VIDEO: Under bombs, Syria rescuers forced to save their own

For years, Samir Salim and his three brothers rescued neighbors and relatives pinned underground after bombardment on Syria’s rebel-held Eastern Ghouta. But last week, they could not save their own mother.

Crouched atop the rubble of their home in the town of Medeira, 45-year-old Salim pinches hot tears out of his eyes with dusty, blistered hands.

“It was a very difficult position to be in. It hurts to think that she was a mother of four rescue workers, and none of us could save her,” he tells AFP.

“My mother was so proud of us, and of our work.”
Every day since 2013, Salim and his siblings have chased air strikes on Eastern Ghouta as part of the White Helmets rescue force.

They spend hours searching for and extracting residents of the rebel enclave near Damascus from under blocks of rubble -- dead or alive.

But last Thursday was different.