Barbarians At The Castle Walls

Once the star in the panoply of ancient architectural marvels within Syria as a tourist attraction, the Crac des Chevaliers, a Crusader-era castle that enabled Christian Crusaders to withstand assaults by the Muslim master of conflict Saladin 900 years ago, a recognized world heritage site, has come under heavy military bombardment. Within its tall, stout walls hovered men, women and children hoping against hope that those thick stone walls that have withstood the assaults of time would keep them safe from the harm Syrian resident Bashar al-Assad sought to inflict upon them.

This photo made on Thursday, May 1, 2014, shows damages at the Crac des Chevaliers, the world's best preserved medieval Crusader castle, in Syria. Photo: Dusan Vranic/The Associated Press

The Shiite Alawite Baathist government of President al-Assad had pinpointed the village of Hosn as a rebel bastion, two years ago. The Sunni-populated village of nine thousand souls was deemed to be giving shelter to the Sunni opposition of the Shia-minority regime. A military encirclement of the village was initiated, a blockade that permitted no one to leave the village and no one to enter it. The government also charged that al-Qaida armed insurgents were harboured within it.

"The terrorists killed and kidnapped people and even chopped off their heads", a Syrian army officer claimed in an interview. "We had to stop them at any cost." The cost appears to be Sunni civilians who had fled their now-deserted village to find refuge in the ancient chapel at Crac des Chevaliers, a UNESCO world heritage site. The armed siege has taken its toll, as has the shelling of starving fighters and civilians alike. It is a formula that the regime uses throughout rebel-held areas.

When the heavy bombardment began last winter the 9,000 people living in Hosn fled to neighbouring Lebanon, dashing through the army blockade. Hundreds barricaded themselves instead within the hilltop castle. With them were rebel fighters in their dozens, occasionally lobbing mortar shells to hit nearby Christian villages, according to government soldiers and locals. Syrian Shia Muslims and Christians are either neutral or support the regime. Both fearing lest al-Qaeda-linked Sunni forces attain power.

Whatever food the fleeing villagers had managed to take with them into their citadel shelter was long since consumed. Some ventured out at night in search of anything that could be consumed or cooked, including wildlife or stray domestic animals. They slept for seven months within the tiny church contained within a walled compound, and alternately in the immense, dark stone halls once used as stables by the 12th Century Crusaders.

The Crac des Chevaliers  (File photo: Reuters) 

 

The villagers hoped that the castle walls would remain intact, that its historic value would gurarantee it exempt from Syrian army shelling. Faint hope, that. During a massive government offensive Syrian jets struck with a series of airstrikes. Cannon fire blasted the castle walls. Shells led to ancient stone structures crumbling. In the deserted village below, army tanks rolled house to house, destroying each one beyond habitation.

Some three hundred villagers and rebels were killed in the March offensive, while hundreds more were wounded. Thousands managed to disperse in panic under fire across the border to Lebanon, while hundreds of others surrendered or were captured. "A lot of people have been killed by the terrorists." The government offensive "had to be done so that Syria returns to normal", explained a 23-year old Christian from the nearby village of Nasra.