THE foreign editor of The Herald and Sunday Herald newspapers is back, safe in Turkey today, after having become one of the few foreign correspondents to have spent time with rebel fighters waging a war against government forces in the northern part of Syria.
Yesterday, the Sunday Herald carried David Pratt’s eye witness report of fighting between the rebels and government forces, following his crossing, on foot, the snow-covered hills that lie on the Turkey-Syria border.
He spent time with the Free Syria Army, telling allmediascotland.com: “Right now, the rebels are on the back foot and totally outgunned, those that I met had fought the best they could with a few Kalashnikov’s against a Syrian army force comprising of hundreds of men and tanks.
“There is no doubt that those few foreign correspondents who have accompanied rebel forces in the north are being targeted by the regime.
“One colleague spent days on the run in Idlib Province after pro-government informers in a village tipped off Syrian security forces, and they tried to hunt him down.”
Pratt draws comparisons with the conflict in Bosnia during the 1990’s, which he also covered.
