On Oct. 7 my interpreter Juma and I went on one of the world’s most lethal road trips — a daylong jaunt from Reyhanli, Turkey to Areha, on the outskirts of Idlib, to see the Sham Falcons brigade of the Free Syrian Army in combat with the regime of Syrian Pres. Bashar Al Assad.
We were shot at, bombed and passed through a couple of shady checkpoints — and nearly ran headlong into a serious, um, problem in an olive grove.
But unlike scores of foreign aid workers, activists and journalists and countless Syrians over three years of conflict, we were not abducted. We did not get killed.
Our little tour of Hell was a lot of fun. Except when it wasn’t.
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