The White Helmets

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I am married,

and I have a daughter.

Her name is Amal.

Kiss me, kiss me.

Don't give Mom a hard time. Okay?

My family is very important to me.

I'm always worrying about them.

I have a strong belief in my work

for the White Helmets.

And every time I'm on a rescue mission,

I think about them.

Abu Omar!

Abu Omar!

Hello. Where is your dad?

Where is Abu Omar?

- He's ready.

- Is he ready?

Okay, tell him to come down

and we'll go to the center.

The morale of the White Helmets

is always high.

We are always ready

to respond to incidents.

But we just hope that the bombing

and air strikes stop.

Mom, where are you?

Do you need anything?

We have to admit that the situation

in Syria is going from bad to worse.

There is no solution on the horizon.

The situation is sad.

Syria is sad.

Before joining the White Helmets,

I was with an armed group.

I fought for the opposition

for three months.

But I saw that the regime's campaign

was targeting civilians.

And I thought, "It is better to do

humanitarian work than to be armed.

Better to rescue a soul

than to take one."

It's the Russians.

Come on, guys, quickly!

Go! Go!

Make a turn and come back!

We, the White Helmets, are the first

to arrive when there is bombing.

If you don't have some courage,

you wouldn't continue doing what we do.

Go here!

Any human being, no matter who they are

or which side they're on,

if they need our help...

it's our duty to save them.

Does anybody need rescuing?

There's nothing. Right?

Abu Feras lives there, but I don't know

whether he was in or out.

- Here?

- He's got an iron door.

We can't get a sense

if he's in or not.

Can we get in via your balcony?

Whenever I'm on a rescue,

I try as hard as possible

to save every person under the rubble,

whether they are young or old.

I consider them all

to be my family.

He usually goes out during the day

and comes back at night.

There's nothing more

upstairs, right?

There's nothing,

but just check on Abu Mahmoud.

Abu Mahmoud!

- There's no one here.

- Thank God.

Brother, ask people about him

and keep an eye out for him.

Don't forget about him.

Whatever you need,

we're the White Helmets.

There are a number of injuries

and possibly two people killed.

There is nothing more.

We're heading back to the center.

I have been with the White Helmets

for three years.

I've seen many people

who have died in bombings.

I've also seen many people

who were rescued alive.

Abu Waleed, give me a crowbar.

I want to look under the mattress.

But the hardest thing

is seeing dead bodies.

This affects me a lot.

Guys, don't come closer.

Get me a corpse bag.

But this is my duty and my job.

I have to do it for the people,

for the civilians.

Only her relatives, please.

People who are not doing anything,

please leave.

Her hand is stuck.

They've struck!

Get down!

On the ground!

The situation is very difficult

in Syria right now.

Especially with Russia's intervention

to support the regime.

They say that they are fighting ISIS,

but they are targeting civilians.

The casualties are rising daily.

The bloodbath is not stopping.

I've lost two colleagues

very dear and precious to my heart.

They were taking part

in a rescue of civilians.

A week before, we had all been together,

working, eating and drinking...

and then they were dead.

Many of my colleagues

have been killed.

In Aleppo city alone,

we've lost 30...

Thirty White Helmets.

Please, Dad, don't leave me.

All lives are precious and valuable.

A child, even if he is not my son,

is like my son.

I cannot explain it.

As an example, I'll tell you a story

that happened to us in Aleppo.

Two barrel bombs

were dropped in the Al-Ansari area.

The first one left

a number of people wounded,

but the second barrel bomb

killed a lot of people.

We went into the area.

It was like a small village

made of ten houses,

and all the buildings

had been leveled to the ground.

On that day,

our work was very hard

and we worked for about 16 hours.

I thought that I was searching

under the rubble

for a baby that had died.

But all glory is to God.

We were not meant to leave the area

without hearing a sound.

When I heard the sound of a baby...

my feeling was indescribable.

This gave us renewed strength

to continue to work.

It gave us hope

that some people were still alive.

After 16 hours under the rubble,

a baby less than a month old,

still alive...

under the dust...

under the ceilings

that had fallen on him...

We called him the "miracle baby."

The baby was one week old

and at that time my son,

Abdul Hameed,

was almost two weeks old.

I don't know how it came to my mind,

but I imagined that this was my son.

And I started to cry.

I couldn't hold it in,

and all my colleagues started to cry.

The hope is that you guys will convey

the information you're learning

to other White Helmets in Syria.

We are under a lot of pressure right now

to train as many people as we can.

God willing.

Today, we will review listening devices

for locating people

trapped under the rubble.

Can anybody hear me?

Don't move.

If you can't hear anything,

move the position of the sensor.

It's a hard feeling,

that you are away from your family...

but life requires sacrifice.

So now we are sacrificing a whole month

to gain expertise.

This training course means

that we'll gain a lot of experience.

Our job depends on speed

and accuracy

to be able to save lives

and extract victims

from under the rubble.

Is anybody here from Hayyan?

Two White Helmets

were killed from there.

Guys, Marwan

and Ahmad Daboul were killed.

And their brother is injured.

The three are all White Helmets

from Hayyan.

- Today?

- Yesterday.

All White Helmets are targeted.

We're all targets.

We were training on the ropes

when they sent us the news.

Read the opening chapter

of the Qu'ran for their souls.

May God accept them.

Everyone knows the truth about Syria,

but no one's been able to stop

the killing and fighting...

or stop the bloodshed and the massacres

that are being committed.

Early reports suggest

15 people have been killed so far.

Is the area populated?

A wedding hall was completely destroyed

and five or six buildings.

Abu Omar wants to talk to you

to check on his brother and son.

They work in that area.

Okay.

Hello.

Hello.

I can't get hold of my brother or my son.

I'm sorry to be bothering you,

but please can you go and check on them

and then update me?

Just go to my brother's, okay?

And he will find my son.

This must be the strongest car bomb

to ever hit Aleppo.

I didn't know who was speaking.

Who?

Listen to it.

My son.

This is my son.

In my whole life, I've never seen

so much destruction.

This is my son.

Yeah, thank God.

But, brother,

what's really the difference

between my son

and another person's?

Aren't they all innocent?

What's their sin, whoever it is?

ISIS on the ground

and the Russian planes above.

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