Syria 1st-Hand: The Making of an Insurgent --- The Story of Abboud Barri (Abouzeid)
Thursday, September 6, 2012 at 7:49 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Free Syrian Army fighters with destroyed armour of the Syrian military in Jabal al-Zawiya, August 2012
Some of the men laugh as they recount some of Abboud Barri’s wilder antics, like the time he set out on an extremely perilous but heroic journey to the besieged town of Rastan, halfway between Homs and Hama, to deliver much needed bags required for blood transfusions. Others recall how Abu Rabieh, a respected revolutionary figure in Idlib province, refused to give Barri a gun, fearing what the former agricultural worker might do with it. Abu Rabieh was shot dead late last year in an ambush. A few months later, Barri formed a military unit, which he now says includes some 58 men. “He was always a risk taker,” one of the men later says about Barri. “In the beginning of the revolution, before there was so much destruction, we didn’t want hot-blooded risk takers who didn’t carefully study their actions. Now it doesn’t matter.”