WASHINGTON
Hundreds of anti-Assad Syrians gathered in the U.S. capital, Washington D.C. on Sunday and vowed to stand against Assad regime until Syria is free.
"Raise your voice to wake Obama up," said Hamid Imam, activist from New Jersey, as crowd was chanting in front of the White House.
Besides the anti-Assad slogans, crowd also protested Daesh the terrorist group operating in Syria and Iraq.
"(Daesh) and Assad are the same, and only difference is the name," the group chanted.
Syria's conflict entered its fifth year, with more than 220,000 people killed and another 3.5 million displaced according to latest U.N. figures. UNICEF says the lives of 14 million children have been devastated.
"Keep the flags high," chanted Mariam Abou Ghazaleh, a Syrian-American poet, who was one of the few leading the group: "Don't be ashamed to carry the flag, that is our freedom, and it will wave in Syria," she said.
Since the conflict started in their hometown, American Syrians are gathering at the same place every year to make sure "The world will not forget that Syrians exist."
"We have to work together," said Damascus Imam Moaz al-Khatib, who is also a former president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.
"We have to unite, and do not forget: freedom is something you take, it is not given."
"All I want is a country, free of fear, and war," said Mariam al-Hafiz, a 21-year-old Syrian who moved to U.S. after the conflict started.
"I want to go back to my country, and continue my life, I want to be in the land where I belong to."
"My people are stuck between a dictator, and the blood thirsty group Daesh," she said. “And the sad thing is, the international community has forgotten about the Syrian people."
White the protesters were chanting in the U.S. capital, Secretary of State John Kerry made a rather unusual comment, saying that the U.S. "have to negotiate in the end" with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, speaking to CBS News in an interview on Sunday.
But Deputy spokesperson Marie Harf tweeted after Kerry's remarks: "Policy remains [the] same and is clear: there's no future for Assad in Syria.”
Mentioning the Kerry's speech during the protest, Hamid Imam said, "Today we tell the Obama administration, we are disgusted.
"There is no negotiating with Bashar-al Assad.”
The conflict in Syria began as an anti-government uprising, on March 15, 2011, but the Assad government's crackdown on the demonstrations ignited fighting that turned into a civil war.
