Rescuing The Saviours

Inside the daring international operation to bring Syria’s famed White Helmets to safety

- Sally Armstrong

IT WAS BLACK AS PITCH on the Syrian side of the border and floodlit on the Israeli side when the curtain rose on a dramatic rescue. Out of the darkness in the Golan Heights they came— the famed Syrian White Helmets—the bankers and barbers and ordinary citizens, known across the world for their courage. They came, exhausted and frightened, walking with their families up the grassy slope in Syria towards the forbidden border with Israel.

Over the course of Syria’s seven-year civil war, these men and women of the Syrian Civil Defence Force had braved barrel bombings and chemical attacks to save more than 1,14,000 citizens who dared oppose President Bashar al-Assad. Now, singled out for torture and death by the regime, they had to be rescued.

IN THE FALL OF 2012, Bashar al-Assad’s government began attacking villages, towns and cities that were against his regime. His claim: Any opposition to his autocratic rule was an act of terrorism. He withdrew all ambulance, fire and rescue services from areas not under government control, leaving citizens helpless. As bombs fell, there was no one to put out fires or help people trapped in the rubble. And when the attacks ended, there was no one to restart the electricity, reconnect water services or repair bridges.

That’s when groups of ordinary Syrians, first in the cities of Aleppo and Idlib and later throughout the rebel-held areas, united to respond.

After receiving training from Mayday Rescue, a UK not-for-profit foundation in Jordan, and with funding from Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, Japan and the Netherlands, what began as the Syrian Civil Defence Force had, by 2014, morphed into a movement of 4,200 volunteers. They worked in approximately 150 rebel towns, villages and cities. Because they donned white construction helmets before going to a rescue they came to be called the White Helmets.