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Sami reports from the Inshaat district in the southwest of Homs that Syrian government tanks and snipers are now concentrating on the old city center. The entire city of Homs is shut down, and many buildings are now rubble after almost seven weeks of bombardment and wandering snipers. Sami is not this author’s real name. The account below is his. It has been adjusted for style, but not substance.
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Sami in Homs, March 23, 2012
Today I woke up at 8:30 a.m., much as I have done for almost 45 continuous days to the sound of artillery shells exploding in my hometown of Homs. It wasn’t as intensive as some other days when last month Syrian government tanks were shelling the homes, shops and mosques of the neighboring district of Baba Amr. Now the tanks are concentrated on the old central city of Homs.
A very huge amount of garbage has accumulated all over our streets over the last seven weeks – Sami
I walked out of the house where we have recently moved just to get some food from a store run by neighbors who have prepared some essential supplies. This family does this for the people on our streets because you can get killed if you go too far from your own house.
There is a very bad smell in the air all over our neighborhoods because all government services stopped when the military forces started bombing the city on February 5. A very huge amount of garbage has accumulated all over our streets over the last seven weeks.
The bad odor has become normal to me and my neighbors.
Fewer snipers
The situation here in the Inshaat neighborhood of Homs can be called better than what it was in the beginning of March when the military operation against Bab Amr was taking place. The number of snipers has decreased in my area and at least I can go out of my home to move in the same neighborhood.
I saw some of the shabihas’ (government thugs) cars moving around with sound systems playing pro-Assad propaganda songs very loudly. These shabiha are more dangerous than the security forces and the army because they kidnap people and kill them.
I passed two checkpoints on my way to the store. At one of them they search us thoroughly and ask a lot of questions like, ”Where are you going?” “Will you return?” “When?”
When I leave our house I lose connection with everybody because we haven’t had mobile phone service in the city since the bombing started. Whenever I go out, my parents just get worried and keep asking my brother to go with me.
Then I went to the nearby Ghouta district to help serve a very huge number of refugees. Many of them are women and children who have escaped from the northern part of the city where the military operation is now concentrated. Most of them are from Karm Al Zaytoun, Bayada and Bab Tadmour. It’s very hard to provide everything they need. Most of them were unable to reach a safe area and were forced to leave their homes without taking anything with them. They have no medicines, milk, or food.
A street allegedly in the Inshaat neighborhood of Homs where the author lives (Reuters via handout by opposition sources).
Ghost town, smaller protests
Nobody has a job these days. All offices and businesses are still closed. The schools and universities shut down on Feb. 5. All of the markets and government centers downtown have been closed since then.
Streets are almost empty here. The only thing that moves is a game of football being played by neighborhood children. Even on the main streets of Homs, no cars move.
I went to Mala’b, which is an area between Ghouta and Inshaat, to join a protest. I noticed that there are fewer young men in Homs now. A lot of them are trying to flee from the city to find work or just to avoid being arrested by the security forces or kidnapped by the shabiha. The march didn’t last long because we got news that security forces were coming to us, so I left before I could see them.
My Mom has big fears from regime forces and she won’t want me to do something that could put me in danger so I don’t tell her – Sami
The other night, snow fell again and it grew very cold. All over the city, snow remains on the grass and on parked cars. The weather is sunny and cold. The shelling stopped at sunset, but there was the sound of rifle fire from many parts of the city.
I sat down with my Hewlett Packard laptop and started some revolution web work, tweeting about Homs and Syria and sitting near my mom and dad. They still don’t know that they have an activist son near them. My mom has big fears from regime forces and she won’t want me to do something that could put me in danger so I don’t tell her.
If the electricity works at night, we can see television news about Syria, with the background sound in my own neighborhood of shooting and explosions. When there is no electricity, we have long chats or just go to bed early.
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David Arnold
David Arnold coordinates the Syria Witness project at Middle East Voices and reports on Middle East and North Africa affairs for both Voice of America and MEV. The Syria Witness project publishes on-the-ground citizen reporting, giving Syrians the opportunity to offer to a global audience their first-person narratives of life on the streets of their war-torn country.