Life in Homs a Mixture Of Fear, Danger
A first-hand account from Homs reveals a city divided and under siege by the Syrian war.
HOMS, Syria — Green are the fields on the way from Qusair to Homs, green as much as the battle for Qusair was red. The highway from Lebanon’s city of Baalbek, Hezbollah’s stronghold, to Qirdaha, President Bashar al-Assad’s hometown, is now clear; the road from the Syrian capital, Damascus, to the Russian naval facility in the city of Tartous is, too.
As the car gets closer to Homs, smoke plumes start to appear — the first visual reflection of the fight taking place in the city that was regarded by the opposition as the capital of the revolution. Homs was one of the first cities to react after the first ignitions in Daraa in March 2011, and since then the city has been divided between pro- and anti-regime forces.
