Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS

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Sebastian junger: When a

society collapses into anarchy

And violence, civilians

inevitably take matters

Into their own hands.

They form armed militias.

They put up

checkpoints and roadblocks.

They kill or expel anyone

in the area who might threaten

Their grip on power.

Sebastian junger: In

that kind of environment,

Radical ideologies are

almost guaranteed to take hold.

Radicalism

depends on desperation.

It depends on grievance.

And it then provides its

own harsh answers to the

Corruption and the

violence that afflict much

Of the world.

Sebastian junger: People will

always turn to radicalism once

They have exhausted

every other option.

Militant:
Allahu akbar,

allahu akbar.

Sebastian junger: They have to.

Their very

survival is at stake.

Robin yassin kassab: At first it

wasn't a revolutionary movement.

They weren't calling for

the fall of the regime or

The execution

of the president.

Robin ysssin kassab:

It was very simple.

"we want our

children to be released."

They were

calling for dignity,

Which is important

in a country where people

Were used to being

humiliated and pushed around.

Sarah chayes:
It's really

remarkable the degree to which

Corruption has played an

important role in driving a

Variety of security crises

that had been breaking out in

The last five to ten years.

Every single one of the

arab spring revolutions was

Explicitly an

anti-corruption revolution.

These were countries run

by extremely sophisticated

And successful

criminal organizations.

The people who are paid to

uphold the law are the very

Ones violating it.

It's humiliating.

Tunisia catches fire.

Libya catches fire.

Egypt catches fire.

Bashar al-assad looks

at that and says,

"I'll be damned."

So he was willing

to respond to peaceful

Demonstrations with

maximal use of force.

Sarah chayes:
The

bet that he made was

"there's, at this

point, no compromising

With this movement so

if I wanna stay in power,

I have to absolutely

take it to the limit."

Robin yassin kassab:

Very quickly we got into this

Cycle of protests that

were met by gunfire which led

To funerals the next day.

The funerals

became bigger protests.

The demands, then,

began to get bigger.

Social justice and freedom,

an end to corruption.

The regime responded again

with more and more violence.

Zaidoun al-zoabi: I

participated in demonstrations

And I was

detained twice afterwards.

In that jail, I

witnessed at least the death

Of 80 people who died

just because of the conditions.

There was no oxygen,

there was no medicine.

There was no space for you.

You can't sleep,

there's no sleep.

Wardens did not

have to beat us.

We used to do it

to each other.

You know, just like a couple

of rats put in a small, small,

Small space, and we were,

we were just biting each other.

It is a factory of terrorism.

You would go inside as

an ordinary person and

Leave as a terrorist.

Linda ibrahim:

I was almost 16, 17

When the

revolution started.

I wanted to do something.

I mean, I wanted to

participate in demonstrations.

I wanted these

things to stop.

Emely issa:
That night,

I tried to prevent them.

I told them you are young

and we don't know yet how will

The regime

behave against you.

I was afraid

they will shoot.

They will shoot.

I tried, but they

insisted so I told them

"okay, I will

be in front of you.

I will be the first, but you

have to follow my instructions."

Emely issa:
If god gave

me 1,000 years to live,

I will never

forget that sound.

Linda ibrahim:
When

you see such sufferings,

There is no childhood.

So many of my

friends were killed.

And this is the

hardest thing, you know.

Before, we wanted many

things, we wanted to change,

But now we just want

peace, you know, for,

Stop killing

children, I mean.

Stop killing

innocent people.

Bbc news:
Mr. President,

human rights watch, for example,

30th of January this year,

has said that forces loyal to

Bashar al-assad "have

deliberately and viciously

Attacked civilians in

opposition-held areas using

Bashar al-assad:
No, there's

no indiscriminate weapons.

When you, when you shoot,

you aim, and when you shoot,

When you aim you aim

at terrorists in order

To protect civilians.

Again, if you're talking

about casualty, that's war.

You cannot have

war without casualty.

Man:
Alahu akbar...

Alahu abkar.

Robin yassin kassab:

The regime wanted a war.

This sounds strange.

Why on earth would any

regime, or government,

Or state provoke a

war against itself?

Robin yassin kassab: The

regime knew very well that it

Couldn't survive a

genuine reform process.

If there was a

real reform process,

One thing would

lead to another.

There would, there would

be more and more transparency,

More and more crimes would

be exposed, and in the end,

At best, the president and

his top officers would have

Ended up in prison

stripped of their stolen wealth.

They thought that in a

military conflict, in a war,

They could win because

they had done it before.

Under hafez al-assad,

the father of bashar in 1982,

They used artillery,

they used aerial bombardment,

They probably used

chemical weapons,

And they killed

somewhere between 10,000 and

40,000 people, and the memory

of that terror kept the syrian

People silent until 2011.

Reporter:
Pictures have

emerged today apparently

Showing members of the

syrian army defecting to join

Protesters in

the city of homs.

Robin yassin kassab: You

have a growing number of local

Volunteers and a growing

number of military defectors

Who were joining together

to form into hundreds of

Self-defense militias which

eventually all came together

Under the umbrella titled,

"the free syrian army."

Ahmed:
These groups the

fsa had in aleppo at that

Time were really helpful.

Once in salaheddin, I

was demonstrating in there.

People start just

falling on the ground that,

From shooting

from the regime.

They closed the road on us.

Ahmed:
And then, like out

of nothing, like angels,

Somebody shoot the

thugs and they fell

And they were

able to escape.

Soldier:
Takbir!

Fsa soldiers:
Allahu akbar!

Soldier:
Takbir!

Fsa soldiers:
Allahu akbar!

Soldier:
Takbir!

Christoph reuter: The

propaganda of the regime was

"we are not confronted

with a local revolution

Of people who

demand rights.

No, we are confronted with a

foreign-funded jihadi movement."

Peter bouckaert:

Actually, a lot of the

Jihadists were

released by the syrian regime

In the very early

stage of the conflict.

There was an amnesty which

allowed a lot of people with

Very nasty records to be

freed from custody in syria.

It was a strategy of survival.

Robin yassin kassab: The

regime thought enough people

In the outside world would

be scared away from the

Revolution by the size of

these bearded working classmen

With kalashnikovs

and they were right.

And america, in 2011,

2012, they were saying,

"we can't allow

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