Former Al-Jazeera journalist Ali Hashem [he now writes for Al-Monitor] reported that as early as April 2011 armed men were crossing into Syria from Lebanon fighting the Syrian Army. He had taped their movement, but Al-Jazeera refused to broadcast them, which eventually led to Hashem’s resignation. In an interview Hashem said, „It was clear the protests started peacefully [this is generally agreed on], but it seems that quickly it went into militarizing. Some external factors or factions wanted the resolution to be militarized and they wanted to face al-Assad’s crackdown with weapons“