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Friday, August 2, 2013

Stunning Images of Destroyed Syrian City

Syrian government forces patrolled the Khalidiya neighborhood of Homs on Sunday.Agence France-Presse - Getty Images Syrian government forces patrolled the Khalidiya neighborhood of Homs on Sunday.

In 1982, after President Hafez al-Assad's forces leveled whole sections of Syria's fourth-largest city, Hama, to suppress a revolt, the first foreign journalists allowed to view the rubble were shocked by the scale of the destruction.

Three decades later, as another President Assad struggles to defeat a much broader insurgency, reporters have again been left searching for words as images emerge of vast tracts of ruins where, until recently, the vibrant residential neighborhood of Khalidiya stood in the country's third-largest city, Homs.

What an Agence France-Presse journalist found in the Homs neighborhood of Khalidiya on Tuesday.Sam Skaine/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images What an Agence France-Presse journalist found in the Homs neighborhood of Khalidiya on Tuesday.
An image provided to news organizations by a Syrian opposition news agency, said to show the ruined Khalidiya neighborhood of Homs on Friday, as government forces regained control.Reuters, via Shaam News Network An image provided to news organizations by a Syrian opposition news agency, said to show the ruined Khalidiya neighborhood of Homs on Friday, as government forces regained control.

The extent of the damage brought to mind the words of a United States Army officer who told the Associated Press correspondent Peter Arnett, as they surveyed the ruined Vietnamese city of Ben Tre, pulverized by American bombardment in 1968: “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”

As a colleague who visited Homs this month reported, at the center of Khalidiya is the silver-domed mosque of Khalid bin al-Waleed - named for an early Islamic warrior particularly revered by the Sunni Muslims who make up the backbone of the rebellion - which is now “pockmarked and perforated.”

A soldier loyal to President Bashar al-Assad outside the Khalid bin al-Waleed mosque in Homs on Monday.Sam Skaine/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images A soldier loyal to President Bashar al-Assad outside the Khalid bin al-Waleed mosque in Homs on Monday.
Ruins around the historic Khalid bin al-Waleed mosque in Homs on Monday.Sam Skaine/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images Ruins around the historic Khalid bin al-Waleed mosque in Homs on Monday.

When Syrians first took to the streets in 2011, Homs was known as “the capital of the revolution.” Video posted online by Syrian activists throughout the spring and summer of that year showed protest after protest in the neighborhood around the mosque, as demonstrators chanted for the downfall of President Bashar al-Assad and security forces struggled to contain them.

Video of a protest on May 13, 2011, in the Khalidiya district of Homs showed demonstrators chanting, “The people want the fall of the regime,” as the security forces fired at them.

Video of protesters in Khalidiya, Homs, on Aug. 10, 2011.

In video of the protests, the mosque's distinctive silver domes, a point of pride and wonder before the uprising, were frequently visible in the background - particularly in one clip recorded in July 2011 after the security forces opened fire at the funeral of a demonstrator.

Video posted online by Syrian activists on July 20, 2011, said to have been recorded during an attack by the security forces on a funeral in the Khalidiya district of Homs a day earlier.

In the past two years, as the uprising devolved into an armed conflict and rebel-held Khalidiya came under heavy bombardment by government forces, activists trained their cameras on the mosque.

Video posted on YouTube in March by Syrian opposition activists showed shelling at the Khalid bin al-Waleed mosque in Homs.

Over the weekend, as government forces closed in on the area, opposition activists continued to record shells landing around the familiar domes.

Video of shelling near the Khalid bin al-Waleed mosque in Homs, recorded on Friday, according to opposition activists.

Just hours after a final video of government shelling in the area was recorded on Saturday by an opposition activist, a reporter for state television accompanied Syrian Army troops as they took control of the mosque.

Video of a news report on Saturday from Syrian state television, showing a reporter inside the Khalid bin al-Waleed mosque in Homs.

The capture of the mosque was greeted as a major propaganda victory by supporters of the Syrian government, who gleefully shared images of government troops in and around the famous domes.

Filming among the ruins, a crew from the Iranian government's Arabic-language news channel Al-Alam reported on Monday that government forces had taken control of all of Khalidiya.

A report from Al-Alam, Iran's Arabic-language news channel, on Syrian forces taking control of the Homs neighborhood of Khalidiya.

In an English-language news bulletin broadcast Tuesday night, Syrian state television hailed the offensive and claimed that government forces were consolidating their gains in the city.

An English-language news bulletin from Syrian state television broadcast on Tuesday.