Inside Syria with rebel forces

As the bloody conflict between rebels and government forces in Syria raged, regular urban landscapes became converted into battlegrounds. Here, anti-government Free Syrian Army soldiers hold a position in the living room of a family house. One rebel sits on a chair eating a chocolate bar as the commander looks out of the window to scout the area beside a sniper.

"If you want to tell the true story, you have to be there"
Goran Tomasevic, Reuters Photographer

Of course I wanted to go to Syria.

When a big story like this shows up, I believe my job is to go there and produce pictures.

I gave up going to cover the Olympics. It was two days before my trip to London to shoot the 2012 games and I changed my ticket and went to Syria instead.

Pictures must show the reality of the war in Syria and that's why I wanted to be as close as I could to the fighters – and to the very front line – to show exactly what they were doing, what their emotions were, how they ran and fired weapons and how they reacted to incoming shells.

There is a certain amount of risk and you need to take all necessary precautions, but if you want to tell the true story, you have to be there.

We had arranged everything before entering Syria, so members of the Free Syrian Army were waiting for us on the other side of the border when we arrived. On the same day that we crossed the border we managed to get to the front line in Aleppo.

The Free Syrian Army is organised and appeared to know what it was doing. Some members are former Syrian soldiers who defected but most are young civilians, some 16 or 17 years old.

They are fighting the Syrian army with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades and they don’t have many resources, but somehow they set up a supply line to get fuel for their vehicles.

They are also media friendly. At first they noticed my presence and were a little bit suspicious, but after a while they began saying “Goran, come here”, although they didn’t really speak English. They would tell me what missions they were conducting or show me some of their positions and ask if I wanted to join them.

I can’t describe the situations that arise in war. On my last day in Aleppo one of the fighters was walking around and looking into buildings and he found a bird in a birdcage. He took it out of the apartment. The bird didn’t have any water so the fighters put some in its cage.

The rebels did some crazy things, like putting a mannequin in the line of sniper fire on the street and then burning tires where the government forces were firing tank shells. It was kind of surreal and scary at the same time.

Because I don’t speak Arabic, I didn’t understand exactly what they were doing. They would be laughing but then you would see incoming fire and about 60-70 meters away you’d see a tank shell explode into a building.

When I’m covering conflict situations, I try to follow the ground and find cover for myself. I pray a lot to keep myself safe. I can’t give any advice. Things are changing with the situation in Syria all the time.