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ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTER and photographer Muhammed Muheisen travelled to the Syrian rebel headquarters in Marea yesterday as fighters returned from Aleppo, where they had been engaged in fierce clashes with government forces.
Delving into their past lives, Muheisen found a mixed group of men – former butchers, barbers and construction workers, as well as as ex-policemen and members of Bashar Assad’s army.
“We kept saying peaceful, peaceful. But they came at us with guns and shells and airplanes, so we finally said: “This peaceful isn’t working,” 22-year-old Mohammed Sami told the photo-journalist about the start of the now-violent conflict.
Before the Arab Spring erupted in 2011, Sami was working with a friend in his own barber business. He described the shop as having two chairs, big mirrors, electric clippers and a television. When the uprising began, he hung a revolutionary flag on the wall but the place was set on fire when soldiers subsequently raided the village.
It wasn’t long until he joined the opposition. “They torched my shop because I put up a flag. After the revolution, I’ll put up whatever I want. There will be flags all over the place.”
Still a minor, Bader Farouh told Muheisen that he has already been arrested and beaten twice in the past year. He claimed that police detained him in Aleppo for three days during which time he was folded into the hold of a car tyre and lashed with sticks. They only let him go after he signed a declaration pledging to stop protesting.
However, they caught him at a demonstration a week later and the alleged torture got worse. He said they hung him naked on a wall for more beatings. When he was eventually freed 12 days later, his father took him to the head of a local rebel brigade and told them to “take him and treat him like one of your sons”.
Almed al-Saleh always wanted to go to university but, because of money worries, he took a job with the police force instead. When the protests against the regime started, he was working at an isolated border crossing with Turkey where he earned about $270 a month.
The 22-year-old explained that he always supported the revolution “in his heart” but kept quiet at first. “I volunteered to serve my country, not to serve Bashar or anyone else.” Last month he ran away, borrowed $1,000 from a friend and bought a Kalashnikov rifle.
-With words and photos from Associated Press’s Muhammed Muheisen
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I home the person/company is found an prosecuted, it will take years to get fish levels back to what they were !
The top picture is of mackerel which are solely a sea fish…doh!
Actually John they’re a breed of Tuna not mackerel.
Noticed that after I posted!
Some Farmers can be so careless. Large fines and even criminal charges should be considered for cases like this. Also farm inspections need to be stepped up. If any other industry had similar incidents they would be shut down.
Have you made a conclusion on what caused it? The IIF need someone like you. They’re investigating it at the moment and have nothing conclusive, yet you have it all figured out. Well done.
It’s in the article, JJ – it’s a rural agricultural area, so farms are the prime suspect…
Nearly every area outside the cities and towns in Ireland is a rural agricultural area. Doesn’t mean they’re automatically to blame for everything.
Fines? you must be joking! The farmer (that’s If it was a farmer) will probably get an extra grant for loss of silage!
I find it hard to believe this could be silage effluent. its only pit silage that allows effluent to run off and be collected in a tank. This is usually collected with the rest of the slurry, and as a result will be greatly diluted by the slurry. I can’t find the date the fish kill was reported, but this hot weather is good slurry spreading conditions. Rain will cause slurry to run off into drains and rivers, but there has been no heavy rainfall in the last 5-6 days to cause this. If this happened during wet weather, then I would agree that it probably was slurry, but with these conditions it doesn’t add up. Look for the smoking gun, if there are fields in the catchment area of the river with freshly spread slurry, then they might be into something, but I really do doubt its slurry.
Was hiking by the Grand canal about 15 years ago when i came across a fish kill.
A farmer had taken water from Miltown Feeder using a mobile pump and had pressure washed his silage pit. Subsequently there was torrential rain that washed his silage residue into the ditch beside miltown feeder which then ran straight into the 2nd level of the canal on the barrow line and then the weather warmed up causing a large fish kill.
There was a huge rescue effort by many in the area and we loaded the fish into pots, pans, dustbins whatever containers we could find and moved to the unpolluted Dublin line.
I showed the inland fisheries the source of the pollution, you could follow the slick and see the pump but they didn’t want to know, said it was too difficult to prove even though there was a smoking gun. Too much paperwork i guess to make a proscecution and somebody would have to get off their arse.
Some farmer dropping stuff into the river most likely..
Doubt it’s a farmer – must likely a business
Or maybe a bogeyman. There is literally nothing to be gained by speculating.
far more regulation around business from local councils than farmers will ever face
That was once true but farmers are examined for pollution control and prosecuted for failures now
farmers don’t drop slurry into rivers, that would probably result fines, loss of payments, and a criminal record if convicted.. Also, farmers don’t dump slurry, why waste valuable free fertilizer?
Would it be possible that it’s actually human sewerage? We all know up to 46 councils are allowing raw sewerage to be pumped into water courses around the country. There could be any number of causes ….. could we all not just wait until there’s actual proof of the cause.
their is only 26 county councils in ireland and a total of 31 local authorities so no idea where you are getting 46 from
No, that is a more long term problem. This was a spill, killed everything in front of it, It has been washed away now not leaving a trace, (so it says) where as sewerage problems are continuous and easier traced
I stand corrected, councils are pumping human waste in up to 46 water courses throughout Ireland. Appologies!
Wait for Iona to blame gay marriage….
Almost certainly from a farm. When I worked as a surveyor on motorway construction projects virtually every stream / river we came accross was polluted from farming. Appears to be no one watching or policing the spread of fertilizers or manure
Whenever or if ever they catch the culprit they will probably be fined something nominal like €100 in the district court, so it’s hardly surprising who ever did it either didn’t care or wasn’t worried about the consequences.
I hope the person or company responsible for this spill will be found and prosecuted! This is terrible and unacceptable!
Spokesperson on morning ireland said its most likely silage
Go up river and find where there are fish and start your search from there downstream .
because fish are stationary?
Fish were a threat to the farmlands water supply had to be dealt with like those pesky eagles!
The farmers and industrial companies don’t care! I hope they catch the idiots and prosecute them to the full letter of the law!!!
They themselves say the affluent that caused it has since passed, so all they’re using is guess work and finger pointing. Not the right thing to do at all. Pointing fingers without first having proof is not helpful.
No point blaming the rich @selfsustainable!
Something fishy going on
Fcuking farmers. From birds of prey to an entire trout stock, for an occupation that’s meant to be in tune the outdoors they really are blight on it.
Something fishy alright – they’re mackerel in the main photo so its no wonder they couldn’t survive in fresh water!
:0)
skip jack tuna Avina
Jon, anybody that sets rat poison is to blame for the deaths of those eagles
Nah Mick, I think they’re herring, there’s a little bit of a red one at the bottom
I think this is really bad, especially for the environment, 5,000 fish is a lot, that could also have fed 5,000 people and that’s a waste of everything.
Damm fishes coming over here taking our jobs and our women/men fish bowels etc., a bit like those pesky road users that keep crashing on slurry , some neck claiming.
That’s what happens when those Farmers wash there Socks lol lol
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