Abo Ali

The news that “Abo Ali Khabiyeh” was martyred did not spread among my friends in the regular fashioned way. It was more of a question in a context of wonder and disbelieve; Abo Ali was martyred?! Everyone had the same reaction, those who loved him so much as well as those who have been wary of him. Those who helped in creating Abo Ali’s myth and the others who practiced its diminution. The sense of disbelief and astonishment that accompanied the news of his death was partially due to the people’s admiration of thats hero and their unwillingness to believe that he has left without accomplishing that mission he had promised all Syrians to do over and over again. In other parts, it is due to Abo Ali’s character and the stupidity of the Syrian regime and its continued pursuit to eliminate that rebel.

The regime’s official media had announced the “death of the terrorist” Abo Ali countless times before him showing up and making fun of the news in one area or another. Others went wild and assumed that he was the one behind spreading that news to debunk the regime’s media afterwards and gain more publicity in order to “communicate” with his fans more often. Moreover, a story being told is that Abo Ali once announced his own death on top of some mosque’s minaret and then went back up to ridicule the whole thing! We cannot determine if the story is true; just like all the other stories about Abo Ali; though he is not a vague man, he has a sense of leadership and a desire to appear on TV. As a matter of fact, this in not rare among rebels but everyone is doing it in his/ her own way where no one else can compete.

Unlike the other field generals, Abo Ali showed up in several videotaped messages speaking in local dialect naively and aimlessly except for the fact that he was reassuring his promise to the people. All his messages contained the same words “Run away Assad, I’m coming after you, I swear to God we’re all coming after you. Following that rumor of his martyrdom, I started going back to all those people who used to narrate his heroic stories and tales and also to the ones who used to criticize him for his harsh and improvised military motions. After all, Abo Ali was the one who lead the Medan Square Battle in Damascus which was severely criticized and he is the one who moved his legion from one place to the other unsatisfied with his base in Douma city although he was one of the early starters of the armed resistance in that city. Surprisingly, all of them were not able to give accurate information about Abo Ali and it seemed that all of those folk’s tales did not have reliable sources besides adding up to each story each time telling it.

Many Facebook pages were created commiserating and glutting on his heroism. The official regime’s media celebrated his death in boldface but that didn’t change the mysterious touch that overlaid his rejuvenating life. Furtherly, both the official and semi-official media had conflicting statements about his death; according to one he died in Shifoniyeh, to the other in Mesraba and another said in Daraya.

Despite the huge bruit that accompanied his lastest farewell, there were still some voices that doubted the news “no photo or video” of the martyr. Nevertheless, it was announced on the trusted and reliable pages on Facebook. So, this time it took a couple of days to denounce the news via a statement by the “Douma Martyrs Brigade.” Every one was smiling instead of being amazed but this who Abo Ali Khabiyeh really is and probably he will never change and he is on a date with Assad, how could he stand up or leave! Even death itself won’t come between them!

#English