Rawan: Hello Mustafa, It’s my honour to meet you and you’re most welcome. We’re here in Lattakia where you spent most of your years, right?
Mustafa: Yes. Thanks.
Rawan: I’d like to ask you a couple of questions. Can you please tell me more about you? I really want to know how your life was before you join the SAA?
Mustafa: My name’s Mustafa al-Ibrahim a wounded soldier in the SAA. My childhood life was like the life of any child, I was born in a rural community and studied and got my middle school certificate. My childhood dream was to become a soldier in the army and this is what happened. I joined the forces of the Syrian Arab Army when I was eighteen years old, and I graduated in 2010. My service was in the Security and Order Maintenance Unit in Lattakia Governorate.
Rawan: You’re originally from Idlib. Your family is still under siege in Idlib?
Mustafa: Yes. They couldn’t make it and leave the city. My family is trapped in the city of Idlib, which is controlled by terrorists and mercenaries. But my family won’t be able to go out unfortunately because the battles were the most intense.
Rawan: How does it look like to live in the city of Idlib?
There is no life in the presence of terrorists and mercenaries everywhere, where the killing and kidnapping of everyone who opposes them with the opinion or the Takfiri ideology they follow. Those who could not get out of the civilians in Idlib are now unfortunately being used as human shields by terrorists.
Rawan: Are you able to communicate with your family members?
Yes, I communicate with my family from time to time, I communicate with my mother, and I often assure her that the Syrian Arab Army is coming to liberate them from the terrorists, and she, in turn, has hope and certainty that the Syrian Arab Army and army convoys are coming to liberate them so that they can live a normal life like they used to. People there will also starve to death because of the lack of basic foodstuffs, as terrorists control everything there. The alleged foodstuffs that enter through the Turkish crossings are tools of death, not relief materials, but weapons, ammunition, and missiles, as well as mercenary terrorists. Life here is under the auspices of the state and institutions and under the protection of the Syrian Arab Army.
Rawan: Tell me Mustafa. How did the injury happen?
Mustafa: I was injured and my right foot was amputated from the middle of the knee.
Rawan: Where were you serving? And when was that?
Mustafa: I was injured eight years ago in the Al-Haffa area in the countryside of Lattakia. Since 2013, the terrorists attacked the area, surrounded the security forces, and began to enter the homes of civilians, intimidating them, and shooting randomly at civilian homes. We went to support and think of the siege on our besieged colleagues and to secure the civilians who are there.
Rawan: Can you remember the number of the terrorists who attacked you?
Mustafa: When we arrived, the clashes began with the terrorists who are everywhere and in large numbers, who came from the Turkish border and started killing, stealing and terrorizing civilians.
Rawan: That’s when you get injured?
Mustafa: During the clash, the terrorists started throwing RPGs at us. I was holed up in a cement berm. The shell hit the berm, and as a result, I was hit by shrapnel and passed out for seconds or minutes. I don’t know, but I could hear the sounds of bullets and the voices of my colleagues with weapons.
Rawan: Who was the terrorist group which attacked you there?
Mustafa: Jabhat Al Nusra (al Qaeda) and its allies.
Rawan: Who helped you and got you to the hospital?
Mustafa: My friends. They put me in a pickup car to take me later to the ambulance and from there to the hospital. I was still alive and I could hear everything that was going on around me, but I don’t see anything and I don’t know how serious my injury was. We arrived at the hospital and here it was the doctors’ turn to treat my wounds, but my feet were very damaged. The doctors tried a lot, they couldn’t do anything because it is badly damaged, so the doctors decided to amputate it after a two-week treatment. My right foot was amputated from the middle of the thigh, and the journey of treating other injuries to my left foot began for three months until I recovered well. I was certain that I would live and fulfill what I dreamed and wished for. Now I’m fine and I live my life normally and used a prosthesis. I suffered for losing my feet, but I suffer more because I will no longer be able to be with my comrades-in-arms in the Syrian army to defend my country, Syria.
Rawan: You are a hero.
Mustafa: Thanks a lot.
Rawan: Thanks again for joining me in this short interview. Would you like to say something at the end of this interview?
Musataf: Finally, I want to address the media and channels that distort the facts and say to them: President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian Arab Army defended his people from terrorism that would have entered every house and every neighborhood and would even extend to your countries and kill and destroy everyone who opposes their Takfiri ideas and affiliations. I tell you that Mr. President Bashar al-Assad, when the battle fronts and battles were fierce everywhere, there were reconciliations and compromises elsewhere. Whoever kills the people, whoever kills civilians, is the one who took up weapons in the face of the state and attacked freedom and dignity of the people.
Who kills the people are the mercenaries who were brought into Syria and provided with weapons and money and were employed to kill in the name of freedom and democracy and according to what their operators wanted..
Rawan: Thanks Mustafa, stay safe and God bless you.
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