Syrian gunmen appear to have shot down protesters in new video

Chilling mobile phone footage purports to show men having been gunned down in Homs, shedding new light on crackdown Fresh evidence has emerged of the scale of Syria’s crackdown on demonstrators, with a video smuggled into Lebanon that shows unarmed protesters having been shot, some seriously injured and possibly dead, in what appears to be the city of Homs earlier this month. The video, captured on a mobile phone, shows up to half a dozen men struck down by what appears to be relentless gunfire. It was smuggled into the Lebanese border town of Wadi Khaled on Sunday. The footage is believed to have been taken during a rally after Friday prayers on 3 June. According to a Syrian “Mohammed” who spoke to the Guardian in Wadi Khaled on Tuesday, the man who filmed it was tracked down by regime officials, then tortured and killed. The video is graphic, gruesome and difficult to watch but, like many others that are being uploaded to the internet, is being used to cast light on an increasingly bloody uprising that is otherwise being conducted without international scrutiny. Syria has banned international journalists for the past three months and continues to disrupt the internet and telephone lines as its forces sweep through restive towns and cities. Other videos have shown the same violent methods of quelling dissent, but few have been as violent. It has not been confirmed how many people were killed or injured in Homs on 3 June, but reports from activists at the time suggested at least 20 had died. “We are members of the anti-government movement,” said Mohammed, who comes from the town of Tel Khalakh. “This regime who made our lives hell and made us flee to Wadi Khaled.” Mohammed was not present at the protest in Homs on the day the video shot, but spoke to the Guardian about a similar crackdown in his town, in nearby Tel Khalakh on 3 June. “We were protesting on Friday. We did not have any weapons at all. We were children, women and elderly men. We were being shot at from all directions by the security forces and gangsters,” he said. “They began to detain us. They shot our children and women. “We were shouting, ‘peaceful, peaceful.’ We began taking bullets from snipers. When the snipers had finished their job, the gangsters came down. They began to detain us and step on our bodies. “They were mocking us, ‘You want freedom?’ and stepping on our backs.” Martin Chulov, Rachel Stevenson, and Mona Mahmood Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Protest Martin Chulov Rachel Stevenson Mona Mahmood guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 15, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.