One thing you shouldn’t do in Syria is take a trip in bad vehicle. There’s enough things that will go wrong. Especially don’t ride in a SUV that’s been rolled several times and has no windows and is painted in FSA colors. Especially when you will have to drive for hours through the Kurdish countryside. When it’s raining.

We were attempting to go to Laramoon, the suburb north of Aleppo where the FSA had taken a regime checkpoint and apparently had the Air Force intelligence center surrounded. We arrived wet and cold and the commanders promptly told us all filming/photographing was prohibited. This happens sometimes and it really sucks. They tell you how dangerous it is, usually true, but don’t tell you the other reasons- whether it’s because Islamists are control on the front, they believe all foreign reporters are spies, they generally resent your presence for your country not intervening in Syria etc.

(more…)