Veteran French surgeon has saved lives over 44 years

London: When Dr Jacques Brs crossed into Syria by truck last week, his hulking suitcase full of surgical kit was perched against an awkward cargo — two dozen rocket launchers.

The retired French surgeon — who has volunteered his services in nearly every major global conflict since Vietnam in 1968 — said he rarely had to share transport with gunrunners on his mercy missions. But nothing about this war in Syria seems to be going to script.

"It's not good," Brs said of his arrival. "In principle, it is forbidden for humanitarian people to travel with weapons. But it is their country and their war. We are the observers. We are just here to help in some way."

But this week, as diplomats sought UN backing for an Arab plan to end the bloodshed, reports came from the state-run news agency that a senior army general had been assassinated in Damascus, the first killing of a military figure in the Syrian capital since the uprising began in March 2011.

As Syrian forces continued the week-long siege of Homs with a rocket bombardment of its opposition neighbourhoods, while sending shells into the mountain town of Zabadani, north of Damascus, violence reaching the capital was a new development.

The UN estimates 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began, but it stopped counting in January and hundreds are reported to have died since.

In the three days the 71-year-old orthopaedic surgeon Brs has been near Homs, he has been at the centre of an escalating uprising. Hours after arriving on Thursday he helped save the life of a gunshot victim and gave first aid to five seriously wounded opposition fighters.

War wounds

Last week he operated in Zabadani on a civilian shot in the leg, as the victim's family and Free Syrian Army soldiers waited anxiously outside. The fighting has seen opposition fighters launching attacks last week against key government posts.

Dr Brs has personal experience in treating such injuries; he has been shot three times. One bullet in Monrovia claimed a finger, another in Chechnya caused a deep wound to his side, and a third in Sudan left his right arm scarred. "It is normal to treat such things," he said. "Very normal. I have been doing it all my life."

His war wounds have won him kudos among the band of medics at the clinic. All of them fled the nearby state-run hospital, which is now being used as a firing position by the Syrian army.

— Guardian News & Media Ltd