After a Suspected Chemical Attack, a Syrian Tells His Story

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2018

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The United States says that the suspected chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Douma, Syria, this month was part of a military push by President Bashar al-Assad’s government to break the will of the people still living there. One of them tells his story. Guest: Mahmoud Bwedany, who grew up in Douma and was there when Syrian forces attacked this month. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the New York Times on Michael Barbarrow, this is the Daily.
0:09.2	Today, the US says that the suspected chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Duma earlier this month
0:17.9	was part of a military push by the Syrian government to break the will of the people still living there.
0:25.6	We speak to one of them.
0:32.6	It's Monday, April 23rd.
0:35.6	The first responders and the firefighters can't get to the fires around the area because of the heavy shunning.
0:49.6	It's very dangerous to roam around in the streets.
1:19.6	The Russians and the Russian warplanes, the regime's extracts. The shunning has been stopped since it's been going for about 24 hours.
1:31.6	I don't think that the situation with the actual mixer is getting out there. This is a big problem.
1:49.6	Mark Mood Woodwani grew up in Duma. Two weeks ago, when government forces moved to retake the city, Mark Mood was there.
1:59.6	At that time, the regime was launching a very strong assault and heavy shunning on Duma City.
2:08.6	The air strikes and artillery landed guard escalated gradually. My house got hit. My house got hit by the land missile.
2:20.6	We heard the noise and the building got shot for a second or something.
2:26.6	What was it like when your house was hit with this missile? Did you hear it coming? How much warning did you have?
2:34.6	No, no time. We were in the basement, like I said. The missile hit just three floors above us, if that makes sense.
2:46.6	We tried to put out the fire, but we were helpless. We didn't do anything. We tried to control the fire and to have it in one room or something.
2:58.6	When a fire starts, there is no fire fighters to put it out. It spread to other areas, nearby apartments and such things.
3:11.6	At that night, I was standing on the rubble of my own house. It was burned down that night.
3:18.6	When I went out of the basement, I saw a big amount of destruction. Something we would not have imagined.
3:30.6	Connections would get off the city by the regime. I was afraid that we might be slaughtered without anyone knowing what's happening.
3:40.6	I started recording the destruction and the fire that were around me.
3:52.6	People are bombing water manually. Moving on the streets now is very dangerous.
	...

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