DAY 622 - NOVEMBER 22, 2012
American journalist James Foley is just the latest in a string of non-combatant kidnappings, including Austin Tice and Mohamed Al Saeed, that have occurred in Syria within the last six months. Both rebel and regime soldiers are guilty of the abductions. The Syrian opposition has cut off many supply routes for government forces. Furthermore, the FSA has started receiving anti-aircraft weapons from anonymous sources. Though unchecked, many think Qatar is supplying the rebels with the heavy weapons. In addition Syrian opposition leaders meet in Doha to unite different anti-government militias under a moderate cleric, Mouaz Al Khatib, from Damascus. The violence in Syria is beginning to spill into Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan as random spats of gunfire proliferate many of the border crossings surrounding the conflicted nation.
In the warehouse you are taught how to mix explosive powders together and inject flint into normal objects like plastic bottles and shoe boxes. Most of the time you and the other mothers are shown Youtube videos with detailed instructions on how to craft the bombs. You are shown many creative ways to kill people with everyday objects. There is even one bomb-maker in Aleppo that builds mortars from scratch. Big things that are precise too. Practicing the art of DIY ordnance pays you enough to at least feed Emad and Yara everyday. But what it also pays you in is hope, hope that the total war effort will eventually topple Assad's wavering regime.