The journey through the Qalamoun Mountains is long and arduous. In the second part of Al-Akhbar’s tour, we recount what we saw along the road between the Syrian towns of Falita and Yabrud, “Qalamoun’s capital.” Here, the homes of displaced Syrians have been turned into bases for opposition fighters.
Opposition brigades are gearing up to fight the Syrian army and Hezbollah, pledging to prevent a repeat of what happened in Qusayr. In Yabrud, Al-Akhbar met with the militant leader responsible for launching rockets toward Hermel in Lebanon.
Crossing the barren hills between the Lebanese town of Ersal and the Syrian town of Falita takes no more than an hour, after which one would have officially entered Syrian territory. In Falita, an abandoned Syrian army outpost is the first thing you see. Some parts of it have been destroyed, with the opposition militants turning it into the equivalent of an advertisement, or a warning sign, to the people of Falita.
Crossing the barren hills between the Lebanese town of Ersal and the Syrian town of Falita takes no more than an hour, after which one would have officially entered Syrian territory. In Falita, an abandoned Syrian army outpost is the first thing you see. Some parts of it have been destroyed, with the opposition militants turning it into the equivalent of an advertisement, or a warning sign, to the people of Falita.
Our escort told us that members of al-Nusra Front have put up banners along the town’s entrances declaring, “Robbers will be executed as per Sharia,” and “Do not steal weapons,” after much grumbling in the ranks of the armed brigades over thefts by the townsfolk targeting their fighters passing through Falita. Not even the leaders of these brigades were spared; some of them were carjacked and had their weapons stolen.
Our escort told us about chases, assassinations, and even street fights that erupted with the thieves, making the banners more or less a feature of the notorious Syrian town. The man also told us about bandits and kidnappers, showing us places known for being ambush hotspots – the people of Falita are known to carry out kidnappings for ransom.
Our escort also claimed that a lab was set up in the town recently to make drugs like Captagon and a new kind of drug known as “strawberry,” saying that the drug dealers distribute them all over Syria and export them. The man also showed us hashish fields on the outskirts of the town.
Next we headed to Ras al-Maara, a relatively poor Syrian town. We traveled past crowded old homes that sprawled out in a circular pattern. A few minutes later, we felt that we were now in a valley, with many large houses scattered along its sides. Further along, the minaret of the town’s blue-domed mosque appeared. Higher up, we could see an almost endless series of mountain peaks, perforated by small caves, or at least, this is what they appeared to be.
We continued to travel downhill, and at first glance, life appeared normal in the town. Although we noticed there were militants stationed on street corners, this changed little: Most shops were open, and traffic was rather normal. We saw kids riding bicycles, and girls holding hands, strolling on the outskirts of the town.
We then made our way to the town of Ras al-Ain through a small village called Jebbeh. Ras al-Ain is the quietest we had seen so far, and there was little movement in the streets, so we moved on to the farms on the edge of the town.
Some here call them Ras al-Ain farms while others call them Yabrud farms, given their proximity to Yabrud, the “capital of Qalamoun,” a city practically located in the heart of the Qalamoun Mountains. The bitter cold in Yabrud, the birthplace of the first Argentinian president of Arab descent, seeps into one’s bones. On the way to Yabrud, we passed three completely destroyed Syrian army checkpoints.
Inside the city, we spotted a traffic light that had the words “our martyrs are the fuel of our revolution” inscribed on the red, yellow, and green lights respectively. Everything here has a “revolutionary” flavor. Walls across the city have been painted with the flags of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the black-and-green banners of various opposition brigades.
The nearby village of Rima, which is nearly always being shelled, is home to the bases of al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Other opposition brigades are based in the abandoned homes on the fringes of Yabrud.
Paradoxically, the Syrian regime continues to supply these areas with electricity and bread. Every brigade frequently sends a delegate to the town’s bakery, carrying a list of the names of its members, on the basis of which the delegate gets the bread they need. The opposition militants here speak of a “truce from one day to another between the army and the rebels, in return for sums of money paid by the merchants in Qalamoun.”
Nevertheless, Syrian air force MiGs and Sukhoi – makes which were specified by the militants – almost never leave the skies of the region’s towns. Although anti-aircraft guns often fire at them, the warplanes occasionally conduct strikes against homes and passing cars. This is not to mention mortars and sporadic shelling from rocket launchers from the 18th division, thought to be stationed near the Nasiriyah region.
The ban on smoking imposed by the Islamist brigades here seems serious, if only on the surface. Most of the militants are smokers, but they all work hard to hide it. “Careful, hide your cigarette,” is heard repeatedly to the point that one would think it’s a nervous tic.
In one of the militant outposts in Ras al-Ain, Al-Akhbar met members of the Bilal al-Habashi Battalion, which had withdrawn from the fighting in Qusayr to seek shelter in the mountains of Qalamoun, before pledging allegiance to al-Nusra Front.
In an exclusive interview with the battalion’s commander, Raad Hammadi, who hails from the village of Abu Houri in the Qusayr countryside and who is stationed in the mountains adjacent to the Lebanese border, Hammadi claimed responsibility for the rockets fired on the Lebanese region of Hermel. Hammadi, who was injured in the fighting in Qusayr, spoke about a “war that has no red lines,” saying that Hezbollah’s involvement in the battles of Qusayr justified his group’s attacks on Hermel.
Hammadi said, “Lebanon’s borders are open for us to respond to the assault of Hezbollah’s militants on our lands.” Hammadi then threatened the Lebanese people by saying that he would spare no supporter of Hezbollah in his war against them, and showed us footage of three beheaded corpses whom he claimed belonged to Hezbollah members.Most of the conversations between the militants focus on the battle of Qusayr. They claim that Qusayr was “sold by those who were in charge,” naming individuals like Muwaffaq Abu al-Sous, Abu Muayed, and al-Shishani. They allege that these people were paid to prevent ammunition from reaching the opposition.
In the past few weeks, Yabrud has witnesses several car bombings, the most recent of which claimed seven lives. The town of Rankous also saw several violent attacks, including three car bombs in the space of a few days, which claimed more than 50 lives.
The opposition groups here accuse the Syrian regime’s intelligence services of staging the attacks, citing one attack that targeted a mosque. The Syrian regime used to say there were terrorist sleeper cells. But here, there is a widespread conspiracy theory holding that the regime, too, has sleeper cells, which it activates from time to time to carry out formidable attacks.
Tomorrow: From the caves of Qalamoun, hundreds of fighters vow death for Hezbollah.
A Captagon Lab in Falita
The Syrian opposition brigades are divided when it comes to the Captagon-pill plant recently built in Falita. Although all Islamic groups say this is unlawful under Islamic law, many other brigades believe it is an important source of funds for military operations, especially with fatwas in place sanctioning the exportation of these drugs to non-Muslim countries.
A shipment of such drugs could bring in several millions, but amid this row, the locals in charge of the drug plant vehemently refuse to be grouped with the regime or the opposition. In their view, this is not good for business, whether in the areas controlled by the regime, or those controlled by the opposition.
The Lebanese Central Bureau for Drug Enforcement was able to seize a huge shipment of Captagon pills recently, which had entered Lebanon coming from Syria and were bound for Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia. Security investigations revealed that these pills were Syrian-made.
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.