Homs, the Syrian “capital of the revolution.” news
In 2011, the city of Homs was called the “capital of the revolution,” before the opponents left it after devastating bombing and a stifling siege by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. It has returned to the forefront again after the opposition factions took control of the cities of Rastan and Talbiseh in its northern countryside during their rapid advance in the past few days, passing through Aleppo and Hama, and the opposition forces are now at the gates of the strategic city in the center of the country.
Homs, which is the third largest city in Syria, is located in the center of the country on a road leading to the capital, Damascus, which is 150 kilometers away. It witnessed violent fighting that largely destroyed its old neighborhoods, before the Assad government regained full control over it in 2017.
Homs includes a majority of Sunni Muslims, and the Alawite sect, to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs, constitutes a minority there, in addition to a Christian minority.
Before the outbreak of the Syrian conflict, Homs, with an estimated population of about 800,000 people, was considered an economic lung for the country, as oil refineries, gas fields, and many industrial centers were located to its west and east.
The governorate of the same name is located in the center of the country, and its administrative borders extend from Lebanon in the west to Iraq in the east, and it also forms a link between the north and south of the country.
This city was one of the first cities to participate in the uprising in March 2011 against President Bashar al-Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for more than half a century.
Likewise, Homs was the first city to witness armed confrontations, when the regime’s suppression of the popular demonstrations it witnessed turned into armed clashes.
At that time, the Baba Amr neighborhood turned into a stronghold for what was known as the “Free Syrian Army,” which was made up of military defectors and armed civilians, before the army regained control of it in March 2012.
Since June 2012, government forces have imposed a stifling siege around the neighborhoods located in Old Homs in the center of the city, which were subjected to almost daily bombardment, leading to widespread destruction.
During the two years of siege, about 2,200 people were killed in the city, and the people who remained in Old Homs, who were isolated from the world without electricity or communications, were forced to eat herbs, plants and dried foods, as they were deprived of food and medicine.
In May 2014, most members of the opposition factions were forced to leave the city. They were evacuated under the first agreement between the regime and the opposition since the beginning of the war.
In May 2017, the Syrian regime took control of the entire city after evacuating the last opposition members who were holed up in the Al-Waer neighborhood in an operation supervised by Russia.
Journalists killed
The battles in Homs led to the killing of American journalist Marie Colvin (56 years old) and French photographer Remy Ochalk (28 years old), on February 22, 2012. They had entered Homs irregularly, and were killed in a house that had been turned into a media center for the opposition in the neighborhood. Baba Amr.
The bombing that claimed their lives was attributed to the Syrian forces, and in 2019, an American court ordered Syria to pay more than $300 million to the relatives of journalist Marie Colvin. It also condemned the government in Damascus for committing an “unacceptable” attack against the media.
