Syrian Civilians Live In Fear Of U.S. Missile Attacks

Xinhua News Agency
September 5, 2013

Syrian civilians coping with fear of possible U.S. strike

DAMASCUS: Over the past two years, Syrians lived with daily mortar attacks by rebels. Now, they have to cope with a new fear: Tomahawk missiles likely to be launched by the United States.

As the U.S. Obama administration was garnering support for a planned military strike against the Arab country, Syrian civilians, torn between “war” and “no war” speculations, are struggling to carry on with daily lives.

The streets of Damascus, the Syrian capital, are packed on Wednesday as any other day, as people are walking down the streets, talking and chatting as if nothing is wrong in their country.

They even have become accustomed to the noises of shelling reverberating from a distance, not blinking or even turning when a big boom rattles the atmosphere.

“The rockets that would strike from America are not different than those fired by the rebels on us every day,” said Akram al-Orduni, a resident in Damascus.

On Wednesday, a taekwondo player in the Syrian National Team of Taekwondo was killed and seven other people were wounded when two mortar shells struck the Faiha Sport City in the heart of Damascus.

For many Syrians, the memories of their beloved ones being killed in indiscriminate attacks by rebels have scarred them for life. Some began to wonder: maybe it is either dying of a rebels’ mortar shell or of a U.S. Tomahawk missile.

Sadly, if they have to choose, dealing with daily mortar attacks would surely be “much easier” than surviving America’s Tomahawk attack.

“We hope there would be no strike on Syria, because the situation in Syria is already so tense; and we are looking for a political solution to the crisis, not a military strike,” Bassem Sabban, a shopkeeper in a Damascus marketplace, told Xinhua.

With the looming of a West’s strike to “punish” the administration of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over allegations of nerve gas attacks by his troops near Damascus, residents in the war-torn city defiantly said they were not afraid of any possible war launched by the United States and its allies.

“Definitely, there is no fear at all,” Mazenah Zarifa, a 40- year-old Damascene woman, told Xinhua at the Muhafaza Square in Damascus. “Personally, I don’t think there will be any military strike.”

Another Damascus resident, Ala’a Hassoun, agreed with Zarif, saying that “we live our lives normally…we go to work and stroll around fearlessly.”

“America talks and threatens only, but it knows that it’s incapable of doing anything to Syria. Even if the U.S. strikes us, we would continue to live our normal lives,” he continued.

While a large portion of the Syrians defiantly dismiss the potential war with the U.S., some Damascenes are worried that the war would occur but hope that somehow the country could avoid it.

Akram al-Orduni, a Damascus resident, told Xinhua that he was sure the strike would take place for “they (referring to the West and their allies) haven’t made all of these preparations and paid billions of dollars in vain…”

“May God protect us,” al-Orduni said. “We will not be afraid.”