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العربية
There are many stories about the martyrs of Deir Ezzor who set the best example of sacrifice. Some of them died at the hands of the Assad forces, while others died under torture in the regime-run prisons. Many heavy-hearted and heroic stories that many people have forgotten about.
The martyr Murfaq Suleiman
As the Syrian revolution began, those striving for freedom from Deir Ezzor joined it immediately. One of them was the young man Mumfaq Sulayman, also known as ‘Abbud, from the Al Joura neighborhood in Deir Ezzor. He was a student of agricultural engineering. He moved to Damascus because he was preparing a thesis on the nutrition of humans. He was the only one in the Middle East to develop a bacterium for curing many different diseases. He managed to obtain a scholarship, which enabled him to finish his study and research.
Sulayman joined the wave of peaceful protests, sweeping the country at that time, from the Rafai’ Mosque, which is located in Kaful Susa. One day, a group of people who were praying in the mosque were subjected to humiliation after being surrounded in the mosque and prevented from joining the protests after the prayer. After discussing the issue with the Sheikh Al-Rifai, they decided to return to their homes and not to join the protests. However, Sulayman refused to adhere to that decision. He went out of the mosque and as he saw Assad loyalists along with the security forces, treating the peaceful protesters with cruelty, he took off his shoe and threw it and hit with it the lieutenant colonel in his face and fled without being caught.
On Friday 22/4/2013, Sulayman and his friend were praying in a mosque after the Rafai Mosque was closed. After finishing their prayer, they went out and joined a peaceful protest, which was met by a severe violence from Assad loyalists who opened fire on the peaceful protesters, dispersing them into groups. Sulayman and his friend tried to divert the attention of some Assad loyalists who attempted to arrest some civilians. Assad forces opened fire on him, since he attempted to prevent them to arrest civilians, after which he was shot in his leg. He was laying on the floor for a while until they picked him up and jailed him. Few days later, his body was handed over to his family.
The martyr Rehab Alawi
Rehab Alawi, from the city of Muhassan in Deir Ezzor, moved with her family to Damascus in 1994. During the beginning of the revolution, Rehab was a civil Engineering student at the Damascus University, where she became familiar with revolutionary activities. She partook in all protests that were held in the city of Damascus. She would prepare leaflets and distribute them to protesters at that time. Then she moved to work in relief activities. A part of her work included helping displaced families and sheltering them in homes rented by her. She would also provide food and medicine for them. Rehab would help released detainees. She would take them to their towns and homes.
She continued her humanitarian work until she was arrested on January 16, 2013, in the Dahiyatu Al Assad area. She was then transferred to the military Security Branch 215 on March 21, 2013, where she was subjected to severe torture until she died on February 15, 2014. Activists and people identified her body among the leaked pictures from the Branch215. She was buried in a mass grave by the Assad forces in the area of Najha.
The martyr, Ahmed Al Fattih
He was born in Deir Ezzor on April 22, 1985 and rose as a martyr in Mahdami Al Sham city on November 28, 2012. He graduated from the ‘University of Medicine’ in Damascus in 2009. His major was Neuro surgery. Ahmad Al Fattih participated in the first protest that was held in Deir Ezzor on March 25, 2011. After Baba Amru neighborhood in the city of Homs experienced violent attacks by Assad gangs in 2012, Ahmad answered the call of children and women in that neighborhood and employed his skills to provide medical treatment for those in need, using simple means he had at his disposal at that time. He then joined the Free Syrian Doctors Union and helped in curing of a large number of wounded civilians in several areas in Damascus and its countryside, including Yalda and al Hajar Al Aswad.
And after dozens of civilians were killed in less than 10 days by Assad and discriminatory shelling on the Maadamiyat Al Sham city, as well as the strangling siege that was laid to it, Al Fattif rushed to the city. 28-11-2012, as he was driving his car inside the town, a regime missile fell directly on it, leading to his immediate death along with his friend ‘Uthman Barjus, a nurse.
The martyr, Al Hussain
Al Hussain, also known as Abu Sa’a, graduated frm the miliary academy as an officer. After the revolution began, he refused to support the Assad forces and defected from the regime ranks in Al Ghuta, where he formed the Revolutionary Council of Al Ghuta. In 10-3-2012, he rose as a martyr after storming the Missile Batallion in the town of Al Atibah. The sacrifices of the sons of Deir Ezzor remain memorable in the hearts of everyone in Syria, as they were the torches of freedom which ignited the revolution in the province, which refused to remmain under the brutal and dictatorial rule of the Assad regime like other Syrian provinces.
