberated by the Syrian Arab Army in November 2018 but not without casualties.

My article at Mint Press News covers all these events in detail.

As Diaa so eloquently says:

I am one of the sons of this village – we grew up in this village.

Our elders taught us that we must never relinquish our land, that we must remain steadfast.

We would defend it with our bare chests, with our souls and blood.

This is our doctrine as people of Sweida and people of Syria.

This means we pay a high price. Our culture is the culture of resistance, the culture of defending right regardless of the intensity of the attack”

As Diaa explains, the land of Syria is more precious now than ever before because its soil has been mingled with the blood of the glorious martyrs who have given their lives to defend their homeland.

Diaa accuses the West of supporting terrorism in Syria and he calls upon them to stop – because the Syrian people will win, “this is our land”.

Watch the full interview here: