In this Syrian suburb, death prevailed over life. It feels like we're in a war film or a video game. But this is not fiction.
It is the terrifying image of a conflict, who has already killed 100,000 Syrians and which has lasted for more than two years. To her only, the sinister round of this charter 70, summarizes the civil war which ravages Syria from north to south, from Damascus to Aleppo. Aleppo, one of the pearls of the Middle East.
Thousand-year-old city, rich and commercial, renowned for its architecture, its souks and its soaps. The rest of Syria was at war, but Aleppo, the bourgeoisie did not move. Until the summer of 2012 when the street joined the revolt, to in turn demand the departure by Bashar El Assad.
The Syrian dictator then warned them. - Terrorists are criminals remotely controlled by foreigners. They don't care about everything.
Widows, orphans. Nothing stops them. If we don't do it, they won't stop.
But the warning goes unheeded. That summer, the city went up in flames. On one side, thousands of rebels who have only their courage and their faith, supported by a few foreign jihadists.
Opposite, a professional army is over-equipped by the Russians. In the fall, the balance sheet of the battle of Aleppo is terrible. 1300 regime soldiers, 2000 rebels and a number countless civilians were killed.
There is neither winner nor loser. With the rebels we plunged in the hell of Aleppo. January 2013, we leave for Syria via Turkey.
Destination Aleppo, the capital economy of the country, in the north. After 2 years of conflict, the border no longer has reality. The Turkish side is easily recognizable with the tents of thousands of refugees.
2 to 3 million Syrians have fled their country to escape the civil war. Suddenly the road becomes muddy and poorly maintained. We are in Syria.
Barely entered, already the first traces of the conflict. After 3 hours of driving. .
. Aleppo, finally. We are welcomed by a prostrate city, devastated, struggling with the cold.
Barely arrived, a rumble arises in the sky. A Syrian army fighter just dropped a bomb, very close to the neighborhood where we are. It's a little after 12 p.
m. Just a few minutes ago, this building was standing. Families had lunch there quietly laughing.
Around sixty women and children are trapped under the rubble. An excavator is already in action. An inexplicable miracle in this town deprived of everything.
The machine arrived a few minutes only after the explosion. - I'll spit on you Bachar! - You and your family !
The inhabitants know that the planes of the dictator strike blindly, they don't get used to it. Besides, who could get used to this carnage? The front line is no longer only ruins and desolation.
It was emptied of its inhabitants. Public services have disappeared. For the rare survivors, water and electricity are not distributed, only 2 hours a day at best.
The few bakeries, they are taken by storm. - Here's the delivery! These makeshift bakeries are financed by Islamist associations.
Inside, the rule is strict one line for men, another for women. - It's the bread crisis. We don't have enough flour and therefore there is not enough bread.
Have you seen how quickly it goes? The system is however simple. Each family has ration tickets, and it's a bag of pancake for 5 people.
Winter also seems to have frozen the positions between the two camps. Bashar al-Assad's forces occupy the West. Free Syrian Army rebels conquered the eastern districts.
In the middle, the front line passes through the old town. In this part of the city center, all crossroads are manned by katibas. Small groups of determined militiamen but without experience of guerrilla warfare.
Most only have a Kalashnikov taken from the enemy, or bought on the black market for $2000. Their only strategy: Maintain control of a building or a street and above all do not back up. The rebel army, here it is.
Mechanics, taxi drivers, farmers, artisans, who one day overcame their fear of the regime, to say that they want to live without Bashar al-Assad. What the revolution lacks most is are heavy weapons and artillery. So the rebels improvise.
This former mechanical company was transformed into a weapons factory. From now on, here, we profile warheads, and we adjust the spare parts future machine guns. The head of the workshop is Fadi, a former truck driver transformed into a pyrotechnician.
- You see, we mix powder, with ammonium nitrate and after, we stuff the arugula. Before, we only manufactured only 82mm rockets. But now, God willing, we are going to move on to 120, 125 mm.
And all this, I guarantee you, it's homemade. To prove to us the extent of his new knowledge, Fadi wants to show us his latest creation. A rocket launcher 120 mm brand new, as if he was coming out of a Russian arms factory.
But that's without counting small calculation errors. - Bachar, he has at least one advantage, he forced us to make weapons. Because before, I didn't know anything rockets and rocket launchers.
We knew it existed, but that's it. Today, we are unbeatable on the 120 mm, grenades, fighter planes. And these planes, we didn't even know that Bashar had some.
Deep down, what does this guy want? I think he's bloodthirsty. He's a real Drcula.
But Fadi's workshop also manufactures more sophisticated weapons. This anti-aircraft defense, for example, the machine gun is original, but everything else is artisanal. To control the rotation, they even installed controllers brake, recovered from a motorcycle.
On the ground, the arsenal of rebels is just as rudimentary. Small missiles welded quickly who often miss their target. This one had to go hit a pitch of the regime 2 km away.
The next day, we follow a brigade who wants to try the DCA built by Fadi. On the way, a fighter calls out and invites us to follow him. - What is happening ?
Come see. His smile should not be misleading. This fighter hides in fact a deep embarrassment.
In the distance we only see than a gathering at the edge of the canal. As we approach, we we discovered corpses by the dozens. It is January 30, 2013, the day when a gigantic massacre was discovered.
Men only between 14 and 40 years old, tied behind the back, and shot in the neck without further details. - We recovered bodies about twenty times in this channel. But massacres of this magnitude, I've never seen one.
It's always the same. They kill and throw away the bodies in the river. May God grant us his forgiveness.
It truly is a criminal regime. For convenience, the victims are gathered in the courtyard of a primary school. The identification of the bodies is done in an unbearable atmosphere.
The smell is suffocating and every quarter of an hour, new victims are brought back from the canal. - Let it pass! Make way for the martyr, God bless him.
This woman has just recognized the remains of his son. She had no news from him since one month. As we film, 104 bodies were counted.
Muslim tradition requires that the dead be buried as quickly as possible. Those who have not been identified are buried the same day, in this common grave dug in the school garden. For these bereaved families, no doubt.
This massacre is by Bashar al-Assad. Without any proof being provided. Aleppo is a crazy city that oscillates constantly between horror and rumor.
- Are you going to the front? - No, we're going to a wedding. In Aleppo at war, the processions of brides and grooms do not go unnoticed.
This katiba marries one of these fighters. The custom is that the bride leaves his parents' home, to go to her new husband. There she will remain locked up with the women of the family until the evening.
The whole neighborhood came accompany the groom Abdelkader. But above all, the young rebel must show respect and allegiance to his mother. The ceremony will be brief and sober.
The brigade is in fact composed so many brothers and cousins, all linked to the patriarch Abou Oudaï, a former farmer converted as a war leader. - It's a big day for us. I present to you my son.
He is 23 and we are marrying him today. He returns from the front where he was seriously injured. His legs are still a little weak, but thank God he is standing.
And then, we found him a wife. And that's the main thing. Abdelkader's story is edifying.
He drove a regime tank, then he deserted to join the rebels. 6 months ago it was taken back by Bashar's soldiers. And there they tortured him day and night.
They put me on the 7th floor of a hospital. A prison in fact. They called me prisoner number 7.
I was just a number so that no one can recognize me. They locked me up and blindfolded me, for 6 months. And all this time, I didn't see the light.
They put out their cigarettes on my legs. Look at. Before, we saw the bones here.
. . And there.
. . And then they dragged me on my back, in the stairs.
You want to see ? - Turn around, take your hand away. - And that, that's due to torture.
And then he got shot who came out that way. How many deserters experienced the fate of Abdelkader? Hard to say, but he's the last face that we meet in Aleppo, with the promise of seeing us again on our next trip.
2 months later. . .
In April we are back in Aleppo with some apprehension. What has become of the city after 2 months of fighting? And the people that we had met?
Apparently, the front line has not moved, if not a few meters in a street or neighborhood. We returned near the canal where bodies were recovered on January 30. There never was investigation worthy of the name.
Rebels and government accuse each other always mutually from the massacre. Another rumor is heard: The killing would be the work of Al-Qaeda jihadists. It looks like Aleppo has moved on.
In the rebel neighborhoods, there is no only embryos of justice and police. Everyone tries to find its place in the Revolution. Like this young activist Zacharia, 26 years old.
His parents and his wife disowned him because he supports the rebellion. This morning he walks the market looking for fresh produce. - Hi !
Give me a bag. Surprise ! Tomatoes are back on the shelves.
- Normally, vegetables come of the countryside that we liberated. Despite this, prices have tripled. Even quintuplet.
The kilo of tomatoes was 20 Syrian pounds, and it went to 100. It's as if you, you pay €20 per kg for them. In fact, you can find everything in Aleppo, provided you pay the price.
Zacharia chose to help the revolution without taking up arms. He became what we call a small hand. All day long, he makes precious services to his brigade.
What he bought this morning is the fighters' breakfast, stayed all night on the front line. In this auxiliary profession, you have to be mobilized 24 hours a day, and ready for anything, even cooking. This is the first time I've seen a man cut radishes and onions.
Usually, it's a woman's job! In the afternoon, new mission. Zachariah must deliver a message confidential at the other end of the free zone.
The phone doesn't work here or he is overly monitored. On the way, he crosses Bab Al-nasser, his old neighborhood, Where his father ran a stationery store. He can't help but stop.
Another year ago, this street was his whole life. - It's a nightmare. Bab El Nassar is the neighborhood where I grown up.
I worked there for 10 years. It was the most commercial street, the liveliest in Aleppo. It took half an hour by car to go up it.
But until we get rid of no Bashar al-Assad, we will not be peaceful. This store belongs to a supporter of the regime. He was my neighbor.
The last time I spoke to him, he told me that he had joined the regime. He admitted to me that he had killed, and he was happy to work for them. Civil war erases everything, borders like affections.
Former friends have become today's enemies. These women returning from the market are forced to hurry. Like thousands of residents of Aleppo who run to go to work, or go home.
Cautious, the majority pedestrians hurry. Others are more fatalistic. The reason ?
They are in the line of fire regime snipers, particularly effective shooters holed up in the large tower of the town hall. And when we know that their rifle can reach a target more than 2000 meters away, it is better to take the threat seriously. Another French journalist, present during the battle of Aleppo, witnessed it.
Every week, around ten passers-by die under their bullets, and many others fall trying to rescue them. - She didn't go far! To fight against sniper fire, the brigades use the D system.
- Head down ! For example, they tend carpet walls at intersections, to hinder snipers. But the most difficult thing is to install them without exposing yourself.
- Bunch of dogs! After a few tries, mission accomplished, the way is finally clear and protected for the passage of the rebels. In a district of the old town, We have a rendez vous with the leader of an Islamist katiba.
Here the fighters invented another stupid ploy. A mirror with a major advantage: Being able to locate shooters and enemies in complete discretion. - What you see deep down, it is a business district.
There are offices, a bank and the Al Amir Hotel. Be careful, don't get too close, there's a sniper there. Verification done, the sniper no longer shoots.
We can go there. We then discover another rebel trick. So as not to walk uncovered in the streets and move from one neighborhood to another, they dug holes between houses.
Mustapha guides us through this maze. Without knowing it, we find ourselves in the diet zone. In this corridor, silence is imperative.
Under penalty of being spotted and end up like this man. - It's the body of a man about fifty years old. And we're going to try to bring him back.
This is our goal. It's hard to get it back, because there are several snipers waiting one thing is that we come. Everything we do, it is for the good of his soul.
The headquarters of the katiba is not very far anymore. The leader, here he is finally: Abou Jaafar. Not so long ago, this man tampon sold computers and software.
Today he is at the head of a group of around twenty very famous men in Aleppo. They belong to Liwa Al-tawhid, a brigade famous throughout Syria. They chose to settle in this old palace in Aleppo.
An incredible luxury for rebels. -And here is the bathroom. In fact, this brigade is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, a brotherhood of Islamists financed by Qatar.
But apparently, the katiba of Abou Jaafar was forgotten in the distribution of envelopes. They are forced to resort with rather medieval weapons. - Move away, guys, it's dangerous.
The wall is very high! The pomegranate can very well fall on us again. - Bashar al Assad, son of Hafez al Assad, pig, son of pig!
For several days, Abou Jaafar and his brigade run into an obstacle. This area of the old town is under threat by regime soldiers. Only one solution is required.
Destroy their lair that is right behind this wall of rubble. - We are 70 or 80 meters away of the old town hall. We have made good progress and we are in control the main square of the district.
Our goal is to hit the deposit of the army near the old town hall. To achieve this goal, they did not than this homemade rocket. A ridiculous weapon to tear down an entire building.
And it is in the greatest silence They install the ignition cable. To follow the operation, we install the camera as close as possible rocket, stuck between the rocks. - Look, did you see him pass?
Amazing ! In the viewfinder, we see a regime soldier who comes out of hiding. - What are they waiting for ?
A cry rang out. This is the expected signal. Apparently the damage are not important.
- We hit the soldiers' lair. But for the rebels, It’s a small victory. The response is not long in coming.
Abu Jaafar stayed behind. Bullets whiz around our camera. - Your hand is injured!
- It's nothing. . .
- Be careful, it's the crazy sniper from the hotel city, he shoots everything that moves. On the scale of the battle of Aleppo, this operation is modest. This does not prevent Abou Jaaffar from us show the next objective of his katiba.
- You see, over there, it is the army command headquarters. This is our real goal. Suddenly.
. . A shot.
- It comes from us! - It's not serious. .
. Get down anyway. I will answer him myself, you'll see.
The war in Aleppo is in fact a succession of small actions, often more symbolic than effective. As surprising as it may seem, there are still businesses in this area. Below this building, a shoemaker's shop.
An essential profession in Aleppo. No revolution without good shoes. Of course there is no electricity.
To sew point by point, the machine is fed by hand. Behind this curtain, another surprise. The shoemaker hides his whole family who runs away in front of the camera.
There remains his mother-in-law, Mara. She had 2 sons, but they disappeared at the start of the Battle of Aleppo. Since then, Mara has been content of this dark cellar, without ventilation.
- The youngest has asthma due to lack of air. And here is our only source of light and air. This is the bathroom.
But there is no water, no electricity. To enlighten himself, his son-in-law tampered with a small system connected to a car battery. - What are you cooking?
- I made vine leaves with rice. - The hardest, it's during the bombings. We get debris on our heads.
Mara could occupy one of the many free apartments of Aleppo, but she prefers to stay in this cubbyhole near his family. Others are not so lucky and have difficulty eating every day. After the outbreak of the conflict, Abou Saadi did not hesitate for a single second.
This former SME boss abandoned everything, to help the poor and orphans of war. - I told you to separate the files of martyrs and orphans. I'm just taking the martyrs' files.
There, we sort the files. For each family of martyrs, there is very specific help. In some neighborhoods, for example, we distribute meat.
In Aleppo, meat is a luxury, especially lamb meat. The luck is that this butchery still have electricity. - We slaughtered some sheep, and that is the meat that we are going to distribute to the families of the martyrs.
It is already pre-cut and there is no more than put it in bags. Because it is rare and expensive, the butcher will mix it with solid pieces of fat. All that remains is to prepare it and put it in a bag.
A portion of 500 grams per family selected and per week. - Okay, hello. I'm leaving for Salaheddine distribute it all.
And I'll be back in 1 hour take the other portions. Before, we could feed all families militants killed in combat, but today, there are so many people. .
. Originally, it was Abou Saadi who set up this system. - Before I was a successful businessman, but I lost everything.
My money, my house, my factory. These are the agents of the regime who plundered me. But God will reward me.
I'm even happy and relieved that he took everything from me. Because there's no point in having money if misused. That's what I believe.
Today, Abou Saadi will distribute the meat in the Salaheddine district, very close to the front line. To not get lost, he is accompanied by volunteers who know all the residents. There is nothing automatic about distribution.
Abou Saadi checks himself that families are in need. Obviously, it is the case in this apartment. The elders of the family fight all alongside the Free Army.
8 people left, 3 adults and 5 children. - Since when are you here ? Are you refugees?
- Yes, we lost our house. It was the free army that relocated us here. These two little ones are completely orphans.
Abou Saadi is moved by the situation of this large and destitute family. He will offer her two portions of meat. Another apartment, another case of conscience.
Here lives a woman, her daughter and her child. - As you can see, it's garnished here. There are eggs, butter, beans, rice and even stock cubes.
Without qualms, Abou Saadi will not give of meat to this family which lacks nothing. Besides, she was having lunch. But out of modesty, the young mother will wait that we were going out to eat his meal.
The visit continues. - Well, you have to be careful here. We are in the crosshairs of a sniper and so we must not linger.
So, we're going to run. Okay guys, let's go. Abou Saadi and his team still have around ten families to be supplied.
But that's without counting threats from heaven. Two streets away, a new bombing just hit this residential area. The same horror scenes, the same dismay, the same pain.
This time it's not just a building that collapsed, a whole street was blown up. By the time we arrive, the macabre excavator is already at work. The most seriously injured already evacuated.
It is impossible to establish the slightest assessment. The angry crowd has just found a second bomb which did not explode. - That's 500 kilos that massacre disarmed civilians!
Nobody uses weapons like that. Person ! Even Israel hasn't launched one people like that in Lebanon.
This bomb has a particularity: it is equipped with a parachute. A technique that ensures a very precise trajectory. -And what do you say about that?
The Arab peoples! What are you doing for us? We are neither terrorists, nor infidels.
So what ? Look how they're killing us! Shame on you, Arabs!
Suddenly, near us, a group spotted a body under this concrete plate. - Digger guys, hurry up, we probably found someone. Abou Aref is a volunteer rescuer.
He's used to these long waits from which sometimes powerful symbols emerge. - Bashar wants to destroy this Koran. He wants to destroy the Koran and Islam.
But this book is our weapon. He fights with his planes and we, we fight with the Koran. Finally, a corpse of a man is removed from the rubble.
Carried away by habit, Abou Aref highlights the siren works to bring the victim, who has been dead for a long time. - From here on, please don't film. Don't film the hospital.
If you film, the regime will see the image and will come and bombard him. Their location must be kept secret. Bombing a hospital is considered a war crime under international law.
The fumes of the bombing are still visible from these roofs. Yet this is where they come to play the children of this school, one of the few still active in the rebel zone. - We applaud from above.
We applaud downstairs. - Do you want to go home? - No !
The bombs don't seem to frighten his children. Not even this little girl completely traumatized, stuck to her teacher. Yet it suffered destruction total of his building.
Shihab is the last teacher to have the courage to teach. On the benches, there are fewer fewer people coming to sit down. All lessons are done in songs.
Arabic, calculation or drawing. - Do you understand what is happening in Aleppo? - Yes.
There is a lot of destruction and disasters. - And what do you feel? when there is a bombing?
- Fear and also horror. The teacher does everything to make them forget the war. - I can only talk about my school.
Children are very aware of what is happening here. I didn't tell them anything about the bombings, of the Revolution or Bashar. I'm just here for the kids to stay children and keep them smiling.
For me, the best way, is to teach them singing and drawing, so that they don't lose what they already know. - Sing with us for our childhood! Children around the world, sing with us!
Sing with us, for the children of war. A few days later, we find Zachariah. He has a meeting with Salaheddine fighters.
Despite the risks, he preferred to take his car. To accompany him, he chose a friend. - After the building, there is a sniper there!
Look on the wall there. He knows the neighborhood perfectly. and especially the sniper crossroads.
On this iron curtain, someone even indicated the position of the sniper. Now we have to walk to go to the appointment. By car, it's impossible to achieve this because of the snipers.
At every intersection, you have to run, bend down, make as little noise as possible. One wrong step and we can meet again face to face with the regime's army. Zacharia is not a journalist, but it stores a maximum of images and testimonies on the Aleppo war.
Maybe one day, they will serve as proof, if a criminal court judges the massacres perpetrated. - Behind it is the main avenue of the district. It is in the hands of Bashar's army.
A few meters from here. - You know, the building across the street was full of regime soldiers, and yesterday with an Islamist brigade, we blew everything up. There were deaths and injuries.
But Bachar's guys gave up their weapons and ran away. The place is too dangerous. We can't stay.
To join Zachariah's friends, we have to turn around and take another path. In this area, buildings have changed hands several times. Just a few days ago, the soldiers of the regime occupied this apartment.
At this moment, only one street separates us from the government zone, and for the first time of our stay, we can see life on the other side. This incredible proximity allows Ahmed and his friends, to know very well their enemies across the way. At first glance, no danger in sight.
Then suddenly, we guess a soldier of the regime. He's hidden in this apartment less than 100 meters. And there begins a funny dialogue.
- Soldier ! - You see it ? - What's your name ?
What are you saying ? My friend ! Cross the street !
No one will do anything to you. But not now ! The night.
I will come to find you. - Tell him we won't hurt him. - At night, I tell you.
I will come to find you. The soldier's only response is a barely perceptible insult. It's obvious.
The shooter across the street doesn't want to desert. Ahmed is starting to lose patience. - I swear, I'm going to kill you.
Today ! - Bashar! You are the king of donkeys!
- Freedom, freedom, we want freedom. This soldier did not desert, but the Syrian army counts a lot of defections in its ranks. Pro-Bashar televisions never talk about it.
They prefer to dwell on progress of the regime in the neighborhoods of Aleppo. - Everything we know, it's that the government army had 200,000 soldiers before the conflict. There would be none left only half today.
17,000 were killed in the fighting. But what happened to the others? Many are undoubtedly gone to rebellion, sometimes in mysterious conditions.
This cat that we pass by chance on a city street, was delivered to the katiba of this district. But the rebels never found the driver. Last day before our departure.
The balance of power has not really changed. Some new DCAs are roaming the streets to counter air attacks, but the men of Bashar al-Assad firmly hold the citadel. In the streets, the rebellion is still fighting with unsuitable weapons.
In these conditions, it is not surprising that fundamentalist Islamists are gaining ground. This is the case of the Islam brigade. - Our goal is to sow fear, to terrify the regime’s soldiers.
When we shout “Allah Akbar” to them, they are scared. So you imagine when they hear our rockets falling on them? Everything is different in operation of this brigade.
They have more money, their material is better and their more precise objectives. Discipline too is much stricter. This is the first time that we observe combatants on duty, patient and attentive.
Nothing to do with the militia that we have encountered so far. The leader of this katiba explain to us, that there is no difference with the rebels of the Free Syrian Army, nor on the military level, nor on the place of Islam. - When the free army rose up, it was to repel oppression.
We are the same. We love moderate Muslims. Islam which is not strict, Islam which believes in the individual and his freedom.
We are not saying that there is Islamists and non-Islamists. We simply say that there are practitioners, and others who are even more practicing. A rehearsed and measured speech so as not to frighten the West.
Yet. . .
As we leave, we come across a of their comrades in combat. This man belongs to the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. April 26, 2013.
We are leaving this town apparently abandoned by everyone. Here the battle has been going on for almost a year. Aleppo still hesitates between life and death.
