February 2011 – May 2014
Homs, Syria's third-largest city, became the symbolic 'capital of the revolution' as early protests transformed into fierce urban combat. The Baba Amr neighborhood — a rebel stronghold — was subjected to weeks of shelling that drew international condemnation and saw two Western journalists, Marie Colvin and Rémi Ochlik, killed in February 2012. After Baba Amr fell in March 2012, the battle shifted to Homs's medieval old city, where rebels held out under siege for nearly two years, with civilians reduced to eating grass and leaves. The final government takeover in May 2014 came after a negotiated evacuation of remaining fighters, leaving the old city in near-total ruins.
Commanders