A Syrian Rebel's Personal Story

(FSA) stands on a street filled with debris in Deir al-Zor Monday. Syrian rebel fighter Abu Omar (not pictured) is tired and yearns for a better, more peaceful life and complains that abandonment by the US and Europe and lack of significant military support has turned Syria into a wasteland of destruction and hatred that has little future. Khalil Ashawi/Reuters

In Rebel Fighter's Personal Story, The Arc Of Syria's War -- Christian Science Monitor

When The Monitor first met Syrian rebel fighter Abu Omar last July, he was buoyant and determined to bring down the Assad regime. Now his outlook is a bit more grim.

The Syrian rebel fighter says he has racked up 49 enemy kills so far – nearly half of them government army snipers, the rest pro-regime shabiha militiamen and ordinary soldiers.

But the words “hope,” “victory,” and “progress” left the vocabulary of Abu Omar long ago.

“I’m not happy to kill. It’s not natural,” says the former Syrian special forces fighter who defected to the rebels last year and is now fighting in northern Syria. The Christian Science Monitor first met Abu Omar on the front line last July, as a government assault began on the rebel-held enclave of Salaheddin in Aleppo.

“All during my life, I did not kill people,” says Abu Omar. “But if I don’t, [pro-regime forces] will kill more women and children. We need to stop them.”

Abu Omar has indeed done his share of “stopping” them, and his rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) – along with a number of anti-regime Islamist fighting groups, who are sometimes all at odds among themselves – have made substantial territorial gains in the past year.

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My Comment: I suspect that this rebels' story can be repeated a thousand times throughout Syria.