Opposition Fighters in Control of Syrian Town
MALVEAUX: It's now 14 relentless days of this. We're talking about a constant barrage of shelling unleashed by Syrian forces in the city of Homs. Our journalists say the streets there are deserted because people have either fled or they are too scared to come out. So those who do venture out risk being killed by snipers or government tanks. As the carnage continues, the international community now struggling to find a way to stop this. This the U.N. General Assembly has passed a non-binding resolution calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Now, resistance to the Assad regime is spreading across northern Syria. Our Ivan Watson reports from a town that is now held by the opposition.</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the last line of defense for an opposition enclave in northern Syria, a checkpoint manned by young volunteers searching cars by the light of a burning tire. The leader here, 35-year-old Abdullah. Before the revolution, he made a living selling cars. (on camera): What are you looking for? What are you protecting against here? (voice-over): "We're on the lookout for Bashar al-Assad's thugs and Assad's army," Abdullah says. Entire villages and towns here in northern Syria have broken free of the Syrian government. There's no Syrian military presence at all in this town. Instead, children walk to school, pass the flag of the opposition, which flies over Main Street. The green, black and whit flag a symbol worn by revolutionaries, making final preparations a day before their weekly show of defiance against the government.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are preparing for tomorrow. We have tomorrow a big demonstration.</s>WATSON: This Friday, the protest will include a message of support for the besieged city of Homs. If that opposition stronghold folds, Syrians here in the north know they may be the next to face the wrath of the Syrian security forces. This 21-year-old university student doesn't expect help from the international community anytime soon.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have God helping, nothing more now.</s>WATSON: The Syrian government routinely denounces opposition activists, calling them armed terrorists. When they began demonstrating last spring, these young men chanted, "Hariya!" (ph), "Freedom!."</s>WATSON: Now that thousands of Syrians have been killed, the chant is "Harbiya!" (ph). In English, that means "War!"</s>MALVEAUX: Ivan Watson, he's joining us now from northern Syria. Ivan, first of all, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, he's urging Syria's opposition to come together here. He says that revolution can only be brought from the inside. Do the activists -- do they think that they can accomplish that from the inside on the ground where you are?</s>WATSON: They're certainly trying to, Suzanne, but their resources are limited because these are local activists, these are villages. This is the countryside, in many cases, that have risen up, but they're still facing overwhelming military power on the part of the Syrian security forces. And though there are more weapons now in the hands of the rebels, if you will, they still don't stand any chance against Syrian tanks and the potential threat of Syrian air power. They are calling for some kind of help, desperately calling for help from the outside world.</s>MALVEAUX: Ivan, considering that they are so overwhelmed, outnumbered by government forces, what keeps them going here? What makes them think that they can actually turn things around there?</s>WATSON: Well, I think they do not believe that they are actually outnumbered, Suzanne. I think that they feel the numbers are on their side and that, if you will, they think that justice is on their side. They are striking out against a dictatorship that has ruled this country for four decades that was passed on from father to son. And it's fundamentally undemocratic. So they feel like they have right on their side, but they're facing a government that's been in power for so long that wields force and has a proven track record of using deadly force. So that's where the problem steps in. They also seem to express that they have been backed up against a wall, that so many of their comrades have been killed, that they have no choice but to rebel, knowing full well that their homes can be destroyed, their family members can be locked up and massacred as well. And there's a certain sense of fatalism here in these communities that make up part of this very tenuous opposition enclave that we are exploring this week.</s>MALVEAUX: Ivan, please be safe where you are and continue the reporting that you do. It is such an important story. I want to go to live to neighboring Lebanon now. Our Nick Paton Walsh, he's joining us from Beirut. And Nick, there has been some reaction to this U.N. vote calling for the president, the Syrian president, to step down here. Is there any muscle, is there any teeth to this? And has there been any response?</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's no real legal kind of implication from this vote. It is symbolic. It's about pretty much the nations who condemned Bashar al-Assad ahead of the vote, putting it on a communal piece of paper and lodging that objection after much diplomatic wrangling. Yes, it may have some impact in the longer term, it may ease humanitarian assistance. It may increase pressure, perhaps, upon the Syrian regime, although bear in mind, China and Russia, two key powers who blocked the original U.N. Security Council resolution, stood by them through this vote as well. We have recently -- we recently suggested to Danny, an activist we spoke to -- people are familiar with him from his videos from inside of Homs -- we asked him what his feelings about the last few months of diplomacy were. This is what he said.</s>DANNY," SYRIAN ACTIVIST: For the last few months, it's crimes against humanity. Russia and China will be</s>WALSH: So that accusation really is that the U.N., through inaction, has been emboldening Bashar al-Assad, something I think you can see in evidence maybe on the ground today. Reports of a continued if not, in some cases, heightened crackdown. And some video you're about to see from Homs shows a demonstration which, in fact, continued regardless of shelling in the area around it. So indications from many residents in the areas here that the crackdown continues, the onslaught is absolutely 100 percent in evidence. In the east from me here, in a town called Zabadani, clashes breaking out again this morning, a death toll of about 40 today amid these demonstrations. So no real suggestion that yesterday's vote has done anything to sway the Syrian regime -- Suzanne.</s>MALVEAUX: Such a discouraging situation there on the ground. Clearly, people like Danny trying to bring attention to this story. Thank you very much, Nick. We really appreciate it. And another story we're following, Whitney Houston taking on a lot of up-and-coming artists under her wing. She inspired countless artists, and one of those inspired singers, Grammy winner Ashanti.</s>MALVEAUX: Ashanti describes Houston as an amazing talent and spirit. She's going to join us next about being inspired by that amazing talent.