Syria: A War Tearing Apart Families
Updated: 1:38am UK, Wednesday 12 December 2012
By Tim Marshall, Foreign Affairs Editor, in Damascus
At night the Rizak extended family come together in one room and listen to the sounds of shelling, gunfire, and explosions.
They are from Jaramana in Damascus, close to the road leading to the international airport which continues to see fierce fighting between Syrian troops and opposition fighters.
It is a mixed district, but the majority of residents are from the minority Druze and Christian communities.
They mix freely with Alawites and some Sunni Muslims who also live there.
It is a microcosm of Syrian society, one which is slowly being destroyed as people cleave to their own amid the violence pushing them apart from others.
The Rizaks gather in a room away from the windows in case a stray shell hits their building.
Tragedy has already struck them.
Two weeks ago, two car bombs exploded in the street next to their home. Some 68 people were killed and 130 injured. Annan Rizak, 20, was killed alongside his uncle Haldoon.
Annan's father Salim, an engineer, invited us into their front room, reserved for guests, and now adorned with a large photo of the deceased.
Over small cups of Arabic coffee Salim told me of the hopes he had that Annan would have a successful life.
"He was very clever, he always had good grades," he said.
"Now in the evenings, we are all in one room. We sit very close so we can help each other. There is too much noise, too many explosions coming down."
Two floors up, in the same building, Ghias Rizak lies in bed, his leg shattered in the same explosion that killed Annan and Haldoon.
The attack was blamed on then Jihadist al Nusra Front, which has carried out a number of such attacks including suicide bombings. Other victims included Iraqis who had fled the violence in Baghdad.
As we talked Ghias' wife, Malak, bustled in tidying up because of the presence of a TV crew. She insisted we have coffee and eat some fruit and told of how she had heard the first explosion and rushed out onto her balcony to see what was happening.
"I looked down and there was Ghias, and then there was the second bomb, and I saw him thrown several metres by the blast," she said.
Ghias and Malak have two children who join Salim and others in the evenings.
Ghias, who will be off work for three months because of his injuries, said their two children are always asking questions: "Will we go to school tomorrow? Can I see my friends? What is going to happen?"
On the ground floor the family's patio is crowded with bags of candles brought by neighbours of other religions to help them light the house during the frequent electricity cuts, and to remember their loss.
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