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tv   Doc Film - The Ruins of Raqqa  Deutsche Welle  November 27, 2018 4:15am-5:00am CET

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all we can be the generation that ends it for good malaria must die so millions can live.
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driving into russia is an eerie. and breathtaking destruction as far as the eye can see. a once thriving city of two hundred sixty thousand people reduced to rubble by us lead instrument. to imagine you could have a return to what it once was. the first stop was the most notorious location in the city not to have the square. it beat was once the vibrant heart of rock. we meet a truck driver khaled swale who shows this round. you know out of nine that's
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heaven square it was called square of heaven but now it's square a fellner we used to love wandering around this place but because of the killings we started meeting. more toward. khaled was among many forced to witness the beheadings that became the defining symbol of the ice here. here in the square i asked what shot of the edge off and stick heads on t.v. all around the square this is where they would execute people have a lot look up whatever you have to be punished a shot but they would terrorize people with. their i was shot because. the propaganda videos of those killings horrified many around the world. this is where iraq his children were forced to watch it all happen to have big plasma t.v.'s children could watch the punishments death and executions the t.v.'s were
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everywhere they see the scene. and so and i'm not mandatory. the children used to get every if they saw a chicken killed. as a after a while they were never in the care of humans were executed. as our life and it was elks. unless out of. planes from. as we go deeper into the city the overwhelming scale of the destruction becomes clear . we see signs that money is returned from oregon in iraq is east bulldozer work clearing the roads. the rest seems like an enormous
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even impossible time scale. amid the rubble and it was not. she and her brother a painstakingly salvaging what's left of the family home and grocery store. well when we. what i won't be able to return to even one percent of the way things were before. but i will live and continue building again i will open a new grocery shop and live out the rest of our life back. across the road this silly new bridge but was no kind of food. she's a widow who have six children. during the war that made her an easy target for islamic state but they picked the wrong one.
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they would come to me and tell me to leave the house but i wouldn't. they occupied our neighbor's house and made it their headquarters. i believe they killed the house and yes he was killed they said it was a regime fac and killed him but we didn't leave our house we refused. i aspired his told was not to shut down his shop and remarry all live off islamic charity. and that they were me and after i refused to obey three times they threatened to take me to the religious police. and i told them if i leave the shop door while i will break a stick on your head i'd rather fire a bullet into my head than leave my shop at the minute. when she stood her ground and i aspired to hit her. they came to the shop and
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told me to go with them to the religious police. i asked them why because i refused to close my shop and i told them that if you were a real man you wouldn't hit a woman why did you slap me. was his bravery is remarkable and she still struggles with what she endured. if you go through platinum has we are more what more can i say. we will follow they mistreated us what can i say. as we allow only god can help us move in they came here they brought only chaos and destruction with them. we were waiting for the day to get our freedom back in rocca we were waiting for a freedom we were hoping one day and night. then. we were waiting for the day of freedom to come and have a new in the pub remember. the
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terrible irony is that after was not fought so hard and risked so much it was a u.s. military strike that destroyed the family business. when the airstrike hit i was suddenly thrown across the room. i couldn't hear in the morning i was hit by the shrapnel i took off my chin it so that it wouldn't hurt me by being bad after the smoke here we all went to the streets. in the middle . where. there were a lot of a look at the old i'll bet that one i'll bet under islamic state rule her biggest fear was for her children especially her eldest daughter and. i think that i s. would see her she's pretty i wouldn't let her now sit in. even when i
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had to take my daughters to the answer uncles they would be in full shari'a outrageous and i wouldn't let anyone see their faces. said. cherie. they send women to our house to ask if we had girls for marriage or any bathrooms. in there and we said no and this when we had not said we were here first. thing is not for that and i think. the children to shield her in a village outside the city with a father who is desperately ill shirk. despite all the problems this extraordinary woman is looking forward to a new era. new salons in it all the people are afraid women and men still afraid if i. let honest take a look at me face to face. if there is still one of them still living on it let him
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say i wasn't letting you see me you clearly know i'm not afraid of him so every here. even if he's going to come from underground let him come over that let i as ross and the ones who brought i is right with the. one that i'm not afraid of anyone i us or anyone else would have had that. look in it's a disaster zone and explosives are everywhere. we find a mood and a drive home made bombs just lying around. mines and booby traps litter the city. claiming new casualties every day. as we drive through iraq itself with pickup truck races a good scaring the like big. dog. with.
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me from the kurdish dominated militia that liberated the city with the help of usas from. our four soldiers that are mine and slipped over the rescue two of them. meaningly. ok i'm just keeping an eye on everything. you know it could be a fresh one. in this rubble as it was. in the midst of all this we find in australia want to relive it soon. or claim this forever for that. jamie williams's among
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a group of foreigners in the kurdish forces now the findings finished they're helping with the cleanup. and the man. who. they were good at that was a mess. they find an unexploded schill in the rubble by the road. i've got looks like an artillery rounds that's partially covered in rubble of a puff we just walked on and the fire just walked on yes so we're going to hook up with a rope and sykes our position is give a. lot of stock up but. you want the book over again. it's a painstaking really slow business. after several attempts to move her is point three
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it can now be dumped elsewhere. between the minds and the unexploded ordinances that we were working on this place for years and. now you're talking jamie williams came here in april last year to fight i use. my eyes want to be in the military growing up watching war movies playing with toy guns are sort of. admire the papal soldiers that put themselves in difficult situations you know willing to put their life on the line for the betterment of others. in the long. grass here maybe we could say yeah. oh yeah well of a tissue so you just take the shoes off so this is home yeah finance. mistakes
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say. this is said directional anti-personnel mine he's staying here with a handful of other western fighters this was just hidden under a piece of material scott ball bearings in it one of these ball bearings can drop straight through into a lot of damage. we have lost one person a member of our team that was with us for withdrawing money that. yeah he wasn't actually. trying to save them on himself. this is unfortunate. he wasn't treated well that was in the area yeah. it was a that was on the twenty fifth of this one so much so i mean. all these. decimate the syrian population every day those explosions you can hear from syrians going hi i'm trying to rape i'm the house trying to you know pick up the pieces of what's left of the house. australian counter-terrorism authorities
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have been monitoring jimmy williams for a long time. when he first tried to come to syria in light twenty fourteen he was stopped at melbourne a port then charged with crimes that could have seen him seem to unstick to life in prison. without offering an explanation the federal government dropped the prosecution could. reassure your position when we were fighting he made it here for the final battle for iraq. is a pretty fond of the whole fight rucka bush block by block the lines for a constantly changing it was hard for me yet again as the enforced. to keep track of where the lines were. in twenty eleven jamie williams tried to join the australian army but was knocked back because of a drink driving conviction so he joined the french foreign legion and stayed trying to move through i got combat training i went to explosives so i was trained as
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a squad boxman so stop or offer training i gave me confidence in what i was doing here. through here. was full of mice footsteps pretty much in iraq he says kurdish commanders kept foreign fighters away from the frontline it was a bit worrying he takes us to the scene of their only real battle with ah yes which is known in arabic is done off with all the dust just up where that that is ok. this is where his team was ordered to move through the block of flats and control the street beyond. i soon got to this position and i pointed over and said this whole yeah that's a dash i'll. go for it so you have to go through that home yeah not knowing there was no you know. the mission didn't go to play. we got ambushed. within five meters we took fire from the back of the tent fifty meters across the
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road one of our guys right here in that exchange. they call it was killed. the team was forced to hole up here trying to work out how to get his body. and it was well we're here we're getting the radio communication saying that they're coming from vs they're into this this room here these guys were pushed up but as soon as they took fire from their friends up with big cia carries everything pretty sure i gave them a good fright barfly they hit him. propped up here with pain straightens i was stuck here all not take any time i heard any movement any scuffing anything underneath me pick up a grenade get it ready sic the rifle over shoot down the stairs couple rounds for five rounds pull the pin through they're going to do and these are the pigs that you'd left yeah they were on the stairs here. or this through here the should be a few more and somewhere. i think i threw maybe half
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a dozen grenades from the staircase. u.s. lead instruction saved their lives there was a c one thirty gun fire which was providing the whole area one big half circle as if you're around us there was a lot of fire for quite a while which is comforting because you know you know they're they've got their back but at the same time is worrying because bam hit targets that they can see so knowing that they're shooting that much that just says that there was that many targets in the area for them to hit. under australian law jamie williams could be jailed for entering the banned area and being a foreign fighter. but he argues fighting for the kurds he's not a crime because they are in effect the government in this part of syria. i don't think i've done anything wrong he supported the good guys in this fight i would say
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you know dash is the enemy of the world and kurds are. going to be a good because systems are going to be good for this region they need the kurds here they need this system they need to mark received so i think i don't think of anything. they were other australians on the battlefield they were fighting for i. was part of the reason i came here to find some kill any a strain dash that i could unfortunately that hasn't happened but i know i would have lots of coal one of those of us. the most notorious was college ruth a convicted terrorist who shot to global infamy for posting photos of his son holding a severed he'd. sharif and his family lived in russia and i want to find out more about their lives he. worked out where how it sheriff was living
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back in two thousand and fifteen when some u.c.b. girls had been keeping as domestic flights a skype i knew them and i showed me some not all fun pictures they'd taken to be outside of his house which allowed me to pinpoint a location on google earth ok to feet what's become of the place but to get there. we have to cross for you friday's river. with the bridge is gone this is the only way to get a grip. on the journey williams and his team come along. and. we have no idea if i use sympathises are still hanging around in the syrian government forces are about fifteen kilometers away from. the need to get across the river and banking as quickly as possible. on the way adventure takes a wrong turn. using
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the coordinates like track our path as we closing argument soon a can you lend me a little to tell comes into view. that's it. thanks a house or if it's living in one of them and i'm not a neighbor emerges and confirms we are in the right place. as we shovel it nothing. i thought. he was a bit like me big like me the same but i don't. know that because we had a scuffle so he forced his way into that and i started him for giving in. to lizzie's been remembers your roof as a grandstanding thug. he was playing
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a big being and i asked commander islam ecstacy and so why did you even hear that neighbor he got into his house and humiliated i don't even want to execute him. abilities office an unprecedented insight into sharif's life he. round of sure roof and i never liked each other whenever he'd come outside as soon as it seemed he want to carry his weapons and fire into the air like he was trying to make a point. it was like i'm here and i've got weapons. and yeah. sure ruth lived in the house with his wife tara nettleton and the five children. children were very tough. and he were a real problem. they had a shooting range here in the. bottom of guns and lots of ammunition.
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they set the targets up here. up in the shot that draws people to take a look at me. while years have passed the house still feels haunted by the tragedy of this family's life. how hard it was along too sure of children. just a little kid. there were traces of children everywhere from. all the above that's what sure those children used to wear that's a very small size small want to go for that and that too was for the little one while he was. while the willed story midges of them willing whippings the neighbors saw children who seemed terribly isolated in the new land.
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hardly understood arabic it was hard for them sometimes we got a feeling that they didn't understand this and. i did ask a lot of questions about the purpose of everything what i try to learn but they didn't know how to engage and if you asked them about something that said i wouldn't answer. abdulaziz confirms this is wishy ruth kept the z. the girls who'd been kidnapped from northern iraq. he took them from their parents and that was extremely wrong. i mean he left a lot of time with us and i mean he wouldn't even let them out here in the courtyard. that we could see them from a distance and they were frightened. they were the surely afraid that it spot them i had been or in very good argument. i tracked down the easy to girls three years ago we northern iraq. one of them told me how she roots one of
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tara hated life in rocca. his wife said she regretted going there and that she didn't know what it has been it was doing before she arrived she said it's a miserable place this religion is so bad if i'd known i would never have come here his wife tradeable day for her husband to be mounted so that they could return home . they also told me it was tara who helped them escape by giving them a mobile fund to cool their families as. she couldn't show her kindness towards us in front of her husband it was secrets. she prayed for us to be released and advised us to escape in secrecy she said if my husband knew anything about what i'm doing for you he would punish me. a delusion is remembers what happened when the girls a skype wash of them of the highest religious police came and asked about them said
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they are using the girl this risque prick here and they accused us of hiding them i said we didn't know anything about it i just seen a girl one come to us you're the mother you know that i've been a sheriff's neighbor is often complained to i it's about his behavior and eventually i use moved against team job. posted and i have a supervisor i keep an eye on all of the even i signed she's a staff member not just two i am two cars came i. called them security cars they took in at two am smirched screaming at one or two am not that it was. that he argued a lot here in the building yeah i mean you've got to judge all your. life in the house would come to any. of that and i did the very last time i saw him i was at the i talked or. the dog money saw me i was giving my name to the nurse she told me
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to wait my turn was again. he came up to me and he was surprised and he started like this legend here he was afraid i would because i asked was losing ground cover and then we took the don't offer. to college your roof was reportedly killed along with two of his sons a u.s. coalition instructor in iraq or in august last week. tara newton's believed to have died off to surgery for appendicitis in september twenty fifth during the fight of the other children is unclear. about this. but really was surreal being at a house where so many tory s. things happened. to me like the islamic state group itself. it's all come to nothing.
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and where are we going to i was headed that's the stadium which was one of the last op wants out but for the surrender. the football stadium in the heart of russia is where ice inflicted terrible punishment on its prison. i spent most of the time in the guts this brought up so we're going to check it out it's more tunnels more not to have the sandbags and all pretty good progress for that's were going on the sandbags are good. for i use the surge as a sort of underground place that's here. what was this this is
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a shooting i'm sitting right here you can see there if. not holes in the walls all the way down. and they've got. use of paper. is rubble holes. the boards. even though they were pretty much secluded underground that was to have them do training and become more effective at killing people. it's even equipped with secret tunnels so one of the tunnels they use less ten meters that you have ten meters and then there's a hole at the end that shoots off in that direction i haven't been down there personally all these tunnels most definitely be mined a tunnel like this would mean that maybe they could get in behind wherever you were and yeah that's why whenever we had a line and that was the forward main threat position your eyes had to be watching
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your ear as well as you know they could pop up anywhere at any time. most of these rooms were used as a prison and torture chamber it's been explained to me that this was a form of punishment in the sewer prison is here is a form of punishment it's code in arabic and yeah sure it's pretty unpleasant being stuck down there for who knows how long but she would like to put the lid on top of your and just be there in pitch black nothing but the stink. but there on the smile abuse about another member of the anti irish militia tells me what he means you'd hear with them that they are blowing up a buck. but he was detained for six weeks in tortured for days only. little by me a little while behold he took a green a plumbing pipe and beat me. with on the stomach legs and i was screaming
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you know and screaming i spent two days here. today and i come today. i mean you know i knew. about the lady handcuffed me like that and hung me up there. and then when you took the plumbing pipe and beat me hard again with the pot a lot of olive oil all over my body you haven't played focus on the mustn't so you couldn't move from here a high here comes up and they hung me up there and i spent five to six days like that concept that is. you messing with a lot of people were tortured so much that they even say that their father was bashar al assad with blood only it doesn't matter who my father is as long as i get out of here i think many people died from torture this is
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a bid from where i supplied electric shocks to prison either the fact that the this was the torture room. they don't dress the prisoner and leave him in shorts and a shirt. on a plane down here and attach electric wires on. women were also killed he did he smell coup just a brief glimpse but of course he could hear them in the front and at the end there the moment when we were in our cell we'd hear women yelling from torture and beatings. with any of the i asked men used disrespectful words calling them bitches prostitutes awful language came up with the accordion i knew. even the graffiti has a radical bent but on that i had roughly feel here's a drawing of a truck. it's a suicide bomber that wants to use
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a vehicle and blow him self up. and here are some snipers and i'm going to. and there are sons of the measures they took to disguise themselves in disguise. look and that's beard hair from my ass fighters. when they lost against the s.d.f. they shave their beards so that no one would recognize them want to miss. this that's why i asked beard day that i'd wind up on the madonna. the battle for iraq it ended with a crushing defeat of by the controversial do you. think. in
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the way yeah this voting here was the last about three had so we had a god on this yeah in the corner we can see down that straight. jamie williams and his team watching this the jihad is prepared for negotiated a sky with it see through the binoculars guys coming out of buildings and popping up from all over the place congregating in their roundabout their open area down there and we were told we got the orders over the radio i should just basically die sure if you seen a dash just you know i should play. a secret deal was done between the us back forces induced lennoxtown to live hundreds of hardcore fighters and with families leave the scene. for us or forced them to allegedly walk out to go fight another day somewhere else
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if i had your fill but in the end i did get what. pissed me on us. their snaky they they had that cut up the sleeve and they played it well. for jimmy williams this war is coming to an e. do you plan on going back to a struggle sometime in are you worried you'll be arrested. not so watch worried but i would say in a slightly concerned yes of course i'll be interested in questioning on interest to know. the people of russia a still dealing with the will is deadly legacy. there are so many hidden mines the task of clearing them is daunting. riddle on. the main of these kurdish the mining team led by a dual hammad i used spend every dime risking their lives trying to make the city side. and what it would have been told lettuce and tires on is dangerous there are
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mines here before i asked left the house i know you know. their equipment is basic some middle to take does and a long length the rug. they could be blown up any second. invaded the birth of our lives are in danger to be with and often the city was the islamic state capital was i and i may be sleeper cells here and lions was remote control devices that the i think that i got the. they so come to some explosives seems almost routine. it's not long before they find a month they've removed the detonator the fear is it could still be booby trapped and they pull it from a safe distance. if
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it had gone off that could have killed anybody within fifty meet. the explosives coming all shapes and sizes this is a small anti personnel mine but do i owe you one hundred ten like this all. the trigger is a thin one studded with little switches the connect under pressure. they both mostly put the wire out like this and when you step on it it explodes. the bowmen sylph is a tightly packed load of explosives behind a layer of ball bearings that i don't want to if someone touches or stops honest if i see an anyone nearby would be on killed instantly. the greatest hawk is the da it is his targeting civilians even. if they saw it we wouldn't find out where they have hidden the mine. is i would stay put mines
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in buckets games fridges and even under pillows by five. hundred has already seen several of his colleagues q. and what they think a lot of its hard won mine explodes and kills five of your friends thought they were quite. well bonnie have them at night in a second i'd like to use that as a friend and colleague you see as court's on the ground you almost stop breathing i'm going to help with. despite the tragedy they continue they would and on this mission in the space of just half an hour they collect a small loss and. one how about him and both of our goal was to remove the mines to save people they may because it will stay here going to the mines.
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is almost new here pete from the international community. the people of russia a doing it for them so. they did in the face of tyranny and the determination to bounce back or inspire. that's my house. i've been there and here i had three flats that were destroyed by airstrikes and i thank god the children are said don't go we'll build here that i am going to be. the mother of the little children are safe and we brought them here well you have no money. how little her race has lost almost all he hands but he's still counting his blessings oh is
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that i thought a lot what did you think when you first saw this but i'm going i got actually going to find out what we can rebuild i don't know place what was damaged. thank god. each child is priceless man or fine thank god nobody was sure how good. and his wife fatima look forward to sending the children back to school i go to the news room i go to the misrule through times under ah yes just getting an education could be deadly. i mean i did also met education on the rule was forbidden they wanted people to be ignorant. off i feel university students were walking back home they were catching up to us well we had that they were beheaded. for the moment that is most schools were shut down children had nothing to do. i see their last cent why younger children have
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a private teacher how they go in the mornings and after literary hours they come back. we were very afraid of course very afraid it was the whole i just wanted them to learn how to react and write. and thank god they did learn. my duty is to teach them as much as i can. so i look i don't i want to i was sort of whether it was. a little in fatima i determined to reopen this show silly windows and do. remember when do you come on boys come on we need to finish. the we're going to remove it to let you know did i see you soon and it's interesting that these. dollars and over come closer at the back of
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my mind. it's the kind of resilience that offers a glimmer of hope for this city. above all else they want a little normalcy and dignity back in their lifetimes. but. it's freezing we need fuel. international countries should help us the dead are dead but the people still alive and almost like dead. welcome to the yeah we want rather like it used to be with schools and hospitals. so normal life like we have a fire. we want people to love each other again to cherish each other's majority
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here. we want to sit here to be like it used to be john was that much you know whatever there.
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the. event started picking up electricity. the combined he somehow you know generates two hundred thirty watts of power. it uses a thermoelectric generator to convert heat into electricity. the wood burning stove can be used to power a fixture right after you. oral tradition thirty minutes on d. w. . o. or.
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one. banksias leeway to. waiting for a lifeline to cereal. good morning where are you acquired and you answering it into . every call brings them closer together. but it hurts because they feel powerless to help. most of the petty like i'm letting people down for what. they worry about the ones they've left behind. but. like trying to be strong but deep down i'm broken that little. the war continues to haunt those who fled from syria. and. i'm trying to reach them but nobody answers the war on my phone or to her
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documentary starts december eighth on t w. ukraine's parliament has voted to impose martial law following russia's seizure of ukrainian warships the incident off the disputed crimea region saw three ukrainian vessels and twenty four sailors detained moscow says the ships were in russian waters the u.s. has accused russia.


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