AFP, Near Homs, 29 Feb 2012 – They are low on weapons and ammunition and are running out of food and medicines, but Syria’s rebels say they are determined to rout the regime forces pounding the city of Homs.
The central city, Syria’s third largest, has become the symbol of the revolution against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and, if it manages to hold out against his forces, could even signal his eventual demise — in the way the Libyan city Misrata turned the tide against Moamer Kadhafi when it withstood months of siege by his forces last year.
But Misrata received food and ammunition from the West and from Qatar by sea, unlike Homs which is landlocked and where activists say replenishment of supplies is nigh impossible.
A man who managed to get out of Homs on Wednesday told AFP on condition of anonymity that access to the city is extremely limited.
‘The bombing is constant day and night. In the past three days the Free Syrian Army has tried unsuccessfully to enter. There was fierce fighting,’ he said from near a vehicle riddled with bullets on the outskirts of Homs.
‘They are not able to evacuate the wounded. They shoot at us when we try to leave… I have lost everything,’ the escaping resident said.
A doctor from the nearby town of Qusayr, who is running a makeshift hospital from a house, said no wounded had been brought out for more than a week. ‘Everything is cut.’
‘People are dying because we do not have drugs. Last week we lost three patients. We need anaesthetics, heart drugs, oxygen,’ he said.
Rebel commanders say that Homs is surrounded by more than 200 tanks, with another 35 positioned around Qusayr, some of which have been destroyed by rebels with their limited weaponry.
‘There is still ammunition’ in Homs but not much else, the resident said.
‘I saw one anti-tank gun mounted on a pick-up,’ he added as he munched a sandwich, which he described as ‘a luxury.’
Prices of food items have surged due to the falling value of the Syrian pound.
‘Often I have no sugar, rice or oil,’ complained Abu Tawfik, 60, in his grocery store in Qusayr where bullets fly sporadically in the street.
But the morale of the rebels remains high.
A big man with piercing gaze and known as ‘general’, who commands a group of 50 fighters, said he was ‘optimistic’ and predicted ‘big surprises in the next 10 days.’
‘We will reduce Assad’s tanks to ashes,’ he vowed, adding that they had started receiving ‘anti-tank missiles and American and French anti-aircraft’ weapons.
In Qusayr itself there are daily bombings and clashes, but the death toll remains low — in contrast to the situation that prevailed during the revolution in Libya, where enthusiastic fighters were often cut down in their dozens by attacking pro-Kadhafi forces in pick-up trucks topped with heavy weapons.
The struggling Free Syrian Army fighters resort to guerrilla tactics, sneaking through the narrow streets of the city, firing on Assad’s forces and escaping quickly.
‘A revolution of the poor,’ growls Homsi, a rebel trying to raise money to buy a gun through contacts in Lebanon.
On Tuesday only 12 people, including civilians and fighters, were injured in Qusayr despite several hours of intense bombing. Among them were four snipers of FSA hit by a tank shell after they had managed to harass the Syrian military all day.
In a nearby village held by his men, ‘Falcon’ al-Qusayr, a former intelligence officer who joined the rebellion, smoked a shisha water pipe with his fellow fighters.
‘We have no heavy weapons and no one to help us. Without international assistance, the Syrian revolution will fail,’ he said bleakly.