Syrians dig, cook, fill sandbags in war with Assad

Away from the front lines, volunteers are helping in the war against President Bashar Al-Assad by cooking, filling sandbags, collecting old tyres and digging trenches, aiming to help ward off his assault on northwestern Syria, as reported by Reuters.

It is part of the civilian effort to help defend the last major opposition stronghold from Assad and his Russian allies who have been pounding it for weeks.

Abu Abdo, 51, says he is playing his part by collecting old tyres to be burned by fighters to create a smoke screen from hostile warplanes.

“We go to places where tyres are repaired, collect them and take them to the fighters,” said Abu Abdo, 51, as he piled tyres into the back of a truck with the help of his sons in the town of Salqin.

“These tyres have no value but protect (the fighters) and keep the enemy busy,” said Abu Abdo, as two of sons sat atop the pile of tyres in the back of the truck.

In recent years, Assad’s opponents have poured into northwestern Syria from other parts of Syria that have been taken from opposition. The region, which includes Idlib province and parts of neighbouring provinces, has an estimated 3 million inhabitants, about half of whom had already fled fighting elsewhere according to the UN.

With nowhere else for these people to flee, many have a stake in fending off the attack on the northwest.

READ: EU ‘deeply concerned’ on Syrian regime attacks in Idlib