Editor's note: CNN correspondent Arwa Damon recently spent some time in Baba Amr, a neighborhood in Homs, Syria, a city that has been a flashpoint in a months-long uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Government forces have shelled parts of the city – especially Baba Amr, a bastion of anti-government sentiment – for more than two weeks, damaging houses and other buildings and leaving many dead and wounded.
Damon was one of the few international reporters in Syria, whose government has been placing restrictions on journalists and refusing many of them entry. Below is the latest in a string of edited accounts of what Damon and her team saw and heard from activists in Homs:
Virtually no food has come into Baba Amr since the shelling began more than two weeks ago, activists say. So, the residents who are gathered in makeshift bunkers collect what food they can find there and carefully ration it – though those supplies are running out.
Some of what they’ve gathered comes from, among other places, stores that have been hit by artillery fire.
“We take the products to distribute so they don’t go to waste. We keep track of everything we took to reimburse the owners,” an activist says.
In hard-hit Baba Amr, hundreds live in makeshift shelters, having left their homes out of necessity – many have been destroyed – or fear. Navigating the rubble-strewn streets of Baba Amr is made more difficult, activists say, by frequent shelling by government forces and by government snipers. Under cover of darkness, teams head to stores to gather what little supplies are left, quickly loading lentils, diapers and cracked wheat into vehicles.
At one of the shelters, a woman shows off the dwindling food supply.
“There is no food. There is only cracked wheat and rice,” she said.
Another woman, who is at the shelter because her home was destroyed, volunteers at a medical clinic in the neighborhood. She said she had coffee and two cigarettes for the day, and nothing for two days before that.
“I can guarantee you this, people will starve to death," she said.
Baba Amr has been "completely cut off and services are pretty much nonexistent," Dima Moussa, a Chicago lawyer and a Syrian opposition activist, told CNN on Tuesday.
"Communicating with the activists in the area is becoming harder, so getting complete information about casualties is becoming difficult, and we think that the numbers far exceed those that we have been reporting, since we're only reporting those that we can confirm," she said.
The neighborhood has been "completely cut off and services are pretty much nonexistent," Moussa said.
Al-Assad has denied reports that his forces are targeting civilians, saying they are fighting armed gangs and foreign fighters bent on destabilizing the government. But many accounts inside the country say Syrian forces are killing civilians as part of a crackdown on anti-government opposition.
More detailed coverage of what's happening in Syria:
Monday, February 20: 'What is the world waiting for? For us to die of hunger and fear?'
Saturday, February 18: Residents bracing for the worst in Homs
Friday, February 17: Syrian protesters hail 'resistance'
Friday, February 17: In one Syrian town, full-throated cries of defiance
Thursday, February 16: Farmers, teachers, carpenters armed with rifles fear massacre
Thursday, February 16: Wounds ooze, doctors cry in Syrian city
Wednesday, February 15: Activists say trying to flee from homes under attack is virtually a suicide run
Tuesday, February 14: Fearful residents prepare for a bloody battle
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Where's Allah? Shouldn't he take care of this? If I were a Syrian I wouldn't have children there! If this is how my Government treated me, I would never have children there so they can be treated like garbage.
Ken I absolutely believe the rioting parents were using their children as shields as I am absolutely sure the military did not purposely target the children. It is allot easier to get someone else to fight for you than to do it yourself. Sacrifice enough children and some stupid country will intervene and the terrorists will win a country by Proxy.
Dana, that makes no sense. How can you be using your children as shields if you are sitting in your house getting shelled by artillery or tanks? Or are you saying that families are just standing out in fields, baring themselves to annihilation, with their kids in front of them? You know more than me if that's the case.
What is happening in Syria is sickening....this is why Americans will never give up their rights to own guns.
US and his allies have been heavily defeted in Syria. Their plan to overthrow Assad regime has been completely screwed up. Your mercearies were either killed by Syrian troops or running away.
OUch!!! Just another loss for US in ME.
Mike, you are smarter then those mindless congressmen who are paid American people taxpayer. It is a shame that the taxpayer are going to gangs and militias who would end up biting the dust for the US.
US will never allow Assad to role Syria, we asked him to step down and he has to do so or he will end up like Saddam, we are just cooking it slowly this time, and I guarantee you he has no chance to survive.
IRAK didnt put up with it after the u.s.invasion and eviction of saddam so syria and all the world .poverty is good for humanity and its creation,,,,,,,it cant be violence now days in the wars on terror,history screams or times DO change !
sorry, but u have no oil!
Everybody talks. The only nation actually helping Syrians right now is Turkey. Turks are not Arabs, they have no ethnic ties, yet they do it for humanitarian reasons. Rest of the world only talks about attacking for different reasons, nobody really cares. That's what's sickening.
No, the Turks do it because they are Sunni Muslims and the events in Syria actually boil down to being a battle by the Sunni Syrian majority against the rule of minority non-Sunni Muslims. Don't EVER think any Muslim nation does anything for "humanitarian" reasons: such would go against the tenets of their religion as well as against the entire history of said religion and its derivative cultures.
Arwa Damon, a lot of people are suffering because of your instigation and it seems like it will be getting worse. Let me ask you – did you know that the Syrian regime that these "oppressed" people are trying to topple is a secular one that has protected the minority Christian as well as whatever has remained of the Jewish communities in Syria? Do you know that those rebels that you glorify are of the same sect of Islam (Sunni) that has produced Alqaida, 9-11, OBL, the Islamic Brotherhood, the Taliban, the Wahhabi's, etc??????????????
i heard that from a different guy on cnn boards before this even started. that he liked that regime because they were good to christians. i was kind of surprised about this. but...not too surprised.
@Jackola what a bunch of lies. yes some people like the regime, but it's mostly out of fear. This regime is a nazi regime that must stopped.
I am Christian Syrian American, and I have lived most of my life in Syria, the regime is the ugliest thing you would ever imagine, they are humiliating everybody over there except there own people.
“There is no food. There is only cracked wheat and rice,” she said. people can survive very well on cracked what and rice. They should consider themselves lucky.
is cnn owned by the pentagon?
Everyone should remember the actions of the Syrian people directly after 9/11. They were shown on TV celebrating in their streets, burning US flags, their women in burka's ululate'ing (cheering). And now they want every western country in the world to come to their aid. This 'civil war' is their karma. They deserve it. They cry for our help like little babies wanting their bottle. There is absolutely no reason any western country should provide aid, money or sympathy to these third world vermin.
There are those, like John McCain who want to provide aid/arms to the rebels, hoping they will become allies after this self-imposed genocide is over. John McCain is a delusional warmonger with a secondary agenda and should be completely ignored. He is a pathetic parasite on the American taxpayers back. The moment the Syrian people get what they want from the USA or others, they will go back to hating us just like before. This is who they are. It is taught to their children in their schools and mosques from the moment of birth. It is innate to them. No matter how much the western world embraces and helps them, they will never appreciate it. They despise us and the western world should despise them in return.
I say, 'Let them eat cake'. Let them kill each other until they are all gone. Let them kill each other until all their women and daughters are dead, until all their men and boys are dead, until their city/country infrastructure is completely destroyed. I smile at their turmoil, their pain, and their suffering. Good riddance to enemies. Our so called western leaders would do well to develop a backbone and start embracing our friends and assisting in destroying our enemies, not vice versa. I celebrate the use of every tank, every bomb explosion, every soldier, every method President Bashar Assad is using to kill his own people. Thank you President Bashar Assad. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. (At least for now).
Wow dude, really? I hope I never meet you...
dude, you need some help!
It's interesting, the extremists comments above completely ignore the humanitarian situation (ie. human beings running out of food) and instead yell at CNN and the US (even thought the US is just getting ready to start helping and hasn't yet). They are more concerned about non-human things, such as the typical tyrannical leadership in Syria and many other communist supported and/or Arab countries. It's part of the whole culture. Human life is not valued over in that side of the world. That's a fact.
Geesh!
What a mess!
I've read all the comnents and agree with many of them. Yes, this country was founded on a higher principal than we see exercised, today. No this isn't a video game. And, absolutely, there are many things to consider, the least of which being Iran's unrelenting threat of having nuclear weapons, ready to unleash its fury. But, just as I think of Christians and Jew, alike, Muslims are not all the same. Each one is unique.
My heart goes out to the people of Homs. Freedom does have a high price, but, it's usually a fair price. We've had our own civil war, but it was a fair war fought among men.
There are no easy answers, but I haven't given up on the possibility rhat humanitarian relief may be on its way to protect the widowed and their precious children in Homs. My thoughts and prayers are with them, hoping for relief. There are few heroes in this world who would put his own selfish needs on hold long enough to, bravely, go where hearts tremble; but the Red Cross is one of them.
~Bless
Homs has been taking hostage by gangs and armed militias, now Qatar and Saudi Arabia want to go back to unarmed unrest. Too late the Syrian army will clean up Homs and others cities. Wait and see!
I can’t agree more, US should step up and take its role as the leader of the free world, the regime is shelling Homes randomly, killing everybody, latterly, this regime have killed thousands and thousands of its own people and hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq, this regime is illegal, illegitimate and has no right to be exist, it’s a shame for the whole universe to keep watching the massacre that is taking place in the heart of the world in the 21st century.
Hummmm! You say a massacre is taking place in Hums? By who? Look at history and the messes we have made: Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and now Syria. And we expect them to treat us with any respect? Look at Yemen: the world "biggest" democracies of the western world have pushed for free and democratic elections, ONE candidate for president! Boy, George! You f..d up!
Well they wanted Islame. They got Islame.
You are funny, Syrian are not starving and the government is not letting people starve. But your failed Syrian "free" army is biting the dust and therefore any pics that they send have lies attached to it. To show the world lies about the REAL Syrian army, the armed militias and gangs are attacking homes wearing Army uniform and killing people. They make the West believe their lies. Lol! Russia and China are not buying that. Wondering why the USA is sinking the drain and not Russia or China? They don't spend the tax payers monies in financing gangs and militias to interfere in countries affairs.
Laughable!
I think the liars are you and the Syrian state media, you are so pathetic man, if the videos that are coming out of Syria and which are taking by some brave Syrian activates are lies why would the regime ban all the media of getting into Syria? Why wouldn’t the regime allow the media to see and film the gangs you are talking about? All media have been banned since the beginning of the Syrian revolution, only few reporters have succeeded to sneak into some cities secretly like the CNN reporter in the video. The regime don’t need the fact to go out, they don’t need the world to see the massacres that are taking place everywhere in Syria.
OOOPS! Some army guys went into a house and killed everybody while filming a video of the massacre and they sent it to CNN to show their deeds! Poor brains! The real Syrian army and the people of Syria will not fail to stand up for who they are. Read history and learn about Syria! Nobody is going to bring Syria down!
America loves democracy they just organized a one person election for their allies in Yemen.