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| The four Homs video stars |
The Syrian army, backed up by fighters from
Iran’s Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, is trying to retake several
rebel-held districts in the central city of Homs.
The Khalidiya and Old City neighborhoods of
Homs have been under army siege for nearly 450 days and since late June have
come under steady shell and rocket fire as well as airstrikes in a withering
offensive by the regime.
Last week, Russia
blocked the draft text of a UN Security Council declaration of “grave
concern about the estimated 2,500
civilians trapped in Homs as a result of the recent heavy fighting.”
This week, the reputed
UK-based watchdog known as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights warned that civilians and
rebels caught in a small segment of the city, covering barely two square
kilometers in the center, are dying for want of medical equipment to treat the
injured.
Yesterday, to mark the first day of the
Muslim fasting month of Ramadan,
Alarabiya TV news channel aired a
heart-rending video clip of one minute and 22 seconds in which a mother and
three randomly chosen children speak of the protracted shortage of food in
their Homs district.
Here is what they say in Arabic in the video
below:
The mother: It’s the first
day of Ramadan. Like all the other days, Praise be to Allah, our iftar meal
will consist of soup, burghul
and mujaddara with some
brown bread. There isn’t much else, Praise be to Allah…
First boy: I miss eggs,
vegetables, tomatoes, potatoes, and an eggplant.
Second boy: I crave a
cucumber only – one cucumber and a tomato. May Allah deny him (Assad) of His help.
He (Assad) deprived us of everything.
Little girl: Potato!
