Jihadi Fighters Win Hearts And Minds By Easing Syria's Bread Crisis

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

In Syria, the staple of most meals is bread; thin, round, flat bread that we would probably call pita. Back in November, as fierce fighting raged across Syria, people started to run out of bread. Government forces were attacking bakeries in rebel-held areas, and cutting off electricity so mills couldn't grind flour. By late last year, Syrians were desperate. Now, the crisis has been somewhat alleviated, surprisingly by a group the U.S. government has designated as terrorist. NPR's Kelly McEvers sent this report from Aleppo.

[POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: In the original production of the audio for this piece, a number of elements were inadvertently placed in the wrong sequence. The incorrect audio version has been replaced with one that is accurate. This transcript reflects the corrected audio.]

KELLY MCEVERS, BYLINE: Let's start this story with one of the most interesting people we met in Aleppo. His name is Raafat al-Rifai. Raafat is a journalist. But like a lot of young Syrians, he's also an activist. Raafat is part of Aleppo's Transitional Revolutionary Council. It's basically a group of civilian leaders trying to solve Aleppo's problems.

Raafat has taken up residence in an abandoned bank on the outskirts of the city. There's no electricity. It's dark and cold. All he has are cigarettes.

(SOUNDBITE OF VOICES)

MCEVERS: Pretty soon after we sit down, some guys come to the door. They tell Raafat they need bread. Raafat says there are four main grain compounds in Aleppo Province. These compounds grind grain into flour, and store the flour in silos. Back in November, they all shut down.

RAAFAT AL-RIFAI: (Foreign language spoken)

MCEVERS: Raafat says rebel fighters known as the Free Syrian Army - or FSA - along with civilian leaders, went and convinced two of the compounds to re-open. With aid money they'd collected, the council helped the compounds get fuel for generators, and they offered protection. Flour made it to some of Aleppo's bakeries, and the bread crisis started to ease.

(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER)

MCEVERS: Still, though, in neighborhoods like this one, a woman waiting in a long line says she waits for days to get bread. Rebels in the FSA get to jump to the front of the line.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: (Through Translator) It's been three days that I've been coming, and I didn't get bread. That's - wait; when you will see the FSA coming, they just get the bread. They get what they want, and they just leave. And we tell them; we tell them, give us, also, some bread - we are the same as you.

MCEVERS: People all over the city have been getting frustrated with the FSA rebels. Then about a month ago, something happened. That's when armed Islamist fighters, with a group called Jabhat Al-Nusra, took over all four grain compounds. They provided fuel and protection. More bakeries opened.

When the group was first formed about a year ago, Jabhat Al-Nusra said its aim was to create an Islamic state in Syria. Back then, it carried out Al-Qaida-style suicide attacks on Syrian government interests. Then the group changed tactics, and began fighting alongside FSA rebels on the ground. It's thought the well-trained and well-equipped Jabhat Al-Nusra is why rebels have succeeded in taking government military bases. Now, Jabhat Al-Nusra is all about winning hearts and minds.

(SOUNDBITE OF GENERATOR)

MCEVERS: It's about noon at this bakery in Aleppo. The noise is from an enormous generator that powers the place. Bread is usually sold in the morning. The few people gathered outside the closed gate are late.

So the gate is opening?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: (Translating) Give us bread.

MCEVERS: The guys who have bread, have guns. They also wear black headbands with an Islamic creed written in white.

(SOUNDBITE OF GENERATOR, KNOCKING)

MCEVERS: The fighters invite us inside, then immediately disappear. The customers keep knocking on the gate. We're taken upstairs to meet the owner, Abu Kamel.

ABU KAMEL: (Foreign language spoken)

MCEVERS: Abu Kamel says Jabhat Al-Nusra fighters came to him about a month ago, to sell him flour. They helped him get fuel for the generator, and offered him protection. His bakery used to make fine pastries. But he switched to bread when the fighting got heavy. He says Jabhat al Nusra saved his business.

KAMEL: (Through translator) They came to me and offered me because they knew that I would have been forced to close it.

MCEVERS: Now, back to Raafat. It turns out that in addition to his work with the Revolutionary Council, he's one of the few journalists who's been granted extensive access to Jabhat al Nusra. Raafat was able to meet the group several hours a day, several days in a row. He says the hardest thing was not being able to smoke his unholy cigarettes. Western journalists are almost always denied access to the group.

Raafat says because Syrians see so little support from the international community, and because FSA rebels are seen as corrupt and disorganized, Jabhat al Nusra is filling the gap.

AL-RIFAI: (Through translator) The Jabhat al Nusra is not only trying to provide religious alternative, it is trying to provide an alternative for the government, an alternative for the Transitional Revolutionary Council, and also an alternative for the international community.

MCEVERS: So they don't like this council, this Transitional Revolutionary Council.

AL-RIFAI: (Through translator) They don't like anyone.

MCEVERS: Especially Alawites, who adhere to an obscure version of Islam, and many of whom support Syria's government. It's clear not everyone in Aleppo is happy with how Jabhat al Nusra is doing.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING PROTESTERS)

MCEVERS: In the Bustan al Qasr neighborhood, people march past Jabhat al Nusra's base, demanding electricity and flour. We later saw people arguing with a Jabhat al Nusra fighter. Requests at the door were referred to another office.

And in that same neighborhood, civilians are trying to work with FSA rebels, to clean up their act. Mohammad Aoun al Maarouf is a former P.E. teacher who now heads a kind of community policing center, in a building that used to be a kindergarten. Teletubbies and flowers are painted on the walls of the courtyard.

This is the prison.

UNIDENTIFIED MEN: Yes.

MCEVERS: Is anybody in there?

(SOUNDBITE OF KEYS, DOORS OPENING)

MCEVERS: The prison is really just a small storage room. Three guys lie on mattresses, in the dark. One says he was roughed up by FSA rebels.

MOHAMMED AOUN AL MAAROUF: (Speaking foreign language)

MCEVERS: Maarouf says he runs a unit of about 32 men who police the neighborhood. If they see FSA rebels abusing people at checkpoints or bakeries, or looting, they detain them and call them in for questioning. If there's enough evidence, they send them to civil court. We ask Maarouf about Jabhat al Nusra. He's tight-lipped. Our work is separate from them, he says. He says his group has received its own donations of flour, and is giving it directly to the people. We ask him why men with guns should listen to him.

I would say, well, who appointed you? Who gave you this power? Where did it come from, you know?

MAAROUF: (Speaking foreign language)

MCEVERS: Here's what I tell them, he says. It's the same power that made you think you could carry weapons in the first place. Kelly McEvers, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.