Mulham Alnader, Reuters / Landov
The city of Homs in western Syria has been under siege for five days now. With no sign of the violence abating, the Syrian Army is now attacking medical personnel, field hospitals, and the wounded in some of the most vicious fighting yet. “Medicine is being used as a weapon of persecution,” Marie-Pierre Allie, president of Doctors Without Borders, told CNN. The city’s streets are littered with bodies because the shelling has become so intense that people are afraid to leave their homes. The BBC reports that pro-government militias are storming residences, murdering people. President Bashar al-Assad has been cracking down on antigovernment protesters for the last 11 months, during which time U.N. officials estimate roughly 6,000 people have died.