Radio Fresh gave voice to revolution. But Syria's relentless civil war has left it silent.
The news broadcast finished and Salah Abed began to dismantle the equipment: There would be no other broadcast that evening — and maybe never again — from the Radio Fresh station in the Syrian town of Kafranbel.
“We counted 25 airstrikes that day alone. Dozens of rockets, dozens of mortars, dozens of artillery… we knew it was our last day,” Abed said in a phone interview.As the Syrian civil war approaches its ninth year, Assad, having subdued or pushed out the rebels from other parts of the country, has turned his sights to Idlib. Since December, a withering government offensive has clawed back dozens of towns and villages in the rebel-held province.
A poster from anti-government activists in Kafranbel depicting Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin. But the trajectory of the war, with Russia deploying its military in support of Assad in 2015 and other world powers unwilling to continue backing the rebels, had put the opposition on the back foot, even as it empowered its most extreme elements.
“Raed wasn’t just a person. He represented the revolutionary principles we had all agreed upon, for which we were ready to sacrifice ourselves,” Klido said. “There was fear of being assassinated, of being bombed and shelled — but that doesn’t mean we were backing down.”Less than a year later, Damascus, losing patience with Turkey, renewed its campaign to recapture parts of Idlib and take the M4 and M5, two strategic highways meant to be opened during the cease-fire.
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