their fortified positions. this is new. the rebels finally have a safe haven. translator: bashar and his supporters are cowards. the tyrant regime controls only where it keeps the tanks. that s it. reporter: eventually, we reach ali s unit. these are his men. his brothers in arms. four of them are actually his own brothers. but he s about to put their lives on the line. ali sends his brother ahmed, his top lieutenant, to lead a dangerous scouting mission into their hometown called marayan to assess the strength of assad s military positions there. so we re now in between two syrian army posts. there s one down that street and another in that direction. reporter: ahmed takes us to a house to show us the government outpost.
assad s army will disintegrate. reporter: but those weapons are in short supply. ali s unit only has about 150 guns, a few rocket-propelled grenades, and a handful of homemade bombs. ali s brother ahmed managed a restaurant before the war. now he s cooking up fertilizer and sugar into explosives for the planned assault on government forces occupying marayan. but it s a recipe he still hasn t quite figured out. the pot gets too hot, and the mix goes up in flames. it s a mistake they can t afford to make. it s time now for ali and his war council to decide if they can attack government forces in marayan. but in the end ali decides he can t do it, not yet. he doesn t have enough guns. his explosives are ruined.