Violence escalated and the country descended into civil war as rebel brigades were formed to battle government forces for control of cities, towns and the countryside. Fighting reached the capital Damascus and the second city of Aleppo in 2012. I entered the country illegally in May of 2012 following a refusal of the Syrian government to reject my entry into Syria in order to report on the growing conflict.

Syria is in the middle of a civil war that has been going on for over nine years. It is being fought between soldiers who support the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, and a group of fighters known as rebels, who don't want him to be in power since 2011.

According to a report in May 2016 by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 60,000 people have been killed through torture or died from dire humanitarian conditions in Syrian government jails since March 2011. As a result, the conflict has become increasingly violent and devastating for the Syrian people. It is estimated that there have been almost 207,000 civilian casualties since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, and about 25,000 of them were children.

Marea, Aleppo, Syrian Arab Republic, Friday, June 29, 2012: This is the gallery of pictures that holds the records of the members of the Free Syrian Army preparing to attack the Minaq airport (Menagh), which is a town near Azaz, 16 km North of Aleppo in northwestern Aleppo Governorate of northern Syria. Minaq was a military airport used by the Syrian Armed forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad who'd send their helicopter to patrol and strike civilian targets across the Northern countryside of Syria, sepcifically towns and villages that were alleged to be hosting and fostering armed members of syrian opposition the Free Syrian Army. The attack was organised by young and middle aged armed residents of Marea and the region, led by their comamnder in chief of the FSA Abdulkadir Alsalih, known as Haji Marea. In the series of these pictures, you can see some young soldiers taking a moment to pray, spending their time eating and laughing together, smoking and joking and later hopped on the civilian trucks carrying their guns such as hand grenades, AK47, manufactured rocket launcher and a dushka anti-air mashine gun to drive towards a strategic position which they thought it was the right one to attack the military airport.

Mare', Aleppo, Syrian Arab Republic, Friday, Jun 29, 2012: When Syrian residents of the city of Mare', which is also spelt Marea take to the streets to protest against Bashar Al-Assad regime, they dance, wave flags, placards and banners as they sing along various songs of joy, freedom and songs for their heroes, they also make a tune with their hands clapping and ground tapping with their feet. Most of the time you see a picture of men and children protesting as women are home busy cooking for the members of the armed forces and other family members involved in what they claimed Revolution. Some women also were sent away for safety reasons because Marea was more often than not shelled by heavy ground artillery or airstrikes. Mare' is a town in northern Aleppo, northwestern Syria. It is the largest town and administrative centre of the Mare' nahiyah in the Azaz District. Located some 25 kilometres north of the city of Aleppo, the town has a population of 16,904 according to the 2004 census.

Marea, Aleppo, Syrian Arab Republic, Wednesday, June 27, 2012: It is summertime and the temperatures wouldn't go any lower than 35 degrees, but this is something that feels almost 40 degrees already throughout an almost deserted land of the Syrian Arab Republic. Certainly, the tempo meter would fearlessly climb up to 43 degrees as the heatwaves would hit hard by noon and then everyone, almost everyone would not be seen in the streets of Marea. While during the night and early mornings people would keep busy organise their armed resistance against the army loyal to Bashar al-Assad, during the daylight the bullets would seize to be fired unless it was necessary. "It is too hot" everybody or some would say. Some would choose to find a good shed to cool off and sleep, and some would choose to take a moment and socialise, while some would wanna smoke shisha and even swim in a local swimming pool. This is the day of the week in Marea, I am not sleeping, but witnessing and documenting the daily routine of a group of young Syrian local residents who also are members of the Free Syrian Army that aims to liberate the country and claim to stand for democratic values. I have to say, that the people of Marea have been the most transparent people I may have ever met throughout a wartime journey. They have been respectful, protective and transparent to me. The access they gave me into their private life as well as into their collective and individual journey for their cause has been of incredible value to me and human history.

Questioning the rule of the Al-Assad family in Syria you'd not go unnoticed. You'd not just be noticed by the government, but, they'd make sure also other people would notice you, not in a good way because by then, you'd be dead. Many people like Kabso would be shot dead, it would be enough reason if armed forces loyal to the Al-Assad family would assume that you're coming from rebelled villages or regions of such attitude.

Anadan, Aleppo, Syrian Arab Republic, Monday, June 25, 2012: Anadan a suburb city of northern Syrian province Aleppo, has been shelled for three consecutive days by the forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad starting on Thursday, June 21, till Monday, June 25th, 2012. The city is recovering, but the only people left behind in this city are young armed and unarmed men of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The shelling started following a battle between rebels and the government forces in Anadan, where four members of the FSA have been injured during an operation to capture weapons including a DShka anti-air machine gun.

Marea, Aleppo, Syrian Arab Republic, July 1, 2012: What was suspected to have been part of a shipment of Swiss-made hand grenades to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which was green-lighted by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) in 2003, evidence shows that they may have been found in Syria's civil war in 2012. Although the company's (Ruag in Switzerland) spokesperson Clemens Gähwiler told SonntagsBlick that it was impossible to be certain as the grenades’ serial numbers were not visible, pictures may confirm the allegations. A Seco spokesperson told Switzerland’s SDA news agency it couldn’t rule out that a number of Ruag hand grenades had ended up in Syria given the illegal onward transfer of part of the 2003–04 shipment made to the UAE.

Marea, Aleppo, Syrian Arab Republic, May 28, 2012: Following an investigation on an organ trafficking chain connected with the police in Kosovo and the alleged assassination of an internationally protected war crime witness, somebody thought that I should die too sometime around January 2012. Since I've had enough evidence to back up that it was the government and the very subjects of my journalistic investigation involved in the attempt, I filed a case in court and decided to leave the country the next day. Off I went to Turkey, and upon landing in Istanbul, my contacts I had created during my 2011 thorough research in Syria's unrest, messaged me saying that they've found a way to smuggle me into the country. I immediately jumped in my computer and booked a flight to the nearest airport that would take me close to the Turkish-Syrian border and met with people there, who smuggled me in. It took us five days to reach the destination, the stronghold of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Marea. And these are amongst my first shots