Houla is today a deeply divided city. The front line between the Free Syrian Army rebel forces and the regular Syrian Army is just a few hundred yards from the southern entry point of this flat, dusty country town.
All day today, exchanges of fire have been going on.
Repeatedly, the Syrian Army sent forward armoured personnel carriers towards the centre of town, from where the firing of heavy weapons could occasionally be heard.
From our position, small firefights happened intermittently during the several hours we were in the town.
The Syrian forces we were with kept saying there were incoming rounds from a sniper position held by the Free Syrian Army.
“M16. It is M16, you hear?” they said repeatedly. And there certainly were incoming rounds a few yards from our position.
At least one soldier was wounded. We saw him carried across the street to a vehicle to be evacuated. His condition is unknown.
All around us the soldiers of course said that the massacre that happened here on friday was caused by the rebels, or the “terrorists”, as they put it...
http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/piecing-bloody-truth-houla/1687