The circumstances that surrounded Abu Bahr, who hails from the coastal town of Jableh, have made him hate the Syrian regime. He participated in the demonstrations that erupted in Jableh, yet the protests did not move along at the pace that he wished. So three years ago, he decided to pack his bags and travel to Homs to participate in the revolution in any way he could. “I felt an indescribable terror when I arrived in Homs,” he said to Al-Hayat, “The first scene I saw in Homs was a soldier turning his machine gun toward the shops and shooting randomly. That was something new and scary to us, and I tried to hide and escape until I ended up in al-Bayada.”

Abu Bahr, as he likes to be called, is a chapter in this tragedy. He is 24 years old, but the years of hunger and death make him look much older. “Hunger, smoke and cowardice will eventually cause Homs’ downfall.” With these words, his discussion about the three-year journey started.

Two years is the age of a siege that made the people of Homs taste the ravages of war that they did not read about in books nor watch in war movies.

Nearly two years. It’s not the age of a child born in a destroyed town, nor the anniversary of the martyrdom of the finest young men in a country that called for freedom.

Despite the years that passed, he still remembers many details about that day, including the date, the hour, names and neighborhoods. Since that moment, he “declared his allegiance to the city of Homs,” he said. The fact that he was from Jableh did not stop him from being part of the military work in Homs.

Abu Bahr joined the direct armed action by joining a group of less than 10 members. Over the past three years, all have been killed except for Abu Bahr and one other person. He participated in the Bayada events and was part of the Khalidiya fronts. He witnessed the latter’s fall and contributed to arresting the spy who caused the loss of Khalidiya. Like many others, he handled some weapons for the first time.

Abu Bahr lived through various humanitarian situations; one of them was in the Khalidiya neighborhood. He told Al-Hayat that he and his friends were forced to walk through a sewage tunnel for no less than seven hours, from Khalidiya to al-Haswiya, an area in the Homs countryside. They used the sewage line to transfer food, diesel fuel and ammunition, but as soon as the regime detected this route, it closed it with metal wires and cement.

Abu Bahr continuously mentions Khalidiya in his interview. Losing it was the cause of the siege of Old Homs. The rebels could not initially assess the difficult circumstances of the siege, because they used to receive food and ammunition through Ghouta.

Many families fled the area before the siege, which started in June 2012. Those who stayed behind left after UN mediation, whereby the liberated zone became a purely military zone except for a few families that stayed behind to remain with their children who are fighting with the rebels.

The UN brought in a small shipment of food. “Each person’s share was half a cup of rice, half a cup of bulgur wheat and a half cup of lentils. A can of beans was shared by three people, while a package of spaghetti was shared by four. That was the only time that we received food from outside the siege,” said Abu Bahr.

A dish of herbs with spices

“We have become experts in the types of herbs. After boiling them, we add oil and all kinds of spices,” is how Abu Bahr described the hunger situation. Cooking herbs caused them many problems. Some died of poisoning after they ate toxic herb species, while some had bouts of hallucination that lasted 24 hours, during which they imagined things and people.

Not all battalions ate herbs because some had food and cereal. But every battalion gave what it had to its members, regardless of the situation of other fighters. According to Abu Bahr, that created “hatred among the battalions, which then didn’t support each other in armed operations.”

Abu Bahr mentioned an extremely high price for tobacco in the besieged city: the price of a kilo of Arab tobacco is 3 million Syrian pounds [$20,000]. Cigarettes are broken up and their tobacco split into two cigarettes, each of which costs 10,000 Syrian pounds [$67]. He added that cigarettes are more important than dollars, and that the people in Homs follow the daily price of a gram of tobacco as it rises and falls.

No ISIS, only Jabhat al-Nusra

Jabhat al-Nusra formed in Homs after the siege due to religious motivation. It had no immigrant fighters, unlike [Jabhat al-Nusra branches in] other areas of Syria. Some fighters from Homs formed a battalion named Jabhat al-Nusra, in admiration of what the group had done elsewhere in Syria. But they received no funding or support, according to Abu Bahr. He added, “They didn’t take any actions in the name of religion, such as impose the veil or ban smoking.”

To be under siege without food and with little ammunition is not easy. Death surrounds you everywhere. But despite all that, the fighters stood fast for more than two years. According to Abu Bahr, “We draw our strength from the fact that we know the neighborhoods and their details better than the regime.” He also said that some draw strength from religious motivation, by seeking either victory or martyrdom.

A ticket out of Homs for 75,000 Syrian pounds

Abu Bahr, who spent the last three years in Homs, found it difficult to leave. But his deteriorating health forced him to leave. Leaving besieged Homs was not difficult. He paid 75,000 Syrian pounds [$505] to a Syrian army officer who secured him an exit.

His trip to Turkey lasted nearly two weeks, during which he passed through Ghouta and the Homs countryside, reaching Mayadin in Deir el-Zour. There, Abu Bahr felt truly terrified at the ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham] checkpoints; he could be killed just by his ID card being checked. He is from Jableh, a town with many Alawites.

To reach safety in Turkey, he had to pass through mainly regime checkpoints, ISIS checkpoints and Kurdish checkpoints.