POST PRODUCTION SCRIPT
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT
2019
The Oasis
29 mins 56 secs
©2019
ABC
Ultimo Centre
700
Harris Street Ultimo
NSW
2007 Australia
GPO
Box 9994
Sydney
NSW
2001 Australia
Phone:
:61 419 231 533
e-mail : miller.stuart@abc.net.au
Precis |
It was love at
first sight – Azad, 26. My dreams are coming true! – Bercem, 19 |
|
|
Lovestruck
couple Azad and Bercem are about to get married. They want the usual things -
kids, a nice house, a car. They’re just hoping war doesn’t get in the way. |
|
|
Azad and Bercem
live in the town of Kobanî in north eastern Syria, smack bang in the former
territory of Islamic State. Their
dream of a normal, peaceful life is shared by millions of fellow Kurds who
now lead control of this area and are carving out a bold new system – a
direct, secular democracy that enshrines gender equality. |
|
|
For Azad and
Bercem, that means getting married in a civil ceremony, no sheikh required. |
|
|
We are building
democracy, building a life we’d never dreamed of. – Azad |
|
|
In the drably
named Autonomous Administration of North Eastern Syria, women hold 50 percent
of official positions. Incredibly,
Raqqa, the once notorious capital of Islamic State, is now headed by a young
woman, Leila Mustapha. The bomber jacket-clad Mustapha is using her civil
engineering skills to rebuild the city which will include a makeover of the
square where IS displayed crucified and decapitated bodies. |
|
|
The locals
called it ‘Hell Roundabout’ because of all the brutal acts committed here. – Leila
Mustapha |
|
|
As she tours
Raqqa with reporter Yaara Bou Melhem, she does what would have been
unthinkable under ISIS: she shakes hands with men on a worksite. |
|
|
But ISIS isn’t
wholly gone. It clings to a tiny pocket of territory south of Raqqa, moving
among civilians as protection from attack, as Yaara Bou Melham discovers on a
trip to the frontline. |
|
|
The Kurdish-led
authority has some 900 ISIS foreign fighters in jail and it wants their home
countries to take them back. One prisoner tells Bou Melhem how ISIS pushed
its fighters: |
|
|
If you’re not
going to fight, you’re not going to eat. People, kids, died from starvation. – Prisoner |
|
|
ISIS is now the
least of the administration’s problems. To the west they must deal with
Syria’s Assad regime and to the north, the biggest worry, Turkey, which has
sworn to smash the Kurds when Donald Trump pulls out American troops. |
|
|
Soldier Azad and journalist
Bercem know a Turkish invasion could wreck their new life together. They will
do what they know best. |
|
|
If necessary, he will go to
war. – Bercem |
|
|
She will report the
situation and expose it to the world. – Azad |
|
Episode
teaser. GFX: Foreign Correspondent |
|
00:00 |
|
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Tonight,
on the frontline in Syria. |
00:06 |
|
“How far away is the ISIS
position?... Just about 100 metres?” |
00:09 |
|
The end of ISIS. |
00:14 |
|
“It’s just motorcycles going
past”. |
00:16 |
|
Peace is tantalisingly
close, but when it comes, can it last? |
00:18 |
GFX: foreign correspondent |
Music |
00:33 |
Qamishli
skyline |
|
00:37 |
Yaara
walking through market GFX: Reporter Yaara Bou Melhem |
|
00:47 |
Drone
shot. Market alleyway. GFX: The Oasis |
|
00:51 |
Market
GVs |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Something
surprising is happening in Syria. From
the chaos of war, an oasis of democracy has emerged, where women enjoy equal
rights and all religions are tolerated.
It’s bringing stability to an area once dominated by ISIS. |
01:00 |
Yaara
at stall selling dates |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: “Where are these dates from?” STALLHOLDER: “They’re from
Iran”. YAARA BOU MELHEM: “Is this
the tastiest one?” STALLHOLDER: “Would you like
the box?” |
01:27 |
Yaara
purchases dates |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Amid the
hustle and bustle of the Qamishli markets, you could easily forget that
conflict still stings this part of the world… almost. |
01:39 |
Market
stall selling bullets |
“Where are these from?” STALLHOLDER: “Different places”. YAARA BOU MELHEM: “How much
are the 9mm pistol cartridges?” STALL HOLDER: “We don’t sell
them to civilians”. |
01:50 |
Teashop
activity /Men play cards |
Music |
02:03 |
|
YAARA BOU MELHEM: It’s a
fragile system led by the Syrian Kurds.
|
02:15 |
GFX:
Map ISIS/Assad Regime/Turkey |
But it’s under siege from
ISIS in the south, the Syrian Assad regime to the west and Turkey to the
north. |
02:19 |
Men
playing cards |
And now, they’ve lost their
trump card. The Americans are
withdrawing troops, a vital support that’s let the burgeoning democracy take
hold. |
02:36 |
|
Music |
02:47 |
Young
men playing cards |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: But young
people here are betting on a brighter future. |
02:50 |
Yaara
into Kobanî bar to meet Bercem and Azad |
Music |
02:56 |
Yaara greets Bercem and Azad |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: In a local
hangout in the town of Kobanî, I meet a young couple in love, Bercem and
Azad. Azad Ahmed is a 26-year-old YPG fighter, a part of the Kurdish military
force that operates in this region. He
helped liberate Kobanî from ISIS four years ago. |
03:03 |
Azad
interview in bar |
AZAD AHMED: “They defeated
Syria and Iraq but our forces, the YPG, stood up to them. The will of the Kurds and the people of Kobanî
was strong enough”. |
03:25 |
Bercem |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Bercem Abd
Al Kader is a 19-year-old journalist. |
03:38 |
Bercem interview
in bar |
BERCEM ABD AL KADER:
“Getting to where we are now took a lot of sacrifice and effort. Anything
that is going to affect our lives worries us of course. But we’re not the
first or the last people who are in love whose lives could be destroyed”. |
03:42 |
Bercem and Azad
in bar/Bar GVs |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Bercem and
Azad have been together for more than two years and in typical fashion for a
young soldier and journalist, their first meeting was infused with the
politics of the region. |
04:01 |
|
AZAD AHMED: “I was at work
and I came back to Kobanî |
04:14 |
|
and I saw her for the first
time at a demonstration”. BERCEM ABD AL KADER: “On 48th
street”. AZAD AHMED: “Yes, on 48th
street. |
04:20 |
|
So we met there, and before
that through social media. When we saw each other it was… love at first
sight”. |
04:27 |
Azad
into barber's |
Music |
04:41 |
Bercem
into hairdresser's |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: The couple
are about to get married. |
04:49 |
Azad
at barber's |
“Azad it’s the big day
today, how are you feeling?” |
04:56 |
|
AZAD AHMED: “I’m a little
bit nervous and sometimes my hands are shaky. But I’m very happy, and my
happiness is overcoming my nerves”. |
05:01 |
Bercem
at hairdresser's |
BERCEM ABD AL KADER: “I’m
happy, I’m nervous. My dream will come true in a few hours”. HAIRDRESSER: “Nice. It’s the
night of your life”. |
05:14 |
Time
lapse. Bercem makeup for wedding |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: But this
union almost didn’t happen, with the threat of war always on the horizon. |
05:28 |
|
BERCEM ABD AL KADER: “The situation
is peaceful for the time being so we thought we’d get married now”. |
05:42 |
Exterior.
Bridal shop. |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: What’s
extraordinary is their union will be a civil rather than a religious
one. It’s a rare thing in a country
where Islamic law has prevailed. |
05:56 |
Bercem and Azad
into council building |
Earlier in the day, Bercem
and Azad stopped at their local council to make things official. |
06:09 |
Marriage
bureaucratic process |
Music |
06:18 |
|
YAARA BOU MELHEM: While they can avoid the strictures of
religious marriage, they can’t escape endless paperwork. |
06:20 |
|
BERCEM ABD AL KADER: “We
chose to be married in a civil union. |
06:31 |
|
Music |
06:35 |
|
BERCEM ABD AL KADER: Today the woman in the office was doing
everything. During Assad’s rule the
way they treated you was different, as if it was just a job they had to do”. |
06:42 |
Woman
issues marriage licence |
WOMAN AT COUNCIL OFFICE:
“Congratulations You are now married”. |
07:05 |
Travelling
shots |
Music |
07:10 |
|
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Civil
marriage is one of the new laws mandated by the little-known government
structure holding together this area.
The Kurdish-led authority controls about a quarter of the country and
is seeking autonomy within a federated Syria. |
07:13 |
Yaara
walks to council meeting |
I’m going to the
administrative headquarters in the town of Ain Issa. |
07:31 |
Council
meeting |
|
07:37 |
Yaara to camera at council meeting |
“It may seem unremarkable,
but here we’re seeing north east Syria’s radical experiment in direct
democracy. There’s no top down
structure. Crucially, each position
has to be taken by a male and a female, effectively mandating that 50% of
positions in government are taken by women”. |
07:43 |
Leila Mustapha
at council meeting |
Among the councillors is a
30-year-old civil engineer. Her name is Leila Mustapha. She’s now the new head of Raqqa, the once
notorious capital of ISIS and the tasks ahead of her are formidable. |
08:03 |
Leila addresses
council meeting |
LEILA MUSTAPHA: “Clearing
the ordnance ISIS left behind, the mental health needs of the community, and
the construction of buildings without a permit”. |
08:19 |
Yaara
greets Leila. Both women into car |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: “Hi
Leila”. Born and raised in Raqqa,
Leila Mustapha is fiercely proud of her home town which was liberated from
ISIS in 2017. |
08:31 |
Drone
shots. Naim Square, Raqqa |
Music |
08:44 |
|
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Leila is
keen to show me how her city is recovering. She takes me to Naim Square, the
site of ISIS’s most grisly punishments. |
08:50 |
|
Music |
09:04 |
|
LEILA MUSTAPHA: “The locals
called it “Hell Roundabout” |
09:13 |
Leila
and Yaara in car at Naim Square |
because of the brutal acts
that were committed here”. |
09:17 |
Naim
Square rebuilding GVs |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Crucified
and decapitated bodies were often put on display here. |
09:24 |
|
LEILA MUSTAPHA: “We’re now
working to redesign the Naim roundabout to help remove… the psychological
effect it had on people”. |
09:30 |
Leila
and Yaara in car |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Leila is
now leading the reconstruction of Raqqa and putting |
09:50 |
Drone
shot. Bridge rebuild |
her engineering skills to
good use. One of the biggest jobs is
rebuilding the main bridge. |
09:54 |
Leila
and Yaara walk by bridge |
LEILA MUSTAPHA: “The old
bridge was destroyed when the area was liberated. This old bridge and another
bridge were the main connections between the right and left banks of the
Euphrates River. |
10:08 |
Drone
shot. Bridge over Euphrates river |
As you can see the Euphrates
splits Raqqa in half”. |
10:22 |
Leila
shaking hands with men on worksite |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: A woman
taking this role was unthinkable during ISIS rule, even shaking hands with
male colleagues was forbidden. LEILA MUSTAPHA: “After the liberation
people were a bit afraid. Should we
shake hands or not? |
10:30 |
Leila
and Yaara |
Is it OK or not OK? There was some hesitation. But now it’s more relaxed. People greet
each other normally”. |
10:45 |
Drone
shot through bridge pylon to barge on Euphrates |
Music |
10:54 |
Women
walking on streets of Raqqa |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Slowly,
women are coming out of the shadows in Raqqa.
Under ISIS, they were confined to the house and only seen in public in
full covering with a male guardian. |
11:10 |
Women
at council seeking work |
Back at council
headquarters, we meet some women looking for work. |
11:24 |
|
WOMAN: “Women couldn’t get a
job at all. We wouldn’t even dare to
step out of our houses”. YAARA BOU MELHEM: “But now
you have the chance to work?” WOMAN: “Now I have a chance
and I’m actively looking for full time work”. |
11:34 |
Drone
shot. Raqqa |
Music |
11:47 |
|
YAARA BOU MELHEM: While the
ISIS caliphate has been pushed out of Raqqa, the group still holds a small
pocket of territory further south. |
11:55 |
Travelling
shots |
I’m heading to where the
Kurdish majority Syrian Democratic Forces are waging their final battle
against the group, with help from a US led coalition. “So we’re on our way |
12:06 |
Yaara
in car to camera |
to the frontline of what’s
left of ISIS’s self-proclaimed caliphate.
It once spanned a vast area the size of Britain and Syria and Iraq,
and we’re following a convoy of coalition soldiers”. |
12:19 |
Drone
shot. Hajin, Euphrates in b/g |
The battle against ISIS has
been isolated to the south-eastern Deir Ez Zor region’s village of
Baghuz. |
12:35 |
Yaara
into APC |
Coalition air strikes caused
much of the destruction here to drive ISIS out. But ISIS left behind hidden dangers. |
12:46 |
In
car with Aram, passing destroyed villages |
ARAM QAMISHLO: “They are
moving between the houses but they need to be aware that there are mines”. YAARA BOU MELHEM: Aram
Qamishlo from the YPG, Syria’s Kurdish military force, takes us through
devastated villages toward the frontline. |
12:56 |
|
ARAM QAMISHLO: “There was
intense fighting everywhere. They used
a lot of mines, car bombs and booby traps. That was their tactic. |
13:21 |
Yaara
out of van |
|
13:30 |
Yaara
walking with soldier and Aram |
Is this area safe?” SOLDIER: “Yes, it’s safe”. |
13:37 |
|
YAARA BOU MELHEM: “Okay so
how far away is the ISIS position?” SOLDIER: “From here to ISIS
position like 500 metres”. YAARA BOU MELHEM: “Just 500
metres! Should we be out in the open
like this?” |
13:41 |
Aram
and Yaara into building |
Aram decides it’ll be safer
to show me the frontline from higher ground. |
13:57 |
Watching
ISIS from top of building |
“There’s just motorcycles going past”. |
14:09 |
|
ARAM QAMISHLO: “I see a lot
of movement of motorcycles and cars. People are moving between a building and
a school. They look like women…
they’re carrying kids, some people are on motorcycles, they have guns on
their backs so they are ISIS”. |
14:14 |
Yaara
to camera at top of building |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: “It’s
pretty extraordinary these guys have to just sit and wait while they can see
ISIS walking around just 500 metres away and can’t do anything about it
because they don’t want to hurt any of the civilians that are there”. |
14:38 |
|
Aram wants to show me some
of the underground tactics ISIS is using to fight. |
14:57 |
Yaara
walks with Aram to ISIS tunnel |
“So Aram is about to take us
to an ISIS tunnel. It’s what they’ve
been using to avoid the coalition air strikes, and also it’s how they’ve been
able to move around freely”. |
15:05 |
|
MUSTAFA: “Follow the path!
Please follow the steps”. YAARA BOU MELHEM: “Because
of booby traps?” MUSTAFA “Yes”. YAARA BOU MELHEM: “And
mines?” MUSTAFA: “Yes, exactly”. |
15:16 |
Yaara
and Aram at tunnel entrance |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: At the
entrance of the ISIS tunnel, Aram tells me it hasn’t been secured. “Where does it lead?” |
15:25 |
|
ARAM QAMISHLO: “I don’t
know. We’ve only taken this area
recently, so while the mount of the tunnel is controlled, the inside is
not. It’s possibly linked to another
place”. |
15:33 |
|
YAARA BOU MELHEM: ISIS uses
tunnels like this one to get behind SDF positions and ambush them with a
suicide bombing. “Perhaps we should move?” |
15:43 |
|
MUSTAFA: “Yes actually we’ve
had those incidents”. YAARA BOU MELHEM: “Of people
popping out and attacking?” ARAM QAMISHLO: “Yeah it
happens”. |
15:52 |
Views
from gun turret of APC |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: The
campaign against ISIS will soon be over.
Most of the civilians have left Baghuz and the final assault is
underway. But winning back territory
has come at a heavy price. This
village is where some of the ISIS leadership fled to after Raqqa fell. |
16:00 |
Yaara
to camera walking down destroyed Hajin street |
“There’s not much left of
the town of Hajin. It’s an absolutely
apocalyptic scene. It took the SDF
more than four months to take this town from ISIS, essentially destroying it
in order to free it”. |
16:25 |
|
Civilians are beginning to
return to this Arab-majority area, but many have nothing to come back to and
their anger is directed at the Kurds and their US backers. |
16:37 |
Yaara
to men on destroyed building |
“We’d like to speak to you if possible”. I want to ask this man how
he feels coming back – to this. |
16:53 |
Civilian
man |
CIVILIAN: “This whole area
is destroyed. Nobody was here, there was nothing. Why did this happen? Who is going to compensate us?” YAARA BOU MELHEM: “Who
destroyed it?” CIVILIAN: “Who destroyed it?
Coalition jets destroyed it, who else?
What are we going to do now? We’re just living in a skeleton of a
house”. |
17:07 |
Drone
shot over town |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: As ISIS
territory is squeezed, the fighters and their families are being captured or
have surrendered. |
17:33 |
Yaara
to camera at market |
“One of the more pressing
concerns for authorities here is what to do with captured ISIS fighters. About 900 foreign fighters are being held
in Kurdish run prisons all across the region.
The US has called for countries to take back their citizens and
prosecute them at home, but many nations just don’t want them”. |
17:42 |
Drone
shot over destroyed town |
The majority of captured
ISIS members remain in limbo. They’re
being held in secret US funded prisons.
|
18:01 |
|
At a location we can’t
disclose, we meet with one. |
18:16 |
Yaara
interviews Bekmirzaev |
Alexandr Ruzmatovich
Bekmirzaev is an Irish national originally from Belarus. He wants to return to Ireland but thinks
it’s unlikely he’ll be brought back.
He claims he and his family surrendered to the SDF as he escaped from ISIS
last December. |
18:22 |
|
“The SDF says you were
captured as you were trying to carry out an attack on civilians”. |
18:48 |
|
ALEXANDR RUZMATOVICH
BEKMIRZAEV: “Let’s say just for a second, imagine yourself in my
situation. Your husband, it’s me. You are the wife, like my wife, and you
have a child. You're planning to go
surrender yourself, right? Would you
do any attack?” |
18:54 |
|
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Bekmirzaev
says he entered Syria in 2013, but insists he never fought, and offers this
bizarre reason why ISIS never forced him to. |
19:15 |
Bekmirzaev
interview continues |
ALEXANDR RUZMATOVICH
BEKMIRZAEV: “Okay do you believe in magic?” YAARA BOU MELHEM: “Try me”. ALEXANDR RUZMATOVICH
BEKMIRZAEV: “Okay first of all Allah he said in Koran that he created jin and
humankind, okay? There’s another creature and this other creature he’s been
used by the people, magician, they can insert this creature inside of human
being and this human being can misbehave himself in certain ways. It depends
on the spell. Okay for example…” |
19:29 |
[shot
continuous] |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: “So you
believe you were possessed?” ALEXANDR RUZMATOVICH
BEKMIRZAEV: “Yeah”. YAARA BOU MELHEM: It’s
difficult to ascertain his mental state |
|
Interview
continues |
or whether he was a fighter,
but he paints a dire picture of the last days under ISIS. ALEXANDR RUZMATOVICH
BEKMIRZAEV: “Towards the end they just, |
20:10 |
|
they pushed people to fight,
you know? They reduced supply of the
food. So they only bring the food for
themselves, Iraqis, and then they make an announcement, you know, if you’re
not going to fight, you’re not going to eat and that’s what happened to most
people, they don’t eat. They were starving.
Some… there was even people died from starvation, kids”. |
20:20 |
|
YARRA BOU MELHEM: “What was
morale like among people?” |
20:44 |
|
ALEXANDR RUZMATOVICH
BEKMIRZAEV: “They were still saying the victory is close, the victory is
close. The victor for the Muslim
people it’s always close. It’s never
far away”. |
20:49 |
Sunset.
Town |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: The
administration says people like Bekmirzaev shouldn’t be its problem. |
21:00 |
Omar
interview |
Foreign Minister Abdel Karim
Omar is warning they could again become a threat. |
21:09 |
|
ABDEL KARIM OMAR: “Any chaos
or any void, any offensive from Turkey or an offensive from another party
will be an opportunity for these ISIS members to escape from prison and again
pose a threat to us, the international community and their home countries”. |
21:16 |
Checkpoint |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: ISIS has
lost its caliphate, but it’s not defeated. |
21:45 |
Yaara
to camera at checkpoint |
“Taking back territory from
ISIS doesn’t mean the threat is over.
The group is going back to its guerrilla warfare roots. It has sleeper cells all over the region conducting
suicide bombings, ambushes on highways and attacking checkpoints like this
one”. |
21:51 |
Soldier
at checkpoint |
These tactics have already
killed dozens, |
22:05 |
Leila
with Yaara, at home |
and Raqqa’s new leader,
Leila Mustapha, knows her life is in danger. |
22:09 |
Leila
makes tea |
LEILA MUSTAPHA: “Some of my
colleagues, members of the civil council of Raqqa, have been attacked or
assassinated. We’re expected to take all necessary precautions, but we’re not
afraid to do our jobs”. |
22:19 |
Rebuilding |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: This young
democracy may soon face a far bigger threat than ISIS. It will lose protection when US forces are
pulled out as planned. Turkey has pledged to invade northern Syria and smash
the Kurds. It fears autonomy here will
embolden the 15 million Kurds inside Turkey to rise up with similar demands. |
22:39 |
Simko up
stairs to roof of building |
Back at the frontline,
Commander Simko says they’re ready for any Turkish offensive. |
23:13 |
Simko
interview |
COMMANDER SIMKO: “Of course
we will resist anyone who wants to attack our area or our people or the
future we have been dreaming of. We will defend it. We know that when the coalition pulls out
there are other people worse than ISIS who want to attack us. We will wait and see. If Turkey attacks, we will respond to
them”. |
23:30 |
Soldiers
on parade at funeral/Women ululate |
Music |
24:00 |
|
SOLDIERS CHANTING: [at
burial of soldier] “In soul and blood we sacrifice for the martyr”. |
24:33 |
Soldiers
carry poster of Ismail |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Ismail
Ibrahim gave his life to the cause. |
24:38 |
Carrying
coffin through crowd |
The 21-year-old YPG fighter
was killed on the frontline. It was an
ISIS mine that he stepped on, but the rhetoric here is all about Turkey. |
24:43 |
Soldier
addresses crowd at funeral |
KURDISH SOLDIER: “In the
face of the brutal Turkish state, we bow to those who struggle daily and to
the martyrs of Kurdistan. |
25:03 |
Funeral
crowd/Soldiers carry coffin |
Music |
25:17 |
Mourners
beside grave |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: All here
are worried more sons and daughters will be taken in a conflict with
Turkey. |
25:45 |
|
Facing the withdrawal of US
troops, apart from a small peacekeeping force, the Kurds are keeping all
options open, even negotiating with Russia and the Assad region. |
25:58 |
Azad and
Bercem head to wedding party |
Music |
26:13 |
Azad greets
Bercem and hands her bouquet |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Back in
Kobanî, the couple we met earlier, Azad and Bercem, are ready for their
wedding party. |
26:31 |
Wedding
singers |
SINGERS: “Azad is the groom, thank God Azad’s
getting married”. |
26:39 |
Azad greets
Bercem depart for wedding |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: It’s time
to celebrate new beginnings, but the conflict is never far away. BERCEM ABD AL KADER: “Turkey
wants to destroy the peace. |
26:53 |
Azad and
Bercem in car on way to wedding |
But we won’t let them do
that to us so we said we’ll go ahead and get married, we’ll get on with our
lives. If necessary, he will fight and
I will keep working”. |
27:02 |
Azad and
Bercem in |
AZAD AHMED: “I’ll fight if I
need to because I am a soldier. If Turkey is invading or there’s a war, she
will cover the story and expose it to the world. |
27:18 |
Azad and
Bercem into wedding venue |
PRESENTER: “Congratulations
Azad and Bercem! |
27:42 |
Wedding
guests dance |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Friends
from the military and from all over the region descend on this very Kurdish
affair. War may come, but for now they’re taking control of what they can. |
27:53 |
Bercem
and Azad light cake/Guests dance |
BERCEM ABD AL KADER: “Our
dream has come true. We are joined
together. That on its own is enough.
As for the rest of it, life continues. You build a house, you have kids, but
the main thing is we’re together, everything happens together”. |
28:17 |
Bercem
and Azad dance |
AZAD AHMED: “Our hopes for
the future are bright. As Kurds, we
are building a life we could never have dreamed of. The Kurdish flag has been raised. So the future is very bright”. |
28:46 |
Bercem
and Azad bow |
Music |
29:07 |
Guests
dance and celebrate with bride and groom |
|
29:14 |
Credits: |
reporter Yaara Bou Melhem |
29:36 |
|
foreign correspondent |
29:51 |
Additional
vision: |
|
30:00 |
Spent
cartridges on ground |
YAARA BOU MELHEM: Most of
the civilians |
30:01 |
View
from APC gun turret. Drone shots |
have left Baghuz and the
Kurdish led forces have now taken the village. ISIS has lost one of its last strongholds
But winning back territory has come at a heavy price. |
30:02 |
Hajin
destruction |
This village is where some
of the ISIS leadership fled to after Raqqa fell. |
30:19 |
Yaara
to camera |
There's not much left of the
town… |
30:26 |
OUTPOINT |
|
30:28 |