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| Raed Fares |
Raed Fares became one of the few Syrian activists I had the opportunity to meet in the flesh. I meant him almost five years ago when he came to Los Angeles in December 2013
Al Jazeera has this report:
'Immense loss for Syria': Gunmen kill Idlib activist Raed Fares
Raed Fares, who heads Kafranbel-based Radio Fresh and survived a 2014 ISIL shooting, dies in gun attack, reports say.
Gunmen in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province have killed Raed Fares, a prominent activist who ran an independent radio station in the country's last opposition stronghold.
Raed Fares gained prominence with protest banners that drew international attention on social media [File: Raed Fares via Reuters]
Fares was shot on Friday along with his colleague Hamoud Juneid in the town of Kafranbel, according to their Radio Fresh station.
Fares and Juneid were "shot dead by unknown assailants riding a van in Kafranbel", Fresh FM, which provides independent news and satirises both President Bashar al-Assad and opposition groups, said in a post on Facebook.
Salman, a 33-year-old mathematics teacher, who witnessed the attack, told the Middle East Eye website that attackers in a van driving "at high speed ... fired shots from a machine gun, before speeding away".
Juneid died during the attack while Fares died of his wounds at the Orient Hospital, Middle East Eye reported. More...
This section is reprinted from our 15 December 2013 post on Raed Fares and Kafranbel
The fortitude & courage of revolutionaries .. From Kafranbel OccupiedLiberated Kafranbel The Little Syrian Town That Could
A town in northwestern Syria has become the creative center of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. Since the beginning of the uprising, the residents of Kafr Anbel have drawn signs that skewer the Assad regime and express outrage that the world has not done more to stop the killing in Syria.
This type of defiance and courage is what will ultimately destroy Assad and his tyrannical regime. Heroes are people that are pushed to the point that they have nothing to live for in their current situation and decide that to die trying, is far more superior than to live "dead".
Raed Fares, an activist in Kafranbel, explained that the town's residents chose to draw in English, rather than Arabic, explicitly to reach an international audience. "It's very important to send our message to all the world," he said. "And English is the public language."
And here's to hoping that this little website will help you guys reach your messages to that greater audience. Keep it up!
This is how the international community reacted to the genocide commited by Assad against the Syrian people
Please join this protest in #London against mother Agnes: https://t.co/ybsFL7fIwd http://t.co/kIUDLL6A4k
— Kafranbel Enlglish (@kafrev) November 16, 2013
From EAWorldView on 8, Aug 2012:
Yesterday we posted reports that Kafranbel, a town in Idlib made famous for its witty protest signs made in English, was under heavy attack by regime forces (map). At the end of the day, there was little news beyond the report that many shells had fallen and many civilians were injured.
Kafranbel's protest today http://t.co/22Su5WHS #Idlib #Syria Kafranbel's artist making today's sign: pic.twitter.com/wnl23QQR
— (@HamaEcho) July 6, 2012
The spirit of Kafranbel:
In Kafranbel, in rebel-held Idlib province, I met Abu Yusuf, who had been a policeman for 26 years. His words voice a sentiment shared by the Syrian mainstream: "I don't fast in Ramadan. I pray when my mind isn't busy. I'm a Muslim, but my first religion is humanity. I don't care about the religion of the president. But I'll fight to the death to not be ruled by a murderer."
Link to hundreds of signs, protests and artwork from Kafranbel.
Long Live The Syrian Revolution
Syria is the Paris Commune of the 21st Century!
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