:00:16. > :00:22.This is our only way into Homs. A city under siege.
:00:22. > :00:28.A secret tunnel to rebel-held areas, their sole link to the outside
:00:28. > :00:38.world. And above is, a killing ground.
:00:38. > :00:39.
:00:39. > :00:47.GUNSHOT. Tonight, Panorama takes you inside
:00:47. > :00:51.the Syrian regime's bloodiest assault on its own people.
:00:51. > :00:59.Over four months we were smuggled in and out to cover a life or death
:00:59. > :01:02.struggle for democracy. I've never seen the ferocity, the
:01:02. > :01:07.sheer bloody-mindedness of them to eradicate the place of both
:01:07. > :01:13.buildings and people. Now, the uprising in Homs has been
:01:13. > :01:17.crushed, and the regime is facing allegations of war crimes. Still,
:01:17. > :01:27.Western governments agonise, arming the rebels could lead to Civil War,
:01:27. > :01:41.
:01:41. > :01:46.but if they don't, how else can the We first entered Syria late last
:01:46. > :01:50.year, illegal, from neighbouring Lebanon.
:01:50. > :02:00.The regime doesn't allow free access for journalists.
:02:00. > :02:08.
:02:08. > :02:17.We follow men running guns to the insurgents. Each carries three
:02:17. > :02:24.rifles. The last smugglers to pass this way,
:02:24. > :02:34.just a few hours earlier, were ambushed by an army patrol.
:02:34. > :02:35.
:02:35. > :02:43.The next day, activists lead us into Homs.
:02:43. > :02:53.They're risking their lives to help us. Final destination, the district
:02:53. > :02:56.
:02:56. > :03:02.of bar Baba Amr. We are warned if the army spots us they will shoot.
:03:02. > :03:06.The city we have entered is Syria's third largest. Homs is the toughest
:03:06. > :03:12.centre of resistance to the country's police state. Nowhere
:03:12. > :03:16.more than the district of Baba Amr, home to 30,000 people.
:03:16. > :03:23.That night, we are taken to a street protest.
:03:23. > :03:27.However tiny, this is part of what they call Free Army.
:03:27. > :03:37.For the protesters, just being here could mean arrest.
:03:37. > :03:37.
:03:37. > :03:41.This is an act of defiance, this is the Syrian uprising.
:03:41. > :03:45.They've been doing this every day for nearly a year.
:03:45. > :03:51.And they have to protest here, in these side streets, or risk being
:03:51. > :04:01.shot. They exercise liberty as they have
:04:01. > :04:09.
:04:09. > :04:16.only dreamt of it before, like President Bashar al-Assad and his
:04:16. > :04:26.father be before -- before him have ruled over Syria for 40 years, the
:04:26. > :04:27.
:04:27. > :04:33.regime says these people are criminals and terrorists.
:04:33. > :04:38.Dissent is met with brute force. In Baba Amr they're hemmed in by
:04:38. > :04:44.armoured vehicles. In the district's streets, the fear
:04:44. > :04:50.is suffocating. Surrounded by children and
:04:50. > :04:56.grandchildren, we meet Yasukichi Takayama. She tells me she lost
:04:56. > :05:02.three generations of her family in the past few months. Her grand son
:05:02. > :05:07.Khalid was killed by Syrian forces, he had simply gone out to get food.
:05:07. > :05:14.TRANSLATION: On Friday, there was no bread. So he said, "I will bring
:05:14. > :05:19.you some from our house." On the way, a shell came down and hit him
:05:19. > :05:23.on his shoulder. Her son, Ali was shot and killed as
:05:23. > :05:27.he joined a protest after praying at the mosque.
:05:27. > :05:33.TRANSLATION: Given our situation, I expected something like this. The
:05:33. > :05:38.way that they are hitting us. I expected such a thing. The protest
:05:38. > :05:48.was peaceful, they were holding olive branches and shouting, "God
:05:48. > :05:48.
:05:49. > :05:51.is great." Her husband, and a brother-in-law died too.
:05:51. > :05:56.In response, militiamen have taken to the streets.
:05:56. > :06:01.They are here, they say, to protect the people. Part of a new force,
:06:01. > :06:06.the Free Syrian Army. All are deserters from the
:06:07. > :06:12.government forces. TRANSLATION: They told us to shoot
:06:12. > :06:19.the protesters. I refused. I cannot kill my own countrymen.
:06:19. > :06:22.The officers are pigs. I furnished my gun around and --
:06:22. > :06:30.turned my gun around and shot at the officer who gave the order. I
:06:30. > :06:34.shot at him and ran. Almost from the beginning, it's
:06:35. > :06:39.been Syrian government propaganda that armed groups or armed gangs as
:06:39. > :06:43.they are described are supporting the opposition. Now, after months
:06:43. > :06:51.of protesters being shot down in the streets, that myth has become a
:06:51. > :06:58.reality. More and more a joining the
:06:58. > :07:01.insurgent. A gun battle signals another
:07:02. > :07:06.deforeign exchange. Soldiers are running into Baba Amr under cover
:07:06. > :07:14.of darkness, fired on by members of their old unit. Five make it out,
:07:14. > :07:18.but a sixth man does not. TRANSLATION: We heard him screaming
:07:18. > :07:25.but then we were under heavy fire. We could not go back to get him.
:07:25. > :07:31.The other soldiers were chasing us. How many follow these men to join
:07:31. > :07:39.the Free Army will determine the outcome of the revolution.
:07:39. > :07:45.New front lines were emerging, following sectarian divisions.
:07:45. > :07:51.Most of the country is Sunni Muslim, but its rulers come from a minority
:07:51. > :07:54.sect, the Alawites. Syria is not yet a simple story of Sunnis
:07:54. > :08:01.against Alawites and their allies, the Shi' ites and the Christians,
:08:01. > :08:09.but it could become that. From Baba Amr, it was starting to
:08:09. > :08:14.look like a war of neighbourhood against neighbourhood.
:08:14. > :08:20.Abu Mohammed is one of its defenders. Before the uprising he
:08:20. > :08:23.was a tobacco smuggler, he says that there was no other work for
:08:23. > :08:28.Sunni Muslims. Now he is one of those in charge. He says government
:08:28. > :08:32.snipers attack from just across the road.
:08:32. > :08:38.GUNFIRE The gunmen here insist that their role is soley to protect the
:08:38. > :08:45.civilians. But there is no doubt, the conflict
:08:45. > :08:50.is escalating. TRANSLATION: We set out to ambush
:08:50. > :08:56.some of the sniechers, firing at civilians from the rooftops. Thanks
:08:56. > :09:04.be to God, we succeeded in killing at least one.
:09:04. > :09:10.-- snipers. These are the streets of Baba Amr,
:09:10. > :09:12.but the target for the district's new breed of journalist, like this
:09:12. > :09:18.Syrian, remains President Bashar al-Assad.
:09:18. > :09:25.After he shot the first bullet, killed the first guy, he put fear
:09:25. > :09:31.in our hearts. No-one was scared anymore. We would rather die rather
:09:31. > :09:34.than live under his control. Baba Amr's people had a promise from the
:09:35. > :09:44.rebels, that they would never abandon them, but we were left
:09:44. > :09:47.wondering how long could they hold out? After two months we are able
:09:47. > :09:52.to return to Homs. Still it is in rebel hands.
:09:52. > :09:57.On the way, we meet a large group of Free Army fighters.
:09:57. > :10:01.We join them as they prepare to attack a nearby army base.
:10:02. > :10:06.They're going to fry to get this bomb up to the entrance and
:10:06. > :10:13.detonate it. It's just before dawn.
:10:13. > :10:18.The attack is big. 100 men. They seem well-trained and have a battle
:10:18. > :10:22.plan. They are to start it by firing the
:10:22. > :10:32.heaviest weapons in their Arsenal, even though they have just two of
:10:32. > :10:36.
:10:36. > :10:44.Then the base starts to return fire. Just as our cameraman Fred Scott is
:10:44. > :10:49.filming. The sun came up, the shooting
:10:49. > :10:59.started. Nothing really went to plan.
:10:59. > :11:05.
:11:05. > :11:11.The rebels mainly have Kalashnikovs, the army have artillery.
:11:11. > :11:17.Mortars start to drop on the hillside.
:11:17. > :11:23.We were pretty much pinned down the whole time until it was time to go.
:11:23. > :11:32.Move with the guys. After nearly an hour of exchanging
:11:32. > :11:42.fire like this, we had to run away. Get across this fast. Go! That is a
:11:42. > :11:47.
:11:47. > :11:50.bad place, here. GUNFIRE
:11:50. > :12:00.They don't get their bomb even close to the base.
:12:00. > :12:12.
:12:12. > :12:16.The attack has failed. Can you tell me when?
:12:16. > :12:23.All of these men are Syrian army defectors. They've been attacking
:12:23. > :12:31.in the base below, men, who until only recently, were their comrades
:12:31. > :12:36.in arms. That's a mortar.
:12:36. > :12:41.Oh, it was a tank. Remarkably, they escape without casualties.
:12:42. > :12:51.The rebels believe that most of the army wants to join them.
:12:51. > :12:55.But the commander of this rebel unit is tired of waiting.
:12:55. > :13:00.TRANSLATION: If they wanted to defect they would have come long
:13:00. > :13:03.ago. The crimes of the President Bashar al-Assad regime, until the
:13:03. > :13:10.start of the revolution until now are clear, so they don't have
:13:11. > :13:15.excuses not to defect. They should be with us.
:13:16. > :13:20.For some, this is a religious war. One that they feel they are winning,
:13:20. > :13:28.but while we were with them, the regime was preparing an offensive.
:13:28. > :13:38.It would start just a few miles away in Homs.
:13:38. > :13:43.The shelling is relentless. It is indiscriminate.
:13:43. > :13:48.Artillery, against residential areas.
:13:48. > :13:55.Allah Akbar. We head towards the city. We are
:13:55. > :14:00.told it is impossible to get N The government's army is attacking
:14:00. > :14:04.from the Christian, Shi'ite, and Alawite areas. The rebel Free Army
:14:04. > :14:10.has fallen back to the Sunni enclave of Baba Amr. It is
:14:10. > :14:17.surrounded. But the rebels have a lifeline, a
:14:17. > :14:22.tunnel right ound the -- right under the front lines. We slip
:14:23. > :14:27.through the outer cordon around Homs. This was the uprise's best-
:14:27. > :14:34.kept secret, the only way in or out of Baba Amr.
:14:34. > :14:38.We ran into a metal shed. There was a gaping hole and six inches of mud
:14:38. > :14:46.and climbed down the rungs about 20 feet into pitch blackness. Thinking
:14:46. > :14:53.what the hell is going on here? It's a water course, two miles long,
:14:53. > :15:02.less than five feet high. I'm ahead, but Fred Scott is filming behind me.
:15:02. > :15:12.We tried to run... We don't want to be here. If a Syrian patrol starts
:15:12. > :15:15.
:15:15. > :15:20.Above ground, we emerge into a ghost town.
:15:20. > :15:24.It already seems very different from the last time we were here.
:15:24. > :15:34.The streets are empty. Everyone's waiting for the next
:15:34. > :15:41.
:15:41. > :15:51.round of shelling. Allah Akbar. Shells come in every few seconds.
:15:51. > :15:57.It's not a battle, Baba Amr has no heavy weapons.
:15:57. > :16:00.The shelling's been going on all morning now. What you hear over and
:16:00. > :16:09.over again from the people is that they feel abandoned by the outside
:16:09. > :16:14.world. We take cover in a house. A family
:16:14. > :16:21.here are sheltering too, but the houses here have thin walls. No
:16:21. > :16:27.basements. There is barely any protection.
:16:27. > :16:32.TRANSLATION: The children are so afraid. They follow me around the
:16:32. > :16:42.house. I say, "Don't worry, everything
:16:42. > :16:43.
:16:43. > :16:47.will be OK." I say that God will take revenge for us.
:16:47. > :16:51.The make-shift clinics are overwhelmed. There are no supplies
:16:51. > :17:01.and few doctors. Watch his face.
:17:01. > :17:02.
:17:02. > :17:07.People come here because they are afraid of a rest -- or an arrest at
:17:07. > :17:11.a stailt hospital. Even here they could be hunted down.
:17:11. > :17:19.-- state hospital. Even here they could be hunted down. Still, one
:17:19. > :17:25.man want to -- wants to tell the world, 11 members of his family
:17:25. > :17:30.have died. Five of them were under 13 years of age, children.
:17:30. > :17:33.They were under 13 years of age. They were killed at the same time
:17:33. > :17:38.by a cluster bomb. We could not tell one child from the other when
:17:38. > :17:42.it came to burying them. People had hoped that the UN would
:17:42. > :17:52.protect them. But that morning Russia and China
:17:52. > :17:58.
:17:58. > :18:08.They're angry at their Arab neighbours too, why aren't they
:18:08. > :18:11.
:18:11. > :18:21.helping? The people here are afraid the regime believes it has a free
:18:21. > :18:23.
:18:23. > :18:27.hand to do whatever it wants. Undoubtedly, most of the victims
:18:27. > :18:30.are civilians. Many of them are children.
:18:30. > :18:37.Wrapped in the shroud is a seven- year-old girl, killed in the
:18:37. > :18:43.shelling. The attendant carefully writes her
:18:43. > :18:49.name, Hanadi. He has done this for four members of his own family too.
:18:49. > :18:53.Hanadi must be buried at night. The daytime is too dangerous.
:18:53. > :18:58.Even now, even here, they are attacked.
:18:58. > :19:08.GUNFIRE. There is no family, no prayers and
:19:08. > :19:13.
:19:13. > :19:19.By now, tanks were at the edges of Baba Amr. It seemed that they were
:19:19. > :19:24.about to come in. We could definitely feel that the
:19:24. > :19:31.time was up for Baba Amr. That the intensity of the shelling meant
:19:31. > :19:36.that we had a chance to go and we took it.
:19:36. > :19:44.We are able to escape, but a small group of journalists comes in after
:19:44. > :19:47.Like us, they stay in the Media Centre. It is really just an
:19:47. > :19:51.apparentment, used by activists, but it has a generator, an internet
:19:51. > :19:55.and hot water. The activists believe it is only the media
:19:55. > :19:59.coverage that is restraining the regime.
:19:59. > :20:03.What is killing the regime is the media. This is the strongest weapon
:20:03. > :20:10.in Homs. It is getting the news out. If we were not getting the news out,
:20:10. > :20:16.how is the world to know what is going on inside of Syria? Among the
:20:16. > :20:19.journalists at the house, Marie Colvin. One of the best and bravest
:20:19. > :20:25.foreign correspondents of her generation. This was her last
:20:25. > :20:30.report. I watched a little baby die today.
:20:30. > :20:34.Absolutely horrific. A two-year-old who had been hit.
:20:34. > :20:39.They stripped him and found that the shrapnel had gone into the left
:20:39. > :20:49.chest. The doctor said he could not do anything. His little tummy kept
:20:49. > :20:50.
:20:50. > :20:57.heaving until he died. That is happening over and over and over.
:20:57. > :21:02.Allah Akbar! After a number of near-misses and then a devastating
:21:02. > :21:06.volley finds the Media Centre. Marie's photographer was injured in
:21:06. > :21:11.the blast. We realised that the house had
:21:11. > :21:15.taken a direct hit. At that point the adrenaline was at a high. I was
:21:15. > :21:19.looking for my camera. Thinking that the attack was over, that I
:21:20. > :21:23.would get shots of 9 chaos in the house, whether the shell hit.
:21:23. > :21:27.The impact reduced the building to rubble.
:21:27. > :21:34.Marie Colvin and a French photographer, Remi Ochlik were
:21:34. > :21:38.killed instantly. Did the regime deliberately target
:21:38. > :21:48.them? The attack certainly removed the last independent witnesses just
:21:48. > :21:49.
:21:49. > :21:54.as the army closed in. A month later we decide to try to
:21:54. > :22:00.go back. For a third time we are heading to the Syrian border.
:22:00. > :22:08.This morning after 25 days of continuing shelling, the Syrian
:22:08. > :22:12.ground attack began in Baba Amr. We they're has already fallen.
:22:12. > :22:16.We are just about to cross the border. It is always pretty tense,
:22:16. > :22:21.but there is a feeling that this time things are more chaotic than
:22:21. > :22:29.ever. We are travelling with rebel
:22:29. > :22:37.fighters. We are still in what they like to call "Free Army" though
:22:37. > :22:43.that is shrinking fast. As children here enjoy the snow, a
:22:43. > :22:47.few miles way, the rebel front line is collapsing.
:22:47. > :22:57.The wound ready already starting to come out, ahead of the government
:22:57. > :23:02.
:23:02. > :23:08.The security forces entered Baba Amr only after the rebel fighters,
:23:09. > :23:18.the Free Army, withdrew. This was state TV's version of
:23:18. > :23:22.events. Syria TV cameras recorded the
:23:22. > :23:25.devastation caused by the armed terrorist groups who committed
:23:25. > :23:29.horrific crimes against civilians there.
:23:29. > :23:34.The people of Baba Amr, getting drinking water from snow, may not
:23:34. > :23:40.agree with that. But they told me time and again,
:23:40. > :23:44.that they felt betrayed by the Free Army.
:23:44. > :23:48.Baba Amr's Free Army is divided. Some wanted to stay.
:23:48. > :23:54.Others said leaving was the only way to stop the shelling and save
:23:54. > :23:59.the civilians. TRANSLATION: It took 25 days for
:23:59. > :24:02.the Syrian army with all of its might to capture just one
:24:02. > :24:06.neighbourhood, Homs. We will always be proud of this. We will hold our
:24:06. > :24:15.heads high because of it, until the day that we die.
:24:15. > :24:25.But there are other questions about the rebels.
:24:25. > :24:27.
:24:27. > :24:31.This shocking video shows Syrian army prisoners captured in December.
:24:31. > :24:36.The rebels told me that they executed all of them, saying that
:24:36. > :24:42.they were guilty of war crimes. This will worry Western governments
:24:42. > :24:48.as they debate arplg the rebels. -- arming the rebels.
:24:48. > :24:53.In the wake of the Free Army's retreat, Baba Amr was emptying.
:24:53. > :24:58.We met just a small part of the exodus.
:24:58. > :25:05.These people have been sneaking out of Homs through the orchards, not
:25:05. > :25:09.through official checkpoints. I've been told that several thousand and
:25:09. > :25:19.made it out in exactly the same way. One of them addresses President
:25:19. > :25:26.
:25:26. > :25:35.Bashar al-Assad directly. This group walked for three days to
:25:35. > :25:42.avoid the soldiers. They're terrified of what
:25:42. > :25:49.government forces are doing now that they are back in control.
:25:49. > :25:52.TRANSLATION: Whoever they catch at a checkpoint is dead. Dead.
:25:52. > :25:57.TRANSLATION: They took our boys and men. They took the boys from the
:25:57. > :26:07.houses and the men at the checkpoints.
:26:07. > :26:11.
:26:11. > :26:14.Everywhere we go, we meet groups of women and children without men.
:26:14. > :26:19.The Ibrahim family tell me that they witnessed a massacre. Dozens
:26:19. > :26:23.of men and boys, they say were killed in the street. Four of them
:26:23. > :26:29.were their own family. Including a 12-year-old boy.
:26:29. > :26:34.TRANSLATION: They lay them on the ground. The soldiers were pinning
:26:34. > :26:38.them down with their boots. Why, four of them were cutting their
:26:38. > :26:43.throats. They did this with their knives. Their hands were tied
:26:43. > :26:48.behind their backs like this. Then they started slaughtering them.
:26:48. > :26:53.TRANSLATION: There was a raid. My father went to open the door. I
:26:54. > :26:59.said to him, "Run away." He told me, "I have not done anything." They
:26:59. > :27:05.opened the door and they took him. My uncle, ply brother, my cousin
:27:05. > :27:10.too. Can such horror stories be true? We
:27:10. > :27:18.can't know for certain yet. But yesterday pictures emerged of
:27:18. > :27:21.bodies, apparently in the place that the family described.
:27:21. > :27:24.The regime denies it is responsible for war crimes.
:27:25. > :27:30.They are blaming the rebels. President Bashar al-Assad insists
:27:30. > :27:37.he is all that stands in the way of all-out Civil War. He is refusing
:27:37. > :27:47.to stand down, refusing to negotiate.
:27:47. > :27:49.
:27:49. > :27:52.But has the uprising really been crushed? We would rather live under
:27:53. > :27:58.missiles, under missiles and we are free. We will never go back to the
:27:58. > :28:02.way that we used to live. Never. Baba Amr paid dearly for its
:28:02. > :28:09.defiance. What was done here was intended, perhaps, as a warning to
:28:09. > :28:18.the rest of the country. Many of those we spoke to for this
:28:18. > :28:23.film have since been killed. The sniper, Abu Muhammad, the
:28:23. > :28:29.commander, Abu Yaya. Rasheeda, who lost her husband, son and grandson.
:28:29. > :28:38.Herself, shot by a sniper. As seven-year-old Hanadi is buried,
:28:38. > :28:43.has the regime really won a lasting victory? That depends on weather