In September, as I stood looking out across a valley in the Latakia countryside, I could hear mortar fire in the distance. There it was, the town of Salma, just kilometers in front of me. I had last visited the rebel-controlled town in December 2012. Then, as now, Syrian government forces were bombarding it by land and air. The government has conducted indiscriminate strikes there, hitting both the rebel fighters who operate in and control the town and the few remaining residents who by choice or for a lack of options have stayed on. In December, I documented what appeared to be deliberate attacks by the government on the only hospital there. Helicopters had repeatedly dropped improvised aerial bombs in the vicinity of the hospital, finally destroying it on October 5, 2012. Even then the town was in ruins. I could only quickly pass through to survey the damage before
