Syrian Rebels Withdraw From Homs

The deadly siege of Homs lasted 27 days.

It ended Thursday with rebels in the Syrian city announcing a “tactical” retreat.

That essentially handed victory to the government, which bombarded rebel-held parts of Homs daily for much of the past month.

A prime target, the neighborhood of Baba Amr, is in ruins.

And the Syrian army says it’s now in control there.

Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with a Syrian opposition activist in Homs on the state of the city in the wake of the fighting.

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Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. The deadly siege of Homs lasted twenty-seven days. It ended today with rebels in the Syrian city announcing their tactical retreat. This essentially hands victory to the government which has bombarded parts of Homs held by rebels every day for much of the past month. A prime target was the neighborhood of Baba Amr and it’s in ruins. The Syrian Army says it’s now in control there. A Syrian opposition activist who uses the name of Abu Abdul Alhomsi is inside Homs now. We reached him on the road. He was with other activists about two miles outside Baba Amr.

Abu Abdul Alhomsi: We can’t stay at one place because they’re using airplanes to discover where connection comes from, they shelled the latest, so we try to move around from house to house or move between narrow streets documenting what is happening.

Mullins: You’re documenting what is happening. So what can you confirm so far that’s been going on?

Alhomsi: Today was the worst. The Assad forces, they pulled their checkpoints from Homs and they shelled the city with heavy weapons and more than seven thousand soldiers, they brought and they’re shelling the area with mortar bombs, rocket launchers, and they try to make ground invasion to the area of Baba Amr. The Free Syrian Army, the guys of the Free Syrian Army, they were trying to protect civilians and protect the fallen journalists that stay in Baba Amr, but finally the Free Army couldn’t defend til the end because that sent more government troops into the area. They cut water and now we are without water for more than three days. We are burning garbage, melting snow in order to have drinking water. We still wonder what the rest of the world is doing right now. I mean…

Mullins: When you say that more than seven thousand forces are there, are you actually seeing any signs of the Syrian forces on the ground?

Alhomsi: They are shelling from around the city. At the same time their snipers, they shoot everything that can move in the street. We try to move now into very narrow streets where troops cannot enter but the shelling is continuous in all these places also.

Mullins: And as the shelling continues, how about people like you? I mean, you’re moving around from place to place, are you yourself armed?

Alhomsi: No, I’m not armed. I’m a civilian. But I’m a contact of media so they, I mean, we are a big target for the attack forces and that’s why we move from place to place in order not to be killed by shelling.

Mullins: You say you’re a big target because you choose to talk to the media.

Alhomsi: Yes.

Mullins: Can you confirm that opposition groups, that the rebels have, as they call it, tactically pulled out of Baba Amr?

Alhomsi: Yes, yes. By the way, I saw today they were, when they entered Baba Amr, they were killing families by machetes.

Mullins: And did you see that for yourself? Can you confirm that?

Alhomsi: Yes. Including one entire family that had been sheltered in Baba Amr, including children and women. That’s what is happening. I mean, the city is living a catastrophe and we really wonder what the world is doing right now. [radio sounds] Yeah, we are moving now. We will hope that we will not get shot by a sniper. So, I mean, we are just trying to survive. This is the life that we live.

Mullins: Do you have any plans to leave the city if things get worse?

Alhomsi: Never, never. We started something, we are going to continue it. We’re going to die here.

Mullins: Thank you for talking to us and please stay safe.

Alhomsi: Thank you.

Mullins: That was a Syrian opposition activist who uses the name Abu Abdul Alhomsi. He spoke to us earlier today from the city of Homs.

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