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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

After filming IS horrors, Raqa activists become war reporters

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Maya Gebeily - They honed their media skills secretly filming IS group beheadings in Raqa. ugg bailey bow for sale Now, these Syrian activists have become impromptu war reporters, covering the US-backed assault on their city from the ground. “If the crack is sharp and the column of smoke goes straight up, it’s an air strike,” says Syrian activist Tim Ramadan. Every night, Ramadan discreetly turns on his Internet satellite service, uploads his daily records from the battle-torn city to Europe-based colleagues at the ‘Sound and Picture’ collective, then immediately deletes the messages. Media networks, including Sound and Picture, are providing a rare window into life in Raqa, ravaged by fighting. They write stories on what it’s like for civilians to scavenge for food and water, publish footage of air strikes, and commemorate civilians killed in fighting. ugg australia Activists like him once focused on documenting the atrocities of IS’s reign over the city. adidas yeezy boost But the assault on Raqa changed all that. air max pas cher “We used to be afraid of being arrested (by IS) if we went out in the street. new balance chaussures Now we’re afraid of going outside in case an artillery shell hits us,” says Ramadan. Since Syria’s uprising began in 2011, citizen journalists have used cell phones and social media to document protests and violations by armed forces. cheap air jordan They adapted the same tools to document IS atrocities after it captured Raqa in 2014. When coalition air strikes on Raqa began in 2014, the city’s activists started to document those too. But the activists say the real change in their work came when the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) entered the city, prompting clashes that brought rampant power cuts and made moving around much more difficult. asics tiger “IS has actually lifted some of its restrictions on people because it’s busy with clashes,” says 21-year-old Mazen Hassoun, who manages news outlet Raqqa Post from Germany. Mohammad al Khaled, who heads the Raqqa24 media collective from northern Syria, warned his correspondents he had seen how brutally IS responded to other US-backed assaults. cheap jordans uk for sale “I told them Daesh would be more evil towards civilians, that they would use them and their families as human shields if they stayed,” Khaled says.


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