Syria's wounded rebels must be smuggled out
Doctors are few and medical supplies almost non-existent behind rebel lines in Syria.
CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward met wounded refugees fleeing to Lebanon on Thursday, and reports that numerous men, women and children are caught in the fighting.
For the past 19 days there has been no letup in the bombardment of Homs. The wounded are taken to makeshift hospitals, woefully under-equipped to deal with the endless flow of patients and constant shelling.
Among the scores of injured are three western journalists, still holed up in Homs. On Thursday they issued a plea to the world to help them get out of safely.
"Any help possible," Paul Conroy said.
Syrian forces are not allowing ambulances in or out, and the only way to evacuate those in need of medical care is to smuggle them out on motorcycles, on donkeys, or on the backs of volunteers who risk their lives to ferry them across the border to private hospitals in places like northern Lebanon.
Syria regime tanks reportedly enter Homs
American, French journalists killed in Syria
Russia, China reject "interference" in Syria
Khaled, 15, spent three months carrying the wounded out of Syria, going back and forth from Baba Amr to Lebanon every day with some of the worst injured.
12 days ago, he was carrying a wounded man on his back when he stepped on a landmine. He lost his leg.
"Before I was helping the injured," Khaled said. "Now I'm one of them."
Abu Yassir is a 22-year-old economics student from Damascus. He came to Lebanon 3 months ago to help save as many lives as he can. He said he does it "For Syria. For Syrian people. For Syrian children."
Like many Syrians, he feels betrayed by the international community. If help does not come from outside soon, he says he will go back himself.
"What we can do? We will not leave our people in Homs, we will not leave them. We will go there and die there," Yassir said.
The city of Homs, the volunteers say, has been brutalized by its own government and abandoned by the world.
Yassir said the people who are stranded in Homs can't hold out for longer than a week. There is no food, no drinking water. When talking about possible Western intervention, Yassir asked, "What are you waiting for?"
Over time, what became an honest question has now turned into an angry rebuke. Rebels ask journalists all the time how it is that the West can stand by and watch people die.
