Days of the Fall

DAYS OF THE FALL Days of the Fall takes the reader into the heart of the terrible wars in Syria and Iraq. The book combines frontline reporting with analysis of the deeper causes and effects of the conflict. Over five years, Jonathan Spyer reported from the depths of the wars, spending time in Aleppo, Baghdad, Damascus, Mosul, Idlib, Hasaka and other frontline areas. He witnessed some of the most dramatic events of the conflict – the rescue of the trapped Yezidis from the attempted ISIS genocide in 2014, the Assad regime’s assault on Aleppo, the rise of independent Kurdish power in north east Syria, and the emergence of the Shia militias in Iraq as a key force. The book depicts these events, and seeks to place them within a broader framework. The author notes the ethnic and sectarian faultlines in both Syria and Iraq, and contends that both countries have now effectively separated along these lines, leading to the emergence of de facto fragmentation and the birth of a number of new entities. The book also notes that this confused space has now become an arena for proxy conflict between regional and global powers. Containing interviews with key figures from all sides of the conflict, such as the Shia militias in Iraq, and even ISIS members, Days of the Fall serves as an invaluable and comprehensive guide to the complex dynamics and the tragic human impact of the wars. Jonathan Spyer is a journalist and researcher. He is originally from the UK and has lived in Jerusalem, Israel, since 1991. His research focuses on the Levant, and he has covered events in Syria extensively over the last decade. DAYS OF THE FALL A Reporter’s Journey in the Syria and Iraq Wars Jonathan Spyer First published 2018 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Taylor & Francis The right of Jonathan Spyer to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Spyer, Jonathan, author. Title: Days of the fall: a reporter’s journey in the Syria and Iraq wars / Jonathan Spyer. Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017033561| ISBN 9781138560413 (hbk) | ISBN 9781138561205 (pbk) | ISBN 9780203710982 (ebk) Subjects: LCSH: Syria–History–Civil War, 2011- | Syria–Ethnic relations. | Iraq War, 2003-2011. | Iraq–Ethnic relations. Classification: LCC DS98.6 .S69 2018 | DDC 956.9104/23–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017033561 ISBN: 978-1-138-56041-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-56120-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-71098-2 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Cenveo Publisher Services For Janice Spyer CONTENTS List of Abbreviations viii Preface ix Acknowledgements xi 1 Birth of an Insurgency 1 2 The Battle for Aleppo 19 3 Rojava: The Kurds Alone 35 4 The Siege of Kobani: Interviewing ISIS 55 5 Black Summer, 2014 70 6 A YPG Volunteer 89 7 Uncovering ISIS’s Use of Chemical Weapons 98 8 With the Shia Militias in Iraq 102 9 The Ghosts of Shorja Market 118 10 Wasteland: Northern Syria, Winter 2015 123 11 The Rebellion at Twilight 139 12 Before Mosul 147 13 In the Ruined City 154 14 Undercover in Damascus 161 Afterword 181 Index 184 ABBREVIATIONS AFP Agence France-Presse CW chemical weapons Da’esh ISIS FSA Free Syrian Army GID General Intelligence Directorate IDF Israeli Defense Forces ISIS Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ISOF Iraqi Special Operations Forces (also CTS) KDP Kurdish Democratic Party KRG Kurdish Regional Government PKK Kurdish Workers’ Party PYD Democratic Union Party (Syria) RPG rocket-propelled grenade SAA Syrian Arab Army SCIRI Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq SSNP Syrian Social Nationalist Party YPG People’s Protection Units YPJ Women’s Protection Units PREFACE The following is a record of a number of reporting trips into Syria and Iraq during the period of civil war in those countries. My intention is to depict and describe the process in which the war in Syria metamorphosed, from an uprising against a brutal dictatorship into a many-sided sectarian conflict. This in turn led to the effective demise of the Syrian and to a lesser extent the Iraqi state, and the overflowing of the war into neighboring Lebanon and Turkey. The war became a front in a larger geo- strategic conflict pitting Shia Iran against its Sunni opponents, and drawing in Russia and the US. This was a war for the future of the Middle East, with implica- tions of global importance. It was also a local conflict, or series of conflicts, which tore at the fabric of the societies in which it took place. The Syrian civil war offered a uniquely challenging environment for journalists seeking to report on it, and this account seeks also to convey some of the difficulties and rewards experienced by those of us who covered it. First Assad, then ISIS sought to impose silence on the areas in which they were conducting their murders. There was a human duty to oppose this. Many who were part of this effort paid a very high cost. This too deserves to be documented. I am not a Syrian, nor a participant in the war. Only an observer. The war in Syria was not my first experience of armed confrontation. I have covered conflicts in Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Ukraine as a journalist, and I fought in the 2006 Israel–Hizballah war as an IDF soldier. The Syrian war, however, was of a different order of magnitude. Those of us who covered it were witnesses to the opening up of a process which has kickstarted the greatest wave of change to hit the Levant and Mesopotamia since the end of the Ottoman Empire. It is a process in which well-established states are ceasing to be, while putative successor entities, usually organized on an ethnic or sectarian basis, make bloody war against one another over the ruins. This process has consumed many lives and x Preface transformed many others. It has rocked the established order in the Middle East on its axis. Some of the people depicted herein I now know to be dead. There are others whose fate is not known to me. What will remain and precisely how it will all end is not yet clear. This is only the most preliminary of sketches. Some western journalists had dreadful experiences in Syria, in which they encountered the human potential for cruelty at its most stark and ugly. My own experience was more mixed. I did indeed see much which reflected the very worst of human possibility. But I also benefitted, learned from and was fascinated by my encounters with many of the people that the reader will encounter in this story – among them Lieutenant Bilal Khabir of Assad’s airborne troops and the Free Syrian Army; Jamshid Osman of the YPG militia; the Kurdish activist Zuzan from the city of Qamishli; Muhya Din al-Qabbani, rebel organizer from Binnish; Mahmoud Mousa, teacher, refugee and oppositionist from Jisr al-Shughur; Zaher Said, opposi- tion militant from Latakia; and Zilan, a YPJ commander in the Yarubiya area. All these people are participants in the “fall” of the title – the fall being the crum- bling of the countries in which they thought they lived, and perhaps some deeper fall into an abyss of violence and cruelty that lurks always not far beneath the sur- faces of everyday life. They became soldiers, metaphorically or in reality, in the wars that erupted following the sudden collapse of the long, sclerotic and suffocating regional order. The wars were the conflicts of succession that followed this collapse. I was inspired by all these people and am trying to the best of my ability to convey some of their story, in what follows. Also I remember the little refugee girl who I met among the refugees at Bab al-Salameh in the summer of 2012, whose life was taken by a regime barrel bomb, whose name I do not know, who symbolizes for me the sadness and loss at the heart of all this, and to whom I dedicate this work. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The reporting trips described herein could not have been undertaken without the vital assistance and involvement of a considerable number of individuals. The wars in Syria and Iraq are not yet concluded. For this and other reasons, I am not able to name all of them. Among those who I am able to name, and to whom I express the most profound gratitude, are: David McAvoy, Zach Daniel Huff, Sherzad Mamsani, Mohammed Ibrahim, Perwer Mohammed Ali, Rodi Hevian, Rozhda S and Rawand Darwesh. In addition, I would like to thank a number of editors and publications whose commissioning of articles enabled me to support myself while working in the relevant countries.

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