Regime intensifies bombing of Al-Waer

FORMERLY HOME: The regime targeted the rebel holdout district of Al-Waer in Homs city Saturday with airstrikes and explosive cylinders—an improvised weapon made from oxygen tanks—killing six men and a child, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Here, a boy sits on the ruins of a house targeted by bombing in Al-Waer’s sixth island district, in a photo taken Saturday by an activist who has adopted the pseudonym Judy al-Homsi, fearing for her safety.

“The neighborhood children went out to play an hour after the bombing,” al-Homsi told Syria Direct Sunday.

The children of Al-Waer are no strangers to war and starvation. After suffering through bombardment and a blockade for more than a year, Al-Waer residents entered into truce negotiations with the regime in July, until twin bombings in the Alawite-majority neighborhood of Akrama scuttled the talks on October 1.

In the aftermath of the Akrama bombings, the regime began a new wave of military strikes against Al-Waer.

Now, residents want to bring an end to the neighborhood’s suffering by whatever means necessary.

“Civilians are demanding one of two things, a real battle that ends [the blockade], or negotiations—the important thing is to avoid that unknown fate towards which Al-Waer is heading.”

-October 26, 2014

-Photo courtesy of Judy al-Homsi

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