Vanessa BeeleyMay 15, 2017 at 8:40 AM
The courageous Colonel Samir talks to myself and Patrick Henningsen on the outskirts of Palmyra. Syrian helicopters were circling the area while we were travelling, combing the desert for DAESH terrorists. The SAA had pushed the US supported group back to a 15/20km perimeter circling the ancient, heritage site, but not before these destroyers had reduced more of the ancient temple and amphitheatre to rubble and conducted further atrocities/executions.
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Transcript by Rawan R. Mahmasa
Patrick Henningsen:
Our Colonel Samir, in his opinion, does he believe it’s possible that so many ISIS soldiers and vehicles could come from Der Ezzor while the US was in control of the skies , flying and has surveillance and satellites, does he think it’s possible ISIS could have done this without the US stopping them, they’re fighting ISIS, the US?
Colonel Samir:
No, it’s impossible that they could come to here without any help from the Americans or the coalition which they leaded it, because of all these expensive vehicles, because of all of these advance communication between them, they took all the information from them, that’s why they could come to here.
Patrick Henningsen:
What does he think, in his opinion, as a military person, when the US says, or the UK, or France says they’re fighting ISIS, they’ve said, they’ve been fighting ISIS since 2014, how does he feel about this when he hears, you know, generals or politicians in Washington claiming this?
Colonel Samir:
He said that the Americans announce that they kill civilians in Der Ezzor or in Al Raqqa, so they kill civilians in media all the time they say that ok we killed this guy and we killed the other leader but it’s nothing, we see nothing except when they are talking about it on TV and this is something, ok, we don’t know, but we saw on Youtube some videos show us that America sent food and something from air to ISIS in Der Ezzor.
Patrick Henningsen:
And in his opinion, so, from what he’s seen, ISIS, the majority from other countries, what other countries, did they learn that ISIS fighters come from, more than, many countries, did they learn that ISIS fighters aren’t only from Syria but from other countries?
Colonel Samir:
He says, from of them of course, are Syrians, they are from here from Syria, but the majority are from outside Syria, from Turkey from Saudi Arabia, from Malysia, from everywhere even we found in the dead bodies people from the UK or from France, but the majority, the leaders of course, are from outside Syria, they aren’t Syrians. Even now, the Tunisian authorities announced that there’s almost 4000 Jihadists here from Tunisia, they came to here, to Syria. He said this is the Tunisian government, they are the one who announced the number.
Patrick Henningsen:
And so in his opinion, in terms of what needs to happen for ISIS to be finally defeated, what are the important things that need to happen?
Colonel Samir:
When all these countries, all the international countries sit together and have an agreement to stop supporting this rebels, of course everything’s going to finish here in Syria.
Patrick Henningsen:
And does he see a difference between ISIS and Jabhat Al Nusra, Ahrar Al Sham, in his view, in the military view, is there any difference?
All of them have the same target, even them, they don’t know what they want here in Syria, they are coming here just to kill, destroy and threat people, they just want to spread their ideology and that’s it!
Patrick Henningsen:
And does he think that money is a big thing, that’s driving these people?
Colonel Samir:
Yes, money tempts them to come to here but it’s not the only reason because some of them come to here just because they have this wrong kind of religion, they want to come to here to anything… and others they come to here only for sex, if you read about it this sex stuff (Jihad al Nekah) so everyone has a different reason, not only money.
Patrick Henningsen:
And, our last thing, if he had a message Arab advice to the American or to Donald Trump, or to Americans, what would that be?
Colonel Samir:
He has to know the real terrorist, he has to know who he supposed to support, he’s supporting now Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi Arabia was involved in 11 September (9/11) what’s happened in 11 Septembers, so he has just to know who is dealing with.
Vanessa Beeley:
How did he feel, as a soldier as a colonel, when the US Coalition bombed the soldiers in Der Ezzor?
Of course, I was very annoyed, I mean it’s not an easy thing to me as a military guy, but ok, all the time when the Syrian army advance in any places immediately America did something just to stop our victory.
Shukran, thank you!
