In news from Syria, reports have emerged that the young Syrian filmmaker Bassel Shahade was killed on Monday in the city of Homs. Bassel appeared on Democracy Now! in December. At the time, he asked to only be identified by his first name for security reasons. He described the fighting in Homs.

Bassel Shahade: “The violence in the city of Homs is like — what I saw the last week I was there … like, it’s threatening to turn into like almost a civil war. A heavy crackdown on the city, punishing the rising area and killing the civilians, is forcing the locals to form like an armed resistance to the regime’s forces. And they are supported by army deserters. So the fight is between the locals and the security forces and the supporters of the regime. The rising areas are besieged by the regime forces.”

Democracy Now! staff first met Bassel Shahade at Syracuse University. He was a Fulbright scholar there studying filmmaking. Again, Bassel Shahade, the young Syrian filmmaker, went back to Syria, was killed in Homs.