How the White Helmets of Syria Are Being Hunted in a Devastated Aleppo
'It's a catastrophe'
It should have been a banner month for the White Helmets. The acclaimed Syrian volunteer rescue group is the subject of a documentary that was released on Netflix on Sept. 16. The organization is up for the Nobel Peace Prize next month, and a raft of celebrities including George Clooney, Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake petitioned the prize committee in support of the group’s nomination. On Sept. 22, the White Helmets, who are known inside Syria as the Civil Defense, won the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “alternative Nobel,” honoring the volunteers for their bravery in rushing to the aid of Syrian civilians under relentless bombardment. The group claims to have rescued some 60,000 people since 2013.
But now, the White Helmets have become the targets of that bombing. In the besieged rebel-held section of the city of Aleppo, at least three of the group’s four operations centers were damaged by airstrikes in one night. Many of their vehicles were destroyed. A fire station was heavily damaged. Even the rescue center featured in the Netflix documentary was destroyed.
The attacks are part of new, escalating chapter of the civil war in Syria, in which nearly half a million people have been killed since 2011. The current assault on eastern Aleppo began on the night of Sept. 19, when the Assad regime’s military declared an end to a partial ceasefire that went into effect a week earlier under an agreement negotiated by the U.S. and Russia. That night, regime and Russian aircraft resumed heavy bombardment of rebel-held areas, including an attack on a Red Crescent aid convoy in the rebel-held countryside west of Aleppo that killed at least 20 people and destroyed supplies intended to help more than 70,000 people.
http://time.com/4507009/aleppo-offensive-syria-white-helmets-attack/?iid=sr-link5
Structure of the Lead：
WHO- white helmets
WHEN- Sept. 16.
WHAT- nomination of Nobel and target of bombing
WHY- rescue civilians from bombing
WHERE- Aleppo
HOW- by Syrian volunteer rescue group
keywords
1. acclaimed 廣受好評的
2. documentary紀錄
3. petitioned 請願
4. nomination提名
5. alternative 替代
6. aid援助
7. relentless 狠
8. claims聲明
9. vehicles 汽車
10. regime政權
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