A Private War

Not a patch on Under the Wire but still pretty solid

Anderson Cooper: Why is it important, do you think, to see these images? Why is it important for you to be there? Right now you may be one of the only Western journalists in Homs - our team has just left.

Marie Colvin: Yes, I mean, I had a discussion with your people, Anderson. I feel very strongly that they should be shown. Something like that, I think, is actually stronger for an audience, for someone who is not here, for an audience for which the conflict, any conflict, is very far away. That's the re__ality. These are 28,000 civilians, men, women and children, hiding, being shelled, defenceless. The little baby was one of two children who died today, one of the children being injured every day. That baby probably will move more people to think, "what is going on, and why is no one stopping this murder in Homs that is happening every day?"

Cooper: The regime in Syria claims that they're not hitting civilians, that there is no armed conflict, that there is no war inside Syria, that they are basically just going after terrorist gangs.

Colvin: Every civilian house on this street has been hit. We're talking about a very poor popular neighbourhood. The top floor of the building I'm in has been hit, in fact, totally destroyed. There are no military targets here. There is the Free Syrian Army, heavily outnumbered and out-gunned - they have only Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades. But they don't have a base. There are more young men being killed, we see a lot of teen-aged young men, but they are going out to just try to get the wounded to some kind of medical treatment. So it's a complete and utter lie that they're only going after terrorists. There are rockets, shells, tank shells, anti-aircraft being fired in parallel lines into the city. The Syrian Army is simply shelling a city of cold, starving civilians.

Cooper: _Thank you for using the w...