Elijah stands in the doorway of his house and slowly pulls on his cigarette. He is one of the few who have returned Quseir. A week ago, first reported the Syrian army of President Bashar al-Assad, the reconquest of the town on the border with Lebanon. The Christian Elia can well remember the day when the nightmare began in the small town. 9 February 2012 had attacker, which he calls "Islamic fanatics", first shelled the Christian area with rockets and threatened the Christians with death, they should not leave Quseir. He had immediately packed the essentials and had moved with his family to visit relatives. The regime has taken with the help of the Lebanese Hezbollah Quseir last week. For Assad's troops, it was a great success: the place of the armed opposition had served as a warehouse for weapons that were smuggled from Lebanon to Syria. "More than a year," says an officer in camouflage uniform, "most civilians are gone and have the city more than 10 000 gunmen left. "In homes, in the Church and in tunnels they had found large quantities of portable weapons of all kinds. His name will not name the officer. Most of the weapons seem to come from Libya. Qatar had brought them there about two years ago to help the rebellion against the dictator Gaddafi to win. Then they were taken to the Lebanese port city of Tripoli by boat, from there they reached the border towns inhabited by Sunnis Arsal and Wadi Khalid after Quseir. The officer accused of leading Sunni politicians in Lebanon to have this organized smuggling, especially a deputy named Khalid al why. On the Syrian side to Mufaa Abu Sus, have known considered as the godfather of the smugglers of Quseir, the threads. The Sunni Muslim had operated a business place on the watch for smuggled cigarettes. From his radical Islamist views he had never made a secret, tell people in Quseir, for the reconquest Assad are grateful. Before the war in Quseir 25 000 people lived. Of them, 60 percent Sunni and 35 percent are Christians and only one in twenty people as Assad was Alawit as or Shiite fighters of Hezbollah. Quseir was a node in a smuggling network. Well, during the war, brought the Gulf states and banknotes for Assad's opponents weapons into the country. Then Quseir as it was an Islamic state. The graffiti on the walls of houses always comes back before the name of the radical Syrian preacher Adnan Aruur who lives in Saudi exile. He gave the Al-Nusra front, the fatwas that they needed: He justified killings and rapes. He promised to anyone who killed representatives of the regime, a place in paradise. In a street is home to many walls "Kulluna Hanna" to read: "We are all Hanna. "The warhorse Hanna Kasuha was so goes the legend, the protector of the Christians of Quseir. There are many heroic stories about him. So the rebels sixty old men are said to have brought into their power to extort him to leave the city at last. However, he had kidnapped the rebels, and the elderly were freed. But then Hanna Kasuhas brother was only murdered his father and eventually later on 21 The March 2012 he himself was the signal to most Christians have been to leave the city, says one of the few who remained. He also does not want to give his name, the torturers could return yes. With more than ten members of his extended family of the man living in the only street that has remained intact. It is beyond the railway line which runs along the edge of the city. After Hanna's death Kasuhas the army moved into this neighborhood. "That's why I felt safe," says the man was working the stone no more. But the soldiers supplied him and his family with food and water. No one seems to know why they have not much earlier attacked the enemy on the other side of the railway line. In the hallway of a small house, we have people on the ground. Up to a portrait of Mary, the walls are bare. The Christians tell horror stories like that was, but then kidnapped by a cousin who had put all his savings into a car and burned in the car. From the minarets of the Christians had been asked to leave the city, affirm all who sit here. Had been chanted at rallies: "The Christians to Beirut, the Alawis to the grave. "The fatwas of the preacher Aruur were followed. "And we sat here and prayed," said a woman and pulls the black headscarf close. On the other hand, not a few Christians as he had been at the beginning on the side of the revolution, had dreamed of freedom and equality. The songs of the revolution attracted him, says Basil, the mass demonstrations in Homs he also danced. Directed the first large demonstrations were not against the regime, but against the governor of Homs, which divided the city into two camps. "It was a great party – until shots were fired and the Salafists came. " When it became clear that the ruling would not address the concerns of the protesters, and nothing was set in motion, there were protesters, the government buildings were set on fire, admits Basil. Then there was a deliberate shot at every rally, every time had been shot, a prominent citizen of Homs. The perpetrators remained unidentified. It had not been fired indiscriminately into the crowd, the young man of the popular regime opponents Hadi al Dschundi remembered as then was killed first turned half the population of Homs also openly against the regime. The more escalated in the provincial capital of the conflict, the more engaged the tensions in Quseir. And there were acts of revenge. For Basil, the turning point came when an increasing number of Salafists, who wanted an Islamic state, would have mingled with the demonstrators. …
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