Mr. Shehabi, European mainstream media and leading politicians are upset about the liberation of Aleppo by the Syrian Arab Army. They write reports about massacres committed by the army and horrified civilians in Aleppo…

It is the total opposite. The news in Europe is a real problem because they report exactly the opposite of the real facts in Syria. We were able to liberate around 100.000 civilians who were held hostage by terrorists in Aleppo. A lot of them were taken hostage for more than four years. These liberated civilians are happy now. The 1.5 million civilians who left Aleppo since 2012 are now able to come home again. This is a very positive and happy moment for Aleppo and Syria in general. We were able to celebrate Christmas in Aleppo for the first time since 4.5 years – we celebrate Christmas every day now in our city!

So the terrorists left the city completely?

 – Yes, but before they left they executed more than hundred Syrian soldiers and hundreds of civilians. We found their bodies. This is all documented. Any international independent investigation can see and check the evidence of these terrorist crimes. But we are happy that our city is now liberated. Some rural areas around Aleppo are still under terrorist occupation. The next step will be to liberate the countryside so the city is well maintained and well protected.

American made weapons found when Al Nusra left. Photo: Syrian Arab Army

Damascus reported about a huge amount of Western military material such as arms and ammunition in Aleppo…

– What we found there whole weaponry warehouses which were put in former school buildings by the terrorist forces. Our schools were turned into Al Qaida military bases. We found at those Al-Nusra bases – Al-Nusra is a branch of Al Qaida – full with NATO weaponry. We found tons of these weapons. I call that “SyriaGate” – the US and NATO arm and support terrorist gangs which are even on the official UN terror list in order to topple the legitimate government of a sovereign country. This is totally ridiculous of the West…

Why ridiculous?

– Because nobody can guarantee that these weapons will not be used one day against the West itself by these terrorists. American and European tax payer’s money is abused to arm terrorist gangs which are ready to direct their guns any time against America and European civilians. This is a huge scandal.

What do you know about the presence of Western military and intel experts and advisors in the terrorist controlled areas of Aleppo? Earlier reports spoke about captured NATO personnel.

– We didn’t capture any European or American military advisor in Aleppo. However we have reliable information that many of them were there and left the city with the buses we provided for the evacuation of the terrorist forces after their capitulation. Also some of these so-called activists as Bilal Abdul Kareem who is an Afro-American from New York and a loud supporter of the Al Qaida gangs in Syria.

Kareem’s presence in Aleppo was supported by the Obama administration and he was often in Western news introduced as “independent journalist”. And there were many other Western agents and terrorist supporters as well in Aleppo who left the city with the buses. This is by the way the reason why the West pushed so hard for this evacuation. Otherwise all these agents, advisors and supporters would have been captured by us and would have been exposed. That would have been a big embarrassment for the West.

Shehabi calls the discovery “SyriaGate” because it proves the US armed a group that is on its own terror list. Photo: Syrian Arab Army

The fate of Aleppo didn’t play such a big role in Western media for the last 4.5 years. Since the start of the liberation operations of the Syrian Arab Army the situation changed completely: All of the sudden Western media, politicians and NGOs were campaigning – against the Syrian Army. They accused the Syrian Army of committing “genocide” in Aleppo, of bombarding hospitals, of massacring children and babies…

– We Syrians paid in blood and destruction. Our own blood is the currency for these Western lies and this “misunderstanding”. Someone in the West can always say “Oh sorry, I got it somehow wrong!”, but we paid with our blood and our lives for this horrible ignorance. Aleppo was conquered by Al Qaida gangs in summer 2012. There were no Aleppo residence involved, our city was very peaceful, no one took the arms against the government. We were conquered by the terrorists with heavy weapons and they took 70 percent of our city. In 2012 around two million civilians lived in East Aleppo, 1.5 million left the occupied territory to safe zones. Nobody in the West spoke about the displacement of these 1.5 million people who were fleeing into government controlled areas. America and Europe were silent. Nobody in the West was interested in the 11.000 civilians killed by the terrorist gangs in four years of random shellings and bombardments. 30 per cent of these killed civilians are children. 4.5 years we were losing innocent civilians by terrorist grenades, explosives and snipers.

In total several tons of NATO weapons were found in East Aleppo. Photo: Syrian Arab Army

European politicians, media and NGOs seem to care more about the fate of the terrorists than about the civilians of Aleppo?

– There is no other explanation for that behaviour. Again: 4.5 years the terrorists brought the hell to the civilians of Aleppo, but the West didn’t care. When we liberate the terrorist controlled areas the West reacts with a huge campaign against us. At the same time the whole Western media campaigns for liberating the Iraqi city of Mosul from the terrorist gangs of the so-called “Islamic State”. Why is it allowed to liberate Mosul, but forbidden to liberate Aleppo?

This is a big hypocrisy. I recommend to the Western audience to put themselves in our shoes. Imagine that tens of thousands Al Qaida terrorists occupy half of Berlin, Paris or London? What would the people do? They would hope for liberation by their army. We Aleppo people waited 4.5 years for our liberation! But we had to bring that sacrifice in order to minimize the civilian causalities. We had to wait for a superpower – the Russian Federation – to help us. If our Army would have immediately started the counter attack in 2012 we might have had thousands of civilian losses and much more destruction. But we waited and we liberated our city. Thank god.

Interview conducted by Manuel Ochsenreiter