aziziya receives sporadic fire from nearby rebels. as in many poor alawite villages, most men are away, fighting in assad's security forces. many alawites believe that the fall of the regime would lead to their death at the hands of the rebels. everyone at the public high school knows that the senior boys may soon be drafted. >> narrator: for generations, the alawites of aziziya had lived peacefully with the sunnis in the valley, even during the first year of the uprising. but as the revolution entered its second year, neighboring sunnis began weekly demonstrations calling for the overthrow of president assad and his regime. watching the demonstrations was local alawite politician bahjat hamdan. >> (translated): most of those areas with different faiths have been incubating environments for groups who have an extremist ideology. it was a plan. weapons were brought in a long time ago. it was all planned. the lads here had been preparing in case the village was attacked. >> narrator: in may last year, as violence spread across syria, fi