***EXTREMELY GRAPHIC*** “THIS IS A HUMAN BEING!” THE CAMERAMAN EXCLAIMS. BODIES RIPPED TO SHREDS FROM ASSAD’S SHELLS. Homs (Hamidiyeh): May 29, 2012 - These men were literally blown away as Assad’s shells landed on them. One of the men appears to be an FSA soldier who was sitting on a chair.

Thanks @HamaEcho

A short film by the Syrian activist Bassel Shahade. He was killed two nights ago by Assad’s forces along with two other prominent citizen journalists for the Sham News Network. His funeral at the local Um Al Zinnar church could not be carried out with the dignity he deserved since Assad’s forces made a point to shell the neighborhood and church during the services.

Here is a video a few hours after Bassel and his colleagues were killed. Their bodies wrapped in white sheets as mourners carry them through the streets of Homs.

Bassel was a Fulbright Scholar at Syracuse University in New York pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Film degree in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. He left the university early in order to go to Homs and help show the world what Assad was doing to the city and the country. Here is a dedication to Bassel from the University’s Chancellor.

A very moving story by NPR on Basel’s life.

The film by Bassel above, Saturday Morning Gift,  depicts a young boy in 2006 during Israel’s brutal bombing of Beirut.

You can help the people of Syria, please donate to one of the following or contact your local representatives:  :

Syrian Orphans - A collection of Non-Profit Org’s supporting orphans in Syria

Rise 4 Humanity - Dedicated to helping the children of Syria via donations and awareness campaigns 

Avaaz.org - Int’l organization smuggling medical aid into Syria

Humanitarian Relief For Syria - Supports needy families and orphans as well as distributing aid in Syria

BASHAR AL ASSAD AND THE UNITED NATIONS …. PARTNERS

Thanks @Arwamenla

A LITTLE CHILD GIVES TESTIMONY ON HOW HIS FAMILY WAS KILLED BY ASSAD’S FORCES. HOW HIS MOTHER WAS EXECUTED IN FRONT OF HIM. Homs (Houla): May 25, 2012 - Over the next few days and weeks, there will literally be dozens of stories of horror just like this one and the ones below. 

A young girl describes what happened to her family.

More testimony from a grandmother.

Thanks @ArwaMenla

AS MASSACRES ARE PERPETRATED ACROSS THE COUNTRY, ASSAD’S FORCES HAVE CONTINUED THEIR SHELLING OF HOMS - REDUCING IT TO RUBBLE. Homs (Khalidiyeh): May 28, 2012 - The shelling never stopped. The murder never stopped. Only the world’s attention. Assad’s forces continue their blanket bombing of Homs unabated.

More shelling, very large explosion. 

Thanks @HamaEcho

Thanks @FreeIran

Kofi Annan should push Syria’s government to allow the UN-appointed Commission of Inquiry access into the country to investigate the May 25, 2012, killing of at least 108 Houla residents, Human Rights Watch said today ahead of an impending visit by the UN envoy to Damascus. The Syrian government has so far refused entry to the UN-mandated commission. Human Rights Watch also reiterated its call to the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Following a May 26 visit to Houla, a region made up of several villages about 20 kilometers northwest of the restive city of Homs, UN monitors confirmed the killings and condemned the “brutal tragedy.” The head of the UN monitoring mission in Syria, Maj Gen Robert Mood, told the media that some of the dead had been killed by shelling and others shot at close range, but did not attribute responsibility for the close-range killing. According to survivors that Human Rights Watch interviewed and local activists, the Syrian army shelled the area on May 25, and armed men, dressed in military clothes, attacked homes on the outskirts of town and executed entire families.

All of the witnesses stated the armed men were pro-government, but they did not know whether they were members of the Syrian army or a pro-government militia, locally referred to as shabeeha. Houla’s towns, overwhelmingly Sunni, are surrounded by Alawite and Shia villages, and sectarian tensions have been high since last year. At a press conference on May 27, a spokesman for the Syrian Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry categorically denied the army’s responsibility for the killings and announced that the government had formed a military judicial committee to conduct an investigation.

“WHERE OH WHERE ARE THE ARABS!” THE BRAVE AND DEFIANT PEOPLE OF HOULA PROTEST A DAY AFTER THE HORRIFIC MASSACRE. Homs (Houla): May 27, 2012 - Where else on Earth would this be possible other than Syria? A day after 32 children and 60 men and women were massacred by Assad’s forces, the people of Al-Houla still came out to protest for their freedom.

This is why the Syrian Revolution will prevail and Assad will fall.

Thanks @HamaEcho

ARAB INDIFFERENCE TO THE HOULA MASSACRE -(TRANSLATION): “Houla Massacre! There is no power greater than God Almighty!” …. then nothing. BY IMAD HAJJAJ 

One of the bloodiest civilian massacres in Syria to date that left more than ninety people dead – at least a third of them children.

At noon on Friday, they gathered for their familiar and increasingly futile weekly ritual – an act of peaceable defiance against the regime they loathe. The chants resounded far and wide, audible to the army troops menacingly nearby and to the adjoining Allawite villages largely sympathetic to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. “The Allawites have been hearing our chants for many months,” said Houla resident Abu Jaffour. “And neither they, nor the army have liked what we’ve been saying. Maybe that’s why they did what they did.”  

Three hours later, vengeance rolled into town with a savagery rarely paralleled in the 15-month Syrian uprising. When the shelling and gunfire stopped early on Saturday, more than 90 people had been killed, at least one-third of them children. Some appeared to have been killed at close range as they cowered in barricaded homes.  

In a few short hours, the town of Houla joined the sorry list of localities whose names have become synonymous with the merciless slaughter of civilians. Srebrenica. Nyarubuye. My Lai. Up to now, the Syrian conflict has killed 13,000 people. But until this weekend, it had yet to include the mass slaughter of nursery-age infants.

Click the title to read more … 

***VERY GRAPHIC*** THE BABY FROM THE MASSACRE OF THE AL SALEEM FAMILY (MOTHER + 5 CHILDREN) HAS BEEN FOUND. DEAD. Hama: May 26, 2012 - Little Yacoub Areeb Al Saleem was the youngest of five children to be murdered by Assad’s forces. His body was found a few days after the rest of his family.

They were stopped at a checkpoint in Hama and abducted then slaughtered. Assad’s forces did this in order to incite sectarian revenge and ignite a civil war. Something they desperately want to happen in order to fit their narrative of ‘fighting islamists’

Article in The Telegraph on the massacre.

Thanks @HamaEcho

THE INDEPENDENT FRONT COVER ON THE HOULA MASSACRE (SYRIA).

PICTURE ALBUM OF THE VICTIMS OF THE MASSACRE HERE.

Thanks @HamaEcho

***VERY GRAPHIC*** A DAY AFTER THE HOULA MASSACRE WHERE 92 PEOPLE WERE MURDERED - 32 OF WHOM WERE CHILDREN - ASSAD’S FORCES CONTINUE THEIR RAMPAGE. Homs (Houla): May 26, 2012 - The world can condemn Assad all they want. It will do nothing to save the lives of Syrians.

Thanks @HamaEcho