Ruth Sherlock: Terrifying suspense of living in a ghost town

Not so long ago, the Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr had been packed with people, its streets decked with colourful banners in open defiance of the Assad regime. Now it stands as testament to the crushing power of a dictator’s fury, with most of its population having fled.

As groups of guerrilla fighters with Kalashnikovs melted away under the superior firepower of the Syrian regime late on Wednesday, the area that for months had been racked by exploding mortars and constant rattle of gunfire fell into a deathly silence.

“For the whole night we waited for the Syrian army to come. It was a terrifying suspense,” said “Mohammed al Homsi”, in Homs. “The army were hesitant to enter Baba Amr, they waited until it was light.”

He gave The Scotsman a rare account from a district that had become an information vacuum. At 7am the army began broadcasting messages from the speakers of the mosque minarets. “They warned that they were about to enter. They shouted: ‘If anyone has any weapons, put them on the ground’,” he said.

The soldiers began house-to-house raids. Heavily armed, they worked down the streets, breaking down doors, rifling through possessions and looting valuables. Any males over 14 were arrested.

His cousin was trapped in Baba Amr. He said: “He was living there with his wife, children and his elderly mother. It was not easy to escape when you have children and an elderly lady with you. For three weeks they lived in the remaining room of the house. For the past several days the family have had nothing to eat. They have had to risk going outside to collect snow for drinking water.”