{"id":18452,"date":"2018-10-14T19:24:18","date_gmt":"2018-10-14T19:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18452"},"modified":"2018-10-14T19:24:18","modified_gmt":"2018-10-14T19:24:18","slug":"in-syrias-yarmouk-a-pigeon-keeper-and-his-dog-held-out-through-years-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18452","title":{"rendered":"In Syria\u2019s Yarmouk, a pigeon keeper and his dog held out through years of war"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nYARMOUK, Syria: The Yarmouk district in Damascus has switched hands many times in Syria\u2019s war: from rebels, to Daesh militants, and back to government forces. But Abu Nimr did not budge.
He has remained in his family home with his dog through bombs, siege, and fierce battles for more than seven years, raising pigeons on his roof even as people fled in droves.
Since the army clawed back the enclave around five months ago, he has helped clear heaps of rubble from the streets and repair abandoned houses.
\u201cMy siblings and I lived in this building. They\u2019re all married. They left so their kids could go to school,\u201d Abu Nimr told Reuters in the Yarmouk Palestinian camp in the Syrian capital.
\u201cI thought I\u2019d stay here alone, keep an eye on the family property, and hoped things would be resolved within days. But seven years passed, God kept me patient.\u201d
Abu Nimr, who is originally Palestinian, owned a shop selling sweets like baklawa before the conflict.
At the onset, he stored food from the empty houses of his relatives. As supplies dwindled, he often slept hungry.
\u201cI took a decision seven years ago that weapons are not my thing. Bloodshed is not easy,\u201d he said.
Abu Nimr, 36, did odd jobs over the years and spent time with his dog Balo. \u201cHe was my friend through the siege, and I relied on him to guard the house when I went out.\u201d
When the fighting got too close, he would hide in the furthest room with a hammer in case he had to dig himself out.
The violence has turned his neighborhood into a ghost town, with twisted metal and collapsed walls still blocking some streets. Others are closed off with signs warning of land mines.
By the time the last battle came this year, after scores of residents had escaped or died, only 16 people were left in his neighborhood.
But he refused to leave. \u201cThe people fled? The warplanes dropped bombs? The militants entered? It doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d
Now, Abu Nimr wants to bring life back to Yarmouk and hopes people will be able to return soon.
Former neighbors and residents call him from other parts of Syria or abroad, asking him to check on their homes. They send him some money to clean up and repair damages.
State employees and volunteers have opened all of the main roads, he said. \u201cWe help with what we can.\u201d
\u201cPraise God, now things are much better.\u201d If not for the war, Abu Nimr believes he would be married with kids now. \u201cIf people come back and it gets better, I will re-open a sweets shop right away.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YARMOUK, Syria: The Yarmouk district in Damascus has switched hands many times in Syria\u2019s war: from rebels, to Daesh militants, and back to government forces. But Abu Nimr did not budge.He has remained in his family home with his dog through bombs, siege, and fierce battles for more than seven years, raising pigeons on his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":18453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}