With 12,000 civilians left, Moadamiyah is unique among opposition-friendly towns in Syria in that it's completely surrounded by the regime's divisions. According to Qusai Zakarya, a rebel spokesman in the town, the regime cut all humanitarian supplies to Moadamiyah ten or eleventh months ago, and local stores ran out in March. So the people have had to rely mainly on the largesse of Syrians living in the countryside who ran basic staples into the town - and by "ran," I mean they drove by it on the Damascus-Quneitra highway and tossed grocery bags from their moving cars in the general direction of Moadamiyah, which then had to be retrieved by the inhabitants, sometimes at great risk. Water pipes into Moadamiyah, he said, had also been "blocked" or destroyed by the regime, leaving residents to rely on a single unreliable source of hydration.
Apparently the journalist in question has either not been to many of Earth's hell-holes, or he's still early in his career and he's eager to put into practice all the save-the-world muck they've jammed between his ears in J-school. Or, he's on someone's payroll. Anyway, it was fun editing it to read like a real reporter's article. |