ARIHA, Syria — In a bombed-out building in
northwest Syria, rescue workers who for years have braved
Russia’s war strategies
film a tutorial video for Ukrainian volunteers crammed with tips gained from
first-hand experience of treating casualties.
اضافة اعلان
Using a dummy, members of
Syria’s “White Helmets”
civil defense force demonstrate how to apply bandages and tourniquets in a clip
shot in the rebel-held town of Ariha in Idlib province where Russian airstrikes
are relatively routine.
The video which offers a range of other rescue
initiatives is the latest example of how Syrians are mobilizing to share with
Ukrainians bitter knowledge gleaned from more than a decade of war involving
Russian forces.
“As first responders, we believe that we can share
our experiences in Syria with humanitarian aid workers in Ukraine,” volunteer
rescuer Ismail Al-Abdullah tells the camera in English, battered buildings
dotting the street behind him.
Abdullah said that the alleged targeting of schools,
hospitals, and humanitarian workers by Russia in Ukraine is “sadly too familiar
to us”, after years of similar horrors.
In the video, Abdullah warns Ukrainian rescuers
against “double strikes” in which an initial raid is followed by a second
attack that hits after rescuers have gathered at the scene.
Speaking to AFP, Abdullah said the aim of the
initiative is to produce tutorials that will be translated into Ukranian and
uploaded on the White Helmets’ website.
The content is intended to help rescuers and
civilians in Ukraine deal with Russia’s bombardment strategy which it developed
during Syria’s war.
“We are offering this advice so that Ukranian
rescuers avoid ... casualties,” whether among civilians or first responders
during rescue missions, he said.
Russia entered
Syria’s civil war in 2015 on the side
of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, allowing Damascus to clock up turnaround
victories in the decade-long conflict.
From besieging cities to shelling civilian
infrastructure and arranging so-called “humanitarian corridors”, the strategies
Moscow has fine-tuned in Syria are now being deployed in Ukraine.
Abdullah advised Ukraine’s rescue workers to document
their work using GoPro cameras “to safeguard credibility” and shield themselves
from smear campaigns that have previously been used to undermine Syria’s first
responders.
Syrian medical student Mohamed Haj Musa, who also
appears in the tutorial video, said he hopes the advice will help Ukraine’s
people “deal with injuries they could see at any moment”.
“We lived the experience and saw the victims,” Haj Musa told
AFP, hoping that his experience could help other first responders “save lives”.
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