WORLD_ Syria attacks: 'If the regime wanted to prove Homs was safe, it failed ...'

Syria attacks: 'If the regime wanted to prove Homs was safe, it failed ...'

French journalist among dead after convoy is attacked on official trip to war-hit city

Ian Black in Homs
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 January 2012 21.44 GMT
Article history


Syria attacks – smoke is seen after a rocket attack on the Akrama neighbourhood in Homs. Photograph: Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images

It was a trip Syria's ministry of information had gone to some lengths to arrange: taking foreign journalists to Homs, where government forces are fighting an opposition they call armed terrorists. But if the regime minders had been hoping to portray a city under government control yesterday, then they most certainly failed. The death of an acclaimed French television correspondent was a stark reminder of what are routine dangers for ordinary people in the war in Syria.

Gilles Jacquier of France 2 was killed along with eight Syrians when mortar bombs or grenades impacted near them. Jacquier was the first western journalist to die in what is currently the bloodiest chapter of the Arab spring as President Bashar al-Assad continues his brutal crackdown.

The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed so far as the result of protests, and that the killings have accelerated since the arrival of Arab League monitors two weeks ago to oversee a plan aimed at halting the bloodshed.

Jacquier was in one of two groups that had been escorted to Homs by government minders to showcase the regime's version of the story. Very few foreign journalists have been allowed to enter the country for the past few months, but more visas have been granted recently, partly as a result of pressure from the Arab League's controversial observer mission.

Homs, with a population of 1 million, is more a warzone than a city, with the majority Sunni population increasingly separate from the Alawite minority. It has suffered badly during the unrest. Parts of the city are without electricity or phones and shortages are rife. Snipers on rooftops are a regular hazard.

The Guardian was also in Homs on Wednesday, but in a separate group from Jacquier, and until a few minutes before the attack had been at the place where he died, near the al-Ahali hospital in the Ikrameh quarter. Film of the incident shot by the pro-regime Addounia TV showed chaotic scenes as the injured were carried into cars and taxis. One of Jacquier's companions said a grenade fell close to the journalists after they had spoken to some young people and fled into a building. A Dutch journalist was among more than 25 people who were injured.

Joseph Eid, a photographer with the AFP news agency, said the attack had come without warning. "We were expecting there to be violence, yes, but we never expected there to be an attack. They had warned us that the two districts attack each other in the evening, they said that after three o'clock in the afternoon it's dangerous, we were there at three, and it started, it kicked off."

Following unconfirmed reports that mortar bombs were used in the attack, the local revolutionary council blamed government forces – claiming that only the Syrian army had mortars. Sana, Syria's official news agency, blamed "terrorists" for the attack and said that mortars had been used.

But the Syrian Revolution General Commission said in a statement: "This is what the regime does to justify its attitude in front of the Arab observers … and also to terrorise the media coverage of [the] Syrian revolution."

France immediately demanded an investigation into the killing. "Gilles Jacquier was just doing his journalist's job by covering the violent events in Syria resulting from the regime's unacceptable repression of the population," said President Nicolas Sarkozy, one of the most hawkish of western leaders on the Syrian crisis.

Jacquier, 43, was a special correspondent for the acclaimed flagship documentary programme Envoyé Spécial on France 2. He had spent two decades covering conflicts from Algeria to Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo, the Balkans and the Arab spring.

Bertrand Coq, who won the Prix Albert-Londres with him, told Agence France Presse: "He was an excellent war reporter. He was fearless. He was the kind of person who stuck his neck out but he never took unnecessary risks … He never came back without the images, never."

Earlier, the journalists had been given a selective tour of Homs, skirting areas deemed dangerous, such as Baba Amr and Khalidiyeh. The itinerary seemed designed to deliver a uniformly pro-government account of life in Syria's third largest city. Many people in the centre of the town were members of the Alawite community, backbone of the Assad regime.

In the al-Shahid military hospital, a soldier named Amr Bidur was recovering from surgery after being shot in an ambush in mid-December. "We all want democracy and freedom in this country, including the president," he said, "but this is not the way to achieve it." Another wounded soldier described being attacked by masked gunmen on his way to a checkpoint.

In the old city markets area, many shops were closed, with soldiers in full combat gear manning positions on street corners. Rubbish had clearly not been collected for some time. Shots could occasionally be heard in the distance. Many people attacked western governments for supporting "terrorists" and supplying them with advanced weapons.

Elsewhere in the city, the revolutionary council issued its daily bulletin, saying: "Sounds of gunfire and explosions fill the air in Homs, just like every day."

In Damascus, Assad was again defiant after a lacklustre and repetitive speech on Tuesday that was widely criticised as having nothing new to say about how to end the crisis. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, called it "chillingly cynical".

"It is important that we maintain our faith in the future," said Assad, who has made few public appearances since the uprising began 10 months ago. "I have that faith in the future and we will undoubtedly triumph over this conspiracy." Flanked by his British-born wife, Asma, and their two children, Assad told thousands of flag-waving supporters in Ummayad square that "victory against terrorists" was near and that "conspirators will fail".

Assad criticised the Arab League observer mission as being ill-equipped to deal with the crisis in Syria given its lack of achievement over the past 60 years. But it faced a highly damaging attack from one of its own members.

Anwar Malek, an Algerian, said he had resigned because the mission was becoming a farce. He said it was not acting independently and was serving the regime's interests. "What I saw was a humanitarian disaster," he told al-Jazeera TV. "The regime is not just committing one war crime, but a series of crimes against its people. The snipers are everywhere, shooting at civilians. People are being kidnapped. Prisoners are being tortured and none were released."

Malek is the first member of the 60-man delegation to break ranks. His fierce criticism echoes regular warnings made by Syrian opposition figures who have claimed throughout the past month that the mission was being manipulated and misled by regime officials.

His comments came as the UN security council was briefed that about 400 people have been killed in Syria since the Arab monitors started working on 26 December. Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, said the figures were "a clear indication that the government of Syria, rather than using the opportunity to end the violence and fulfil all of its commitments [to the Arab League], is instead stepping up the violence."

Wednesday's attack came two days after Arab League monitors were attacked in the Syrian port city of Latakia, with 11 monitors sustaining injuries. An league official said it would delay sending more monitors to the country. A second monitor was also reported to be considering quitting the mission.

If the monitoring mission fails, pressure seems certain to mount to refer Syria to the UN security council, where it has so far been protected from punitive action by its ally Russia, still angry over the Nato-led intervention in Libya.

Additional reporting by Martin Chulov and Angelique Chrisafis



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