Highly disturbing footage out of Homs, Syria, released by CNN purports to show a group of men discovering the slaughtered bodies of a family.
The men in the video move from room to room, stumbling upon bodies heaped in a corner, blood-spattered walls, and a dead child's faces wrenched in terror. As the camera pans over a pile of bodies, a tiny squeal is heard. A small child suddenly crawls over a body toward the filmmaker. According to CNN, he must have been hiding among his deceased family for days.
Although it is nearly impossible to independently verify the information posted online by activists in Syria due to the regime's restrictions on media access, CNN is "confident of the video's provenance." The footage is reportedly from early February in Al-Sabeel, a neighborhood in Homs, Syria.
As activists and citizen journalists continue to disseminate information from Syria to the outside world, horrifying footage has flooded the international media. On Tuesday, a video purporting to show a boy shot in the back by sniper fire was posted on YouTube. Earlier this week, at least 45 women and children were stabbed and burned in Karm al-Zeitoun, Homs, according to a grassroots opposition network.
Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of the uprising in Syria. The UN estimates that more than 8,000 people have died in the violence.
Click here to see the video and read CNN's full report. (WARNING: Contains highly graphic content.)
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