Despite destruction and booby-traps, al-Bab back to life

Despite destruction and booby-traps, al-Bab back to life
The Syrian city of al-Bab, recently liberated from the hands of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), does not look like any similar area that has been liberated from the terrorist organization by Euphrates Shield forces backed by Turkey. The streets are different. Rubble and dust are everywhere. The silence of empty houses is disturbed, every now and then, by explosions of the booby traps left to kill as many as possible from the new comers.

On February 23rd, Euphrates Shield forces announced full control over al-Bab city, which had been under the control of ISIS for three years. The organization wreaked destruction on the city, displacing most of its residents, imposing its own “laws,” and carried out summary executions against the city’s inhabitants. Having inflicted such woes on al-Bab, the organization turned it to one of its biggest strongholds in northeastern Syria within one year.

This cast its shadows on the city and the civilians inside, as the US-led coalition warplanes started bombardment. Most of the city’s residential areas have been levelled to the ground because of that. When Euphrates Shield forces entered, the city was in ruins.

Rapid return of residents despite destruction

As soon as the city was declared liberated, civilians started returning and started rebuilding and repairing damaged buildings. The demand became so high on construction and repair workers so that they had long lists of waiting customers.

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Abu Mahmoud, a construction worker, told Orient Net: “We had to assign numbers to customers to serve them each in his turn because of the heavy demand.”

“When, for example, a plumber or a blacksmith is requested to provide services, they give customers numbers to wait until their turn comes. This is an indicator to how the city will be in the days to come,” he said, adding that this certainly means that the city will rise.

Anyone who visits al-Bab would notice how life is sneaking bit by bit to the city’s alleys and streets. A new grocery shop or restaurant would open overnight, even if it was not there the very day before.

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Jumaa Kazkaz, a member of the Local Council of al-Bab city, spoke to Orient Net saying that percentage of the returning population ranges from 20% to 30%. The number of returning civilians is increasing by 7% percent on daily basis, he added.

Mahmoud Sabbagh, a member of the Educational Community in al-Bab told Orient Net that almost every civilian who had left the city is now returning, pointing out that the percentage of residents who left the city was 90%.

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A local council in the city

In parallel with the rapid sneaking of life to the battered al-Bab, the city’s local council, which was formed before ISIS took control, started to work, having a new structure in place, to face many difficulties starting with the issue of providing water, hundreds of booby-traps across the city’s streets, and reaching to thefts.

Kazkaz, the member of the local council, told Orient Net that the council’s top priority is to remove the rubble and debris that resulted from the shelling and bombardment and can be seen everywhere in the city.

“We have finished 60% of the work in the main roads, but the side roads are still full of debris and rubble. We will finish the remaining work in the coming days,” he said.

In regards to the living conditions, Kazkaz said that the most needed commodity is bread. A bakery was opened after liberation with a production capacity of 12 tons per day. Work is underway to rehabilitate the remaining bakeries, he added.

Kazkaz pointed out that bread shortages are being tackled by distributing about 500-1000 bread bags— each bag containing around 10-15 Syrian bread loaves.

No water

The city of al-Bab is, like other liberated towns and cities, suffers the lack of basic services, on top of which are water and power. However, in al-Bab the issue of water seems of utmost difficulty.

Mohammed Saleh, one of the city’s locals, said, speaking to Orient Net, that the city has never seen water nor power for a long time. During ISIS rule, drinking water used to be extracted from wells, or sometimes brought from al-Khafsah pumping station, which was under the organization’s control, but has been lost to Assad regime recently.

As for Kazkaz, the member of the local council, he said that the alternative solution of using wells cannot fully cater for the city’s needs and that tankers are being filled from these wells. As the city’s returning population is increasing, there will be a huge shortage in water.

Kazkaz said that there might be a Turkish role to solve this issue, especially after the governor of the Turkish province of Kilis had met with the members of al-Bab’s local council. Members of the council raised all the issues and received promises of resolving these issues from the Turkish side.

ISIS booby-traps kill dozens, no specialists to disarm

The problem of booby-traps which ISIS left in the city’s streets and houses is one of the biggest problems which the city faces currently. The number of the disarmed booby-traps reached 1700, while ten traps had exploded and killed dozens of civilians.

https://orient-news.net/news_images/17_3/1489277004.jpg'>(The writing  on the wall says: This road contains booby-traps)

ISIS terrorists had planted booby-traps everywhere. They are found in the streets and inside houses on doors in wardrobes or drawers. This made civilians pay extra attention and created a psychological barrier for those returning to their homes.

Moussa, a relative for a family which lost member because of booby-traps, told Orient Net that the disarming process in al-Bab is very slow, and that there are side roads in the city which are still closed because booby-traps are feared  to be planted there.

“A booby-trap blew up at the house of my relative’s family when they were trying to enter their house, which they fled three years ago,” he said.

For his part, Jumaa Kazkaz said that there are no specialist teams to disarm booby-traps. The traps which had been neutralized were disarmed by two young men from the city, Abu al-Leil Kahatt and Abu al-Fadhl Naasani. Neither of them is a specialist, but they have the know-how, he said.

The Turks helped to give a hand in this regard after their meeting with the city’s local council, according to Kazkaz who said that a number of international organizations visited the city aiming to resolve the problem of booby-traps, but they only took photos and left.

 Security Situation

After its liberation, the city of al-Bab witnessed dozens of theft incidents, Orient Net learnt from locals. Thefts hit both houses and shops. Thieves spared nothing, stealing even copper wires from electrical conduit pipes built in walls.

The member of the local council, Jumaa Kazkaz, said that a security institution has been formed. He also said fighters from a number of Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions will be part of the institution, adding that the security institution is endeavoring to activate the local police inside the city.

The newly-formed security institution will be headed by Mahmoud Jabali, according to Kazkaz. All entry and exit points to and fro the city have been closed in order for FSA fighters to withdraw and be replaced with local policemen.

 Schools need rehabilitation

Under the rule of ISIS, al-Bab suffered an era of ignorance deliberately imposed by the terrorist organization. Schools were completely banned and were replaced with ISIS-run mosques, where children were taught the principles of combat and the basics of handling weapons. This resulted in a generation that lacks the basics of education.

Schools buildings are damaged and it is highly unlikely to see them operational in the foreseeable future.

There are 12 damaged school buildings and they all need repairs, Ahmad Sabbagh, a member of the Educational Community of al-Bab told Orient Net.

A committee affiliated with the community visited those schools to inspect the damage despite the high possibility of finding booby-traps planted by ISIS inside.

Similar to any city which had suffered under ISIS control, al-Bab urgently needs all the help it can get in order to recover. This might require months before life gets back to normal. However, the rapid return of its locals and their immediate start with rebuilding and repairing works, were surprisingly extraordinary. This is the spark of hope which might bring the city back to normal in a record time.

ISIS had one of its main prisons in al-Bab, as the city was the organization’s biggest stronghold in northeastern Syria. But opposition fighters found the prison empty. Locals say that ISIS had transferred the detainees to Raqqaa and Maskaneh cities before leaving the city which leaves the fate of hundreds of forcibly disappeared people unknown.

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Translation: Mohammad Al-Kateb

Photos credit: Essa al-Khodr

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