An eyewitness account from besieged Homs
By Michael Weiss World Last updated: February 29th, 2012
19 Comments
Michael Weiss is the Communications Director of The Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy think tank. A native New Yorker, he has written widely on English and Russian literature, American culture, Soviet history and the Middle East. Follow @michaeldweiss
A wounded Syrian boy lies half-buried in a shelled house in Baba Amr (Photo: AFP/Getty)
I've just had a chilling Skype conversation with a resident in Homs who wishes to be identified as "Sammy". He's in an area of the city close to Baba Amr, though for his safety I won't disclose it.
Sammy told me that the shelling started in the late afternoon there and it "was one of the most terrible days we have ever seen. Everything was shaking".
So is Sammy. It's snowing in Homs right now and I could hear his voice quaver from the cold. He's using a satellite phone to connect to the internet and his laptop runs on a battery that also, inconveniently, has to heat his home. Our conversation was brief.
Sammy confirmed that intense gun battles have raged throughout the city, presumably between the Free Syrian Army and the regime's forces. "We have seen Assad's forces trying to enter the area. They came back in a very fast way, so we know that someone is banning them from entering." (Another eyewitness interviewed early by the Today Programme estimated that 400 FSA fighters were stationed in Baba Amr and that they'd fight to the death to defend the besieged district.)
I asked about activists' accounts of helicopter gunships and even military fighter jets overhead. Sammy said he saw helicopters flying but didn't witness any firing from the air.
He's effectively trapped where he is. Escape isn't possible now because there are snipers stationed everywhere and "they shoot at everything that moves".
"I saw a lot of tanks, they are directly under my home. They move in and out of my street where I am now. When they go out, they become more violent."
I asked what message he had to relay to the world.
"I want them to stop this nightmare. I want them to rescue civilians. There are children here who haven't done anything, they have no fault and they need to be rescued immediately. The world should act seriously. It's not a good situation to say that we're in the 21st century and we can see such horrible things here."
Tags: Homs, Syria
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Showing 19 comments
steve_jacks
29 minutes ago
I feel like a total bast'd but I can't muster any interest in this Syria thing - the more the word "Homs" hits the headlines the more I involuntarily smirk for some reason and dislike myself for it. I don't want anyone to suffer and I'm all for peace, love and justice for all but I have a low boredom threshold on foreign affairs and it is all a long way away involving people about whom I suppose I'm content to know next to nothing. Total bast'd I know, oh well, I'll live with it.
Adrian
Today 12:33 AM
It's difficult to know what's going on when the Media peddles such lies.
Are these fake casualties.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i...
JohanDeMeulemeester
02/29/2012 11:37 PM
This kind of hard core propaganda piece devalues the entire Telegraph name and devalues the work and good name of the more serious journalists employed by the Telegraph.
Pravda journalists are unemployable anywhere else because they are seen as propaganda peddlers ; if the Telegravda is not careful with preserving journalistic integrity this paper will become worthless and the careers of all Telegraph journalists will be harmed by being associated with this kind of hard core propaganda that every single reader here has clearly exposed in the comments below
timothy hardacre
02/29/2012 10:48 PM
Interesting to read an entirely different story being told in www.voltairenet.org of 18 French soldiers captured in Homs and of the journalists being held hostage y units of the FSA
Its time we supported and protected the Christian communities in the ME.Why is General Hague arming the Christian oppressors? Orders from Washington again?
martiness
02/29/2012 10:22 PM
We're repeatedly told that we must differentiate between Islam (good) and "Islamism" (bad).
Isn't it a bit odd then that western policy is all about replacing Islamic regimes with Islamicist ones?
I wonder if there's an agenda thast isn't being shared with us?
geust
02/29/2012 09:44 PM
"I want them to stop this nightmare. I want them to rescue civilians. There are children here who haven't done anything, they have no fault and they need to be rescued immediately. The world should act seriously. It's not a good situation to say that we're in the 21st century and we can see such horrible things here."
This plea could so easily be from Gaza 2009. Except Mike Weiss would not be reporting it.
AlexanderDeLarge
02/29/2012 09:42 PM
Yahoodie propaganda.
windhund
02/29/2012 09:10 PM
How much does the DT charge the HJ society for the weekly propaganda piece?
(Edited by author 4 hours ago)
______ geust
02/29/2012 09:52 PM
The DT has just spiked the comments section for Janet Daley's admittedly pathetic rant at Baroness Tonge for daring to suggest that Israel won't be around forever. So much for free speech, don't how Alex Salmond's going to resist prison when he next suggests the UK's future is limited.
This country's lost the battle on free speech - RIP.
martiness
02/29/2012 08:50 PM
I'm not Jewish.
Why on earth would I want to see the current Syrian regime, which is comparitively tolerant of Christians and other minorities, and nowhere near as misogynistic as shitholes like Saudi, replaced by the same sort of psychopaths who have triumphed in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia?
______ RobotNick
02/29/2012 10:40 PM
Anyone who isn't a sniveling apologist of brutal tyrants.
(Edited by author 3 hours ago)
____________ martiness
02/29/2012 10:57 PM
You might like to complete your sentence
______ JohanDeMeulemeester
02/29/2012 09:14 PM
martiness ; very good points you make.
The Telegraph is owned by catholic proprietors (Barclay brothers) ; it is bizarre therefore that this newspaper is promoting the Al CIAeda terrorists who want to behead christians in Syria and blow up our christian churches.
Syria hosts some of christianity´s most sacred and traditional churches ; it is also home to the Crac des Chevaliers, the Crusader castle which one of the most important preserved medieval castles in the world.
If the Saudi/Israeli funded terrorists take control of Syria they will bomb our christian churches; massacre our priests and rape all our nuns in the many christian missions all around Syria.
Syria has always protected christians ; maybe it is time for the Telegraph to stop waging war on christians and denounce these islamic terrorists that Michael Weiss promotes in his Telegraph blog.
JohanDeMeulemeester
02/29/2012 07:12 PM
Far more interesting is confirmation that 19 French intelligence agents have been arrested inside Syria ; they were also armed with Satellite phones.
-------------------
France negotiating with Syria for release of 19 French intelligence agents
http://www.voltairenet.org/Fra...
______ windhund
02/29/2012 09:05 PM
Good call Sir..
hornblower
02/29/2012 07:04 PM
Perhaps the West could be of some help. We can transport to Homs the 'trained up' armies of Iraq and Afghanistan.
...
Sorry. Not trying to be flippant, here, but is it not possible for the 'Arab and/or Islamic World to do something? Anything?
______ JohanDeMeulemeester
02/29/2012 07:15 PM
Agreed ; the Saudi dictator and his Qatar dictator colleague should intervene to demand free elections and democracy in Syria. The same kind of democracy like in Saudi Arabia where there have never been any elections, where christmas trees and churches are forbidden and where women are not allowed to drive.
____________ chudsmania
02/29/2012 08:47 PM
Dont expect the EU to do anything either , as democracy no longer exists here , with technocrats running countries , illegal bailouts being bandied around , not forgetting countries voting no being told to keep voting until they get the 'right' answer . We need a Free Europe army to defeat this monster , so i can commiserate with the FSA
ryeatley
02/29/2012 06:39 PM
"his laptop runs on a battery that also, inconveniently, has to heat his home"
That's interesting. Why is a battery used for heating? It'd have to be a very big one - an ordinary car battery of say 48AH would supply an ordinary fan heater for about 20 minutes - not much. On the other hand, it would supply a portable computer for about half a day. Surely some mistake!
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