(Zaman Al Wasl)- Over 50,000 rescue missions have been carried out by the Civil Defense volunteer group, also known as the White Helmets, since the beginning of the Syrian revolution in 2011, senior official told Zaman al-Wasl..
About 150 thousand people from Idlib province were rescued following rebels' takeover of the city in March 2015, and that was due to their fear of the regime forces committing acts of revenge as the regime had started to bomb the city with explosive barrels.
The administration of the civil defense, one of the few Syrian institutions that was produced by the revolution, has the unanimous support of Syrians. As the relations officer Majd Khalaf said to Zaman al-Wasl, “It became a direct target for the regime militarily and in the media. From the media side the regime is trying to place us in the category of belonging to a fighting faction, where as in reality our work is humanitarian, and we do not belong to any political or military formation, and our aims are the human.”
Khalaf clarified, “we deal with absolute objectivity, as we save the human being who is being bombed regardless of his political affiliation, we deal with the human as a human being, and our mission begins the moment the bombing begins to the moment wounded or dead are handed to the hospital or the authority in control of the area, whether it was a brigade or the free police. We fulfill our humanitarian duties towards civilians in opposition held areas.”
The public relations officer continued, “from the military side, we have become a target for the regime bombing, so when the regime targets a particular area with bombing the subsequent strike is for the civil defense team that are usually the first to arrive with the purpose of rescuing and evacuating. This is other than the bombing that targets the civil defense centers, which has led to the death of 115 personal and injury of 300. The last bombing which targeted a civil defense center in al-Atarib in Aleppo’s northern countryside, and led to the death of 5 people and the destruction of several vehicles.”
The civil defense administration according to Khalaf is formed of 2900 volunteers dispersed in 119 centers in most of Syria’s areas that were liberated from regime control, they do not belong to any political or military party, and they receive their funding from governments amongst them Holland, Germany, United States of America, and Britain, but they receive the support through organizations which buy the equipment necessary for rescue operations for them, as well as providing them the funding to keep the vehicles operation and a symbolic monthly bonus to the value of $150 for every member.
Majd Khalaf said, “the team of the civil defense has become a side trusted by international organizations due to the disciplined performance and their closeness to events on the ground and for this reason our statistics are depended.” He indicated that during the period of truce the death of 519 civilians in rebel-held areas by regime bombing was documented, as well the injury of 838 persons. Those are only the people whom the civil defense rescued as the regime through 217 explosive barrels on civilians in liberated areas. With the exception of the fronts we counted 932 air strikes, and 472 mortar artillery.
The special performance and humanitarian management for the civil defense according to Khalaf, pushed many organizations to strive to nominate the civil defense for a Nobel prize indicating at the same time that the administration has been awarded many prizes.
(Translation by Rana Abdul)
About 150 thousand people from Idlib province were rescued following rebels' takeover of the city in March 2015, and that was due to their fear of the regime forces committing acts of revenge as the regime had started to bomb the city with explosive barrels.
The administration of the civil defense, one of the few Syrian institutions that was produced by the revolution, has the unanimous support of Syrians. As the relations officer Majd Khalaf said to Zaman al-Wasl, “It became a direct target for the regime militarily and in the media. From the media side the regime is trying to place us in the category of belonging to a fighting faction, where as in reality our work is humanitarian, and we do not belong to any political or military formation, and our aims are the human.”
Khalaf clarified, “we deal with absolute objectivity, as we save the human being who is being bombed regardless of his political affiliation, we deal with the human as a human being, and our mission begins the moment the bombing begins to the moment wounded or dead are handed to the hospital or the authority in control of the area, whether it was a brigade or the free police. We fulfill our humanitarian duties towards civilians in opposition held areas.”
The public relations officer continued, “from the military side, we have become a target for the regime bombing, so when the regime targets a particular area with bombing the subsequent strike is for the civil defense team that are usually the first to arrive with the purpose of rescuing and evacuating. This is other than the bombing that targets the civil defense centers, which has led to the death of 115 personal and injury of 300. The last bombing which targeted a civil defense center in al-Atarib in Aleppo’s northern countryside, and led to the death of 5 people and the destruction of several vehicles.”
The civil defense administration according to Khalaf is formed of 2900 volunteers dispersed in 119 centers in most of Syria’s areas that were liberated from regime control, they do not belong to any political or military party, and they receive their funding from governments amongst them Holland, Germany, United States of America, and Britain, but they receive the support through organizations which buy the equipment necessary for rescue operations for them, as well as providing them the funding to keep the vehicles operation and a symbolic monthly bonus to the value of $150 for every member.
Majd Khalaf said, “the team of the civil defense has become a side trusted by international organizations due to the disciplined performance and their closeness to events on the ground and for this reason our statistics are depended.” He indicated that during the period of truce the death of 519 civilians in rebel-held areas by regime bombing was documented, as well the injury of 838 persons. Those are only the people whom the civil defense rescued as the regime through 217 explosive barrels on civilians in liberated areas. With the exception of the fronts we counted 932 air strikes, and 472 mortar artillery.
The special performance and humanitarian management for the civil defense according to Khalaf, pushed many organizations to strive to nominate the civil defense for a Nobel prize indicating at the same time that the administration has been awarded many prizes.
(Translation by Rana Abdul)
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