Homs: Journey into Hell Panorama


Homs: Journey into Hell

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This is our only way into Homs. A city under siege.

:00:16.:00:22.

A secret tunnel to rebel-held areas, their sole link to the outside

:00:22.:00:28.

world. And above is, a killing ground.

:00:28.:00:38.
:00:38.:00:39.

GUNSHOT. Tonight, Panorama takes you inside

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the Syrian regime's bloodiest assault on its own people.

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Over four months we were smuggled in and out to cover a life or death

:00:51.:00:59.

struggle for democracy. I've never seen the ferocity, the

:00:59.:01:02.

sheer bloody-mindedness of them to eradicate the place of both

:01:02.:01:07.

buildings and people. Now, the uprising in Homs has been

:01:07.:01:13.

crushed, and the regime is facing allegations of war crimes. Still,

:01:13.:01:17.

Western governments agonise, arming the rebels could lead to Civil War,

:01:17.:01:27.
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but if they don't, how else can the We first entered Syria late last

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year, illegal, from neighbouring Lebanon.

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The regime doesn't allow free access for journalists.

:01:50.:02:00.
:02:00.:02:08.

We follow men running guns to the insurgents. Each carries three

:02:08.:02:17.

rifles. The last smugglers to pass this way,

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just a few hours earlier, were ambushed by an army patrol.

:02:24.:02:34.
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The next day, activists lead us into Homs.

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They're risking their lives to help us. Final destination, the district

:02:43.:02:53.
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of bar Baba Amr. We are warned if the army spots us they will shoot.

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The city we have entered is Syria's third largest. Homs is the toughest

:03:02.:03:06.

centre of resistance to the country's police state. Nowhere

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more than the district of Baba Amr, home to 30,000 people.

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That night, we are taken to a street protest.

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However tiny, this is part of what they call Free Army.

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For the protesters, just being here could mean arrest.

:03:27.:03:37.
:03:37.:03:37.

This is an act of defiance, this is the Syrian uprising.

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They've been doing this every day for nearly a year.

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And they have to protest here, in these side streets, or risk being

:03:45.:03:51.

shot. They exercise liberty as they have

:03:51.:04:01.
:04:01.:04:09.

only dreamt of it before, like President Bashar al-Assad and his

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father be before -- before him have ruled over Syria for 40 years, the

:04:16.:04:26.
:04:26.:04:27.

regime says these people are criminals and terrorists.

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Dissent is met with brute force. In Baba Amr they're hemmed in by

:04:33.:04:38.

armoured vehicles. In the district's streets, the fear

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is suffocating. Surrounded by children and

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grandchildren, we meet Yasukichi Takayama. She tells me she lost

:04:50.:04:56.

three generations of her family in the past few months. Her grand son

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Khalid was killed by Syrian forces, he had simply gone out to get food.

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TRANSLATION: On Friday, there was no bread. So he said, "I will bring

:05:07.:05:14.

you some from our house." On the way, a shell came down and hit him

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on his shoulder. Her son, Ali was shot and killed as

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he joined a protest after praying at the mosque.

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TRANSLATION: Given our situation, I expected something like this. The

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way that they are hitting us. I expected such a thing. The protest

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was peaceful, they were holding olive branches and shouting, "God

:05:38.:05:48.
:05:48.:05:48.

is great." Her husband, and a brother-in-law died too.

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In response, militiamen have taken to the streets.

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They are here, they say, to protect the people. Part of a new force,

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the Free Syrian Army. All are deserters from the

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government forces. TRANSLATION: They told us to shoot

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the protesters. I refused. I cannot kill my own countrymen.

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The officers are pigs. I furnished my gun around and --

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turned my gun around and shot at the officer who gave the order. I

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shot at him and ran. Almost from the beginning, it's

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been Syrian government propaganda that armed groups or armed gangs as

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they are described are supporting the opposition. Now, after months

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of protesters being shot down in the streets, that myth has become a

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reality. More and more a joining the

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insurgent. A gun battle signals another

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deforeign exchange. Soldiers are running into Baba Amr under cover

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of darkness, fired on by members of their old unit. Five make it out,

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but a sixth man does not. TRANSLATION: We heard him screaming

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but then we were under heavy fire. We could not go back to get him.

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The other soldiers were chasing us. How many follow these men to join

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the Free Army will determine the outcome of the revolution.

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New front lines were emerging, following sectarian divisions.

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Most of the country is Sunni Muslim, but its rulers come from a minority

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sect, the Alawites. Syria is not yet a simple story of Sunnis

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against Alawites and their allies, the Shi' ites and the Christians,

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but it could become that. From Baba Amr, it was starting to

:08:01.:08:09.

look like a war of neighbourhood against neighbourhood.

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Abu Mohammed is one of its defenders. Before the uprising he

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was a tobacco smuggler, he says that there was no other work for

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Sunni Muslims. Now he is one of those in charge. He says government

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snipers attack from just across the road.

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GUNFIRE The gunmen here insist that their role is soley to protect the

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civilians. But there is no doubt, the conflict

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is escalating. TRANSLATION: We set out to ambush

:08:45.:08:50.

some of the sniechers, firing at civilians from the rooftops. Thanks

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be to God, we succeeded in killing at least one.

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-- snipers. These are the streets of Baba Amr,

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but the target for the district's new breed of journalist, like this

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Syrian, remains President Bashar al-Assad.

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After he shot the first bullet, killed the first guy, he put fear

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in our hearts. No-one was scared anymore. We would rather die rather

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than live under his control. Baba Amr's people had a promise from the

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rebels, that they would never abandon them, but we were left

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wondering how long could they hold out? After two months we are able

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to return to Homs. Still it is in rebel hands.

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On the way, we meet a large group of Free Army fighters.

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We join them as they prepare to attack a nearby army base.

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They're going to fry to get this bomb up to the entrance and

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detonate it. It's just before dawn.

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The attack is big. 100 men. They seem well-trained and have a battle

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plan. They are to start it by firing the

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heaviest weapons in their Arsenal, even though they have just two of

:10:22.:10:32.
:10:32.:10:36.

Then the base starts to return fire. Just as our cameraman Fred Scott is

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filming. The sun came up, the shooting

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started. Nothing really went to plan.

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The rebels mainly have Kalashnikovs, the army have artillery.

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Mortars start to drop on the hillside.

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We were pretty much pinned down the whole time until it was time to go.

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Move with the guys. After nearly an hour of exchanging

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fire like this, we had to run away. Get across this fast. Go! That is a

:11:32.:11:42.
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bad place, here. GUNFIRE

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They don't get their bomb even close to the base.

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The attack has failed. Can you tell me when?

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All of these men are Syrian army defectors. They've been attacking

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in the base below, men, who until only recently, were their comrades

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in arms. That's a mortar.

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Oh, it was a tank. Remarkably, they escape without casualties.

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The rebels believe that most of the army wants to join them.

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But the commander of this rebel unit is tired of waiting.

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TRANSLATION: If they wanted to defect they would have come long

:12:55.:13:00.

ago. The crimes of the President Bashar al-Assad regime, until the

:13:00.:13:03.

start of the revolution until now are clear, so they don't have

:13:03.:13:10.

excuses not to defect. They should be with us.

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For some, this is a religious war. One that they feel they are winning,

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but while we were with them, the regime was preparing an offensive.

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It would start just a few miles away in Homs.

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The shelling is relentless. It is indiscriminate.

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Artillery, against residential areas.

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Allah Akbar. We head towards the city. We are

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told it is impossible to get N The government's army is attacking

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from the Christian, Shi'ite, and Alawite areas. The rebel Free Army

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has fallen back to the Sunni enclave of Baba Amr. It is

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surrounded. But the rebels have a lifeline, a

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tunnel right ound the -- right under the front lines. We slip

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through the outer cordon around Homs. This was the uprise's best-

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kept secret, the only way in or out of Baba Amr.

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We ran into a metal shed. There was a gaping hole and six inches of mud

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and climbed down the rungs about 20 feet into pitch blackness. Thinking

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what the hell is going on here? It's a water course, two miles long,

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less than five feet high. I'm ahead, but Fred Scott is filming behind me.

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We tried to run... We don't want to be here. If a Syrian patrol starts

:15:02.:15:12.
:15:12.:15:15.

Above ground, we emerge into a ghost town.

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It already seems very different from the last time we were here.

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The streets are empty. Everyone's waiting for the next

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round of shelling. Allah Akbar. Shells come in every few seconds.

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It's not a battle, Baba Amr has no heavy weapons.

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The shelling's been going on all morning now. What you hear over and

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over again from the people is that they feel abandoned by the outside

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world. We take cover in a house. A family

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here are sheltering too, but the houses here have thin walls. No

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basements. There is barely any protection.

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TRANSLATION: The children are so afraid. They follow me around the

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house. I say, "Don't worry, everything

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:16:42.:16:43.

will be OK." I say that God will take revenge for us.

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The make-shift clinics are overwhelmed. There are no supplies

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and few doctors. Watch his face.

:16:51.:17:01.
:17:01.:17:02.

People come here because they are afraid of a rest -- or an arrest at

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a stailt hospital. Even here they could be hunted down.

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-- state hospital. Even here they could be hunted down. Still, one

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man want to -- wants to tell the world, 11 members of his family

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have died. Five of them were under 13 years of age, children.

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They were under 13 years of age. They were killed at the same time

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by a cluster bomb. We could not tell one child from the other when

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it came to burying them. People had hoped that the UN would

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protect them. But that morning Russia and China

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:17:52.:17:58.

They're angry at their Arab neighbours too, why aren't they

:17:58.:18:08.
:18:08.:18:11.

helping? The people here are afraid the regime believes it has a free

:18:11.:18:21.
:18:21.:18:23.

hand to do whatever it wants. Undoubtedly, most of the victims

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are civilians. Many of them are children.

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Wrapped in the shroud is a seven- year-old girl, killed in the

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shelling. The attendant carefully writes her

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name, Hanadi. He has done this for four members of his own family too.

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Hanadi must be buried at night. The daytime is too dangerous.

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Even now, even here, they are attacked.

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GUNFIRE. There is no family, no prayers and

:18:58.:19:08.
:19:08.:19:13.

By now, tanks were at the edges of Baba Amr. It seemed that they were

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about to come in. We could definitely feel that the

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time was up for Baba Amr. That the intensity of the shelling meant

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that we had a chance to go and we took it.

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We are able to escape, but a small group of journalists comes in after

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Like us, they stay in the Media Centre. It is really just an

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apparentment, used by activists, but it has a generator, an internet

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and hot water. The activists believe it is only the media

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coverage that is restraining the regime.

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What is killing the regime is the media. This is the strongest weapon

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in Homs. It is getting the news out. If we were not getting the news out,

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how is the world to know what is going on inside of Syria? Among the

:20:10.:20:16.

journalists at the house, Marie Colvin. One of the best and bravest

:20:16.:20:19.

foreign correspondents of her generation. This was her last

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report. I watched a little baby die today.

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Absolutely horrific. A two-year-old who had been hit.

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They stripped him and found that the shrapnel had gone into the left

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chest. The doctor said he could not do anything. His little tummy kept

:20:39.:20:49.
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heaving until he died. That is happening over and over and over.

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Allah Akbar! After a number of near-misses and then a devastating

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volley finds the Media Centre. Marie's photographer was injured in

:21:02.:21:06.

the blast. We realised that the house had

:21:06.:21:11.

taken a direct hit. At that point the adrenaline was at a high. I was

:21:11.:21:15.

looking for my camera. Thinking that the attack was over, that I

:21:15.:21:19.

would get shots of 9 chaos in the house, whether the shell hit.

:21:20.:21:23.

The impact reduced the building to rubble.

:21:23.:21:27.

Marie Colvin and a French photographer, Remi Ochlik were

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killed instantly. Did the regime deliberately target

:21:34.:21:38.

them? The attack certainly removed the last independent witnesses just

:21:38.:21:48.
:21:48.:21:49.

as the army closed in. A month later we decide to try to

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go back. For a third time we are heading to the Syrian border.

:21:54.:22:00.

This morning after 25 days of continuing shelling, the Syrian

:22:00.:22:08.

ground attack began in Baba Amr. We they're has already fallen.

:22:08.:22:12.

We are just about to cross the border. It is always pretty tense,

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but there is a feeling that this time things are more chaotic than

:22:16.:22:21.

ever. We are travelling with rebel

:22:21.:22:29.

fighters. We are still in what they like to call "Free Army" though

:22:29.:22:37.

that is shrinking fast. As children here enjoy the snow, a

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few miles way, the rebel front line is collapsing.

:22:43.:22:47.

The wound ready already starting to come out, ahead of the government

:22:47.:22:57.
:22:57.:23:02.

The security forces entered Baba Amr only after the rebel fighters,

:23:02.:23:08.

the Free Army, withdrew. This was state TV's version of

:23:09.:23:18.

events. Syria TV cameras recorded the

:23:18.:23:22.

devastation caused by the armed terrorist groups who committed

:23:22.:23:25.

horrific crimes against civilians there.

:23:25.:23:29.

The people of Baba Amr, getting drinking water from snow, may not

:23:29.:23:34.

agree with that. But they told me time and again,

:23:34.:23:40.

that they felt betrayed by the Free Army.

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Baba Amr's Free Army is divided. Some wanted to stay.

:23:44.:23:48.

Others said leaving was the only way to stop the shelling and save

:23:48.:23:54.

the civilians. TRANSLATION: It took 25 days for

:23:54.:23:59.

the Syrian army with all of its might to capture just one

:23:59.:24:02.

neighbourhood, Homs. We will always be proud of this. We will hold our

:24:02.:24:06.

heads high because of it, until the day that we die.

:24:06.:24:15.

But there are other questions about the rebels.

:24:15.:24:25.
:24:25.:24:27.

This shocking video shows Syrian army prisoners captured in December.

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The rebels told me that they executed all of them, saying that

:24:31.:24:36.

they were guilty of war crimes. This will worry Western governments

:24:36.:24:42.

as they debate arplg the rebels. -- arming the rebels.

:24:42.:24:48.

In the wake of the Free Army's retreat, Baba Amr was emptying.

:24:48.:24:53.

We met just a small part of the exodus.

:24:53.:24:58.

These people have been sneaking out of Homs through the orchards, not

:24:58.:25:05.

through official checkpoints. I've been told that several thousand and

:25:05.:25:09.

made it out in exactly the same way. One of them addresses President

:25:09.:25:19.
:25:19.:25:26.

Bashar al-Assad directly. This group walked for three days to

:25:26.:25:35.

avoid the soldiers. They're terrified of what

:25:35.:25:42.

government forces are doing now that they are back in control.

:25:42.:25:49.

TRANSLATION: Whoever they catch at a checkpoint is dead. Dead.

:25:49.:25:52.

TRANSLATION: They took our boys and men. They took the boys from the

:25:52.:25:57.

houses and the men at the checkpoints.

:25:57.:26:07.
:26:07.:26:11.

Everywhere we go, we meet groups of women and children without men.

:26:11.:26:14.

The Ibrahim family tell me that they witnessed a massacre. Dozens

:26:14.:26:19.

of men and boys, they say were killed in the street. Four of them

:26:19.:26:23.

were their own family. Including a 12-year-old boy.

:26:23.:26:29.

TRANSLATION: They lay them on the ground. The soldiers were pinning

:26:29.:26:34.

them down with their boots. Why, four of them were cutting their

:26:34.:26:38.

throats. They did this with their knives. Their hands were tied

:26:38.:26:43.

behind their backs like this. Then they started slaughtering them.

:26:43.:26:48.

TRANSLATION: There was a raid. My father went to open the door. I

:26:48.:26:53.

said to him, "Run away." He told me, "I have not done anything." They

:26:54.:26:59.

opened the door and they took him. My uncle, ply brother, my cousin

:26:59.:27:05.

too. Can such horror stories be true? We

:27:05.:27:10.

can't know for certain yet. But yesterday pictures emerged of

:27:10.:27:18.

bodies, apparently in the place that the family described.

:27:18.:27:21.

The regime denies it is responsible for war crimes.

:27:21.:27:24.

They are blaming the rebels. President Bashar al-Assad insists

:27:25.:27:30.

he is all that stands in the way of all-out Civil War. He is refusing

:27:30.:27:37.

to stand down, refusing to negotiate.

:27:37.:27:47.
:27:47.:27:49.

But has the uprising really been crushed? We would rather live under

:27:49.:27:52.

missiles, under missiles and we are free. We will never go back to the

:27:53.:27:58.

way that we used to live. Never. Baba Amr paid dearly for its

:27:58.:28:02.

defiance. What was done here was intended, perhaps, as a warning to

:28:02.:28:09.

the rest of the country. Many of those we spoke to for this

:28:09.:28:18.

film have since been killed. The sniper, Abu Muhammad, the

:28:18.:28:23.

commander, Abu Yaya. Rasheeda, who lost her husband, son and grandson.

:28:23.:28:29.

Herself, shot by a sniper. As seven-year-old Hanadi is buried,

:28:29.:28:38.

has the regime really won a lasting victory? That depends on weather

:28:38.:28:43.

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