Out of Syria's Carnage: A Survivor's Testimony of Bab Amr's Last Stand
Feb. 22, 2012. A member of the Free Syrian Army rides in the back of a truck inside Bab Amr.
William Daniels / Panos for TIME
Late on Feb. 21 a message arrived at TIME's Photo department in New York. It was from French photographer William Daniels, saying he had smuggled himself into the epicenter of Syria's yearlong revolt — the besieged neighborhood of Bab Amr, in the city of Homs. Holed up with him were a few local activists, plus French reporter Édith Bouvier, French photographer Rémi Ochlik, Spanish reporter Javier Espinosa, as well as American war correspondent Marie Colvin and British photographer Paul Conroy, both of whom had arrived there the day before. They had all sneaked into the country with the help of Syrian activists who had smuggled them across the border, at immense risk to themselves, believing it was crucial for the West to know about the mounting disaster. The journey included a hair-raising stretch through 2.5 miles of tunnel running under the Syrian Army's firing positions. For a moment, the journalists felt the thrill of adventure, as Daniels himself now admits. They were in the middle of the biggest news story in the world. But the adventure would quickly turn to terror and, for those who made it out alive, those nine days in Syria could well haunt them for the rest of their lives
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The Bab Amr district of Homs had already been descending into hell when the Syrian army apparently homed in on satellite phones being used by foreign journalists there and sent mortars their way, killing the American reporter Marie Colvin and the French photographer Rémi Ochlik on Feb. 22. It would take eight days before all their surviving colleagues were finally able to escape, even as Bab Amr lay shattered and grieving, its remaining residents — 4,000 people or so — exhausted by the weeks of bombardment, suffering from hunger and the gnawing cold.
The Syrian army targeted Bab Amr everywhere, anywhere. There was no way to get out. One night we visited families staying underground. There were 150 people in a basement with only small lights. They had some rice and a bit of water. Everyone had a family member who had been killed. We felt very bad, thinking, Please help us get out of here; we have lost our friends. But we couldn’t say that, because they had lost everything.
The Syrians who were looking after us were never outwardly scared. They were totally confident. They would prepare medicine in the middle of the room, while we were cowering behind a wall. They were not scared of anything.
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