A trainee doctor tells of the bloodshed he witnessed during the Syrian army's siege of the city of Hama.
Hugh Macleod and Annasofie Flamand
Al-Jazeera
"....
Intense shelling
The morning before, the young doctor had been woken at around 5am by the sounds of explosions. His home is in Hama's Hader district, one of the heaviest hit.
Syrian tanks had begun shelling Hama, a return to the nightmare of 1982 when Assad's father, former President Hafez al-Assad, ordered a military assault on the town to crush an armed rebellion by the Muslim Brotherhood, killing between 20,000 and 30,000 civilians.
A generation later, Hama's residents were again being bombed, shot, stabbed and looted by Assad's security forces for having turned out in massive numbers for peaceful, often joyous rallies, filling the city's central squares - week after week - with colourful flags, posters and chants calling for freedom and an end to oppression.....
'Babies dying'
Activists said at least 54 people were confirmed killed by security forces on that first day of the assault, with a further 160 injured. Four days later, 109 people were killed in a single day. Activists estimate between 200 and 300 people were killed in the ten-day assault, but an exact figure has yet to be established, due to the ongoing security restrictions.
As well as snipers shooting at anyone trying to reach hospitals, tanks were deployed in front of Horany and the city's other main hospital, Bader.....
'Mass graves'
Avaaz and other rights groups are currently investigating the disappearance of scores of bodies, including at least 50 from a mosque in Assi Square. Avaaz citizen journalists have reported the presence of at least three mass graves in Hama since the assault began.
When they could no longer terrorise residents on the streets, gangs of shabiha "thugs", alongside plain clothes secret police, came breaking through doors, beating families in their homes before stealing gold, money and television sets.
"I had a big stick in case the shabiha came," said the young doctor. "They can kill anyone, steal anything and maybe even rape the girls. So I couldn't leave my family."....
Residents fleeing
Passing from one area of Hama to the next was "as if I was going to another country", said the Al Jazeera contributor, such were the number of checkpoints. Many thousands of Hama residents fled the onslaught. A conservative estimate by an Avaaz citizen journalist put the figure at 5,000. Other activists put it much higher....."
Hugh Macleod and Annasofie Flamand
Al-Jazeera
"....
Intense shelling
The morning before, the young doctor had been woken at around 5am by the sounds of explosions. His home is in Hama's Hader district, one of the heaviest hit.
Syrian tanks had begun shelling Hama, a return to the nightmare of 1982 when Assad's father, former President Hafez al-Assad, ordered a military assault on the town to crush an armed rebellion by the Muslim Brotherhood, killing between 20,000 and 30,000 civilians.
A generation later, Hama's residents were again being bombed, shot, stabbed and looted by Assad's security forces for having turned out in massive numbers for peaceful, often joyous rallies, filling the city's central squares - week after week - with colourful flags, posters and chants calling for freedom and an end to oppression.....
'Babies dying'
Activists said at least 54 people were confirmed killed by security forces on that first day of the assault, with a further 160 injured. Four days later, 109 people were killed in a single day. Activists estimate between 200 and 300 people were killed in the ten-day assault, but an exact figure has yet to be established, due to the ongoing security restrictions.
As well as snipers shooting at anyone trying to reach hospitals, tanks were deployed in front of Horany and the city's other main hospital, Bader.....
'Mass graves'
Avaaz and other rights groups are currently investigating the disappearance of scores of bodies, including at least 50 from a mosque in Assi Square. Avaaz citizen journalists have reported the presence of at least three mass graves in Hama since the assault began.
When they could no longer terrorise residents on the streets, gangs of shabiha "thugs", alongside plain clothes secret police, came breaking through doors, beating families in their homes before stealing gold, money and television sets.
"I had a big stick in case the shabiha came," said the young doctor. "They can kill anyone, steal anything and maybe even rape the girls. So I couldn't leave my family."....
Residents fleeing
Passing from one area of Hama to the next was "as if I was going to another country", said the Al Jazeera contributor, such were the number of checkpoints. Many thousands of Hama residents fled the onslaught. A conservative estimate by an Avaaz citizen journalist put the figure at 5,000. Other activists put it much higher....."
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