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For 20-year-old Mohamed, joining the Friday protests in Doma city was more of an act of adventure than support for a cause. Yet to understand the reason behind the demonstrations, he was unaware of the dangers that lay therein and the concern behind his mother’s warnings.
On the first Friday of November 2011, he witnessed the horror his mother had forewarned him about. As protestors gathered after Friday prayers, chanting slogans against Bashar al-Assad, Mohamed heard a loud bang and fell on the road. Everyone suddenly panicked and rushed for cover.
Mohamed carefully looked around only to find scores of people bleeding and some bodies lying around.
“I was scared when I heard people saying ‘nail bombs exploding, run away before getting hurt’,” he explains.
Soon after the first wave of explosions, the protestors went back to help their injured friends. “I could not believe what I saw. People were crying helplessly with pain while others rushed to provide first-aid.”
According to witnesses, nail bombs are launched in the heart of a demonstration from a car and as bombs explode amongst the demonstrators, the vehicle disappears. Dozens of common iron-nails rocket in the air, causing injuries to people sitting as far away from the street as homes and offices.
Before some the protestors regain sense, the next wave of explosions hits them.
“My friend died after a nail pierced through his neck,” says an activist from Homs, while requesting anonymity.
Following several reports of protestors’ disappearance from Syrian hospitals, victims prefer self-treatment in makeshift field clinics instead of seeking aid at local hospitals. The mortality rate, however, remains high.
“It is difficult to take critical cases to hospitals because we know they will be killed there anyway. This way, at least we get to bury them ourselves,” says Abu Zaid. He laments that many protestors lose their limbs and permanently become disabled due to poor treatment.
While the use of nail bombs is prohibited internationally, Syrian security forces have been using them against protestors since last August. Demonstrators in cities like Doma, Homs and Hama have suffered the highest number of casualties.
Fired from tanks or shoulder mounted launchers, such bombs comprise a large number of nails and ball-bearings and explode with a thunderous blast. Despite having a range of 800 metres, these explosives penetrate only up to five centimetres in the ground but take high toll on the people within their range. Multiple small and deep wounds not only damage nerves but also cause quick deaths. So far, over 6,500 Syrians have been killed in the wake of democratic struggle since March 2011, according to the United Nations’ conservative estimates.
In the Middle East, Syria is the second country to use such prohibited weapons against unarmed civilians after Israel, which has excessively relied on nail bombs.
“Most nail bombs are fired on the left side of demonstrations for a higher possibility of damages to the heart,” says Khalid from Homs who has survived several such attacks.
The highest casualties are amongst Syrian children who insist on accompanying their elders to the protests but are always victims of nails bombs as they cannot stand its damages.
“Out of average 20 injured or dead, most them are brave children,” Khalid says.
While there is no record of Syrians dying with nail bombs, conservative figures put the death toll at 80 a month.
“Today they use nail bombs, tomorrow, they may not hesitate resorting to phosphorous or chemical weapons,” says Abu Zaid, whose pessimism has increased after a Russian navy flotilla was docked on a Syrian port recently.
Despite the bombs and attacks, Syrians have shown defiance as the protests have only grown every passing Friday.
“Each departing soul leaves a will for his family and friends to never idle until the tyrant is overthrown and the country becomes democratic,” Khadijah tells Dawn.com via telephone from Damascus.
Maryam Hasan is a young journalist, whose family struggled against Hafiz Al-Assad’s tyrannical rule and policies. She is using a pen-name due to security reasons.
