The Assyrian Democratic Organization
ADO-World.org
09-February-2012
DAMASCUS – Regime forces launched a new blitz on the Syrian city of Homs on Thursday, killing more than a dozen people, activists said, as the UN weighed a joint mission with the Arab League to end the unrest.
Activists said at least 13 people were killed in the besieged central city as the shelling resumed at dawn. They warned that the toll was likely to rise as members of two families whose homes were hit remained under rubble.
At least 400 people have died in Homs in a relentless onslaught by government troops that began very early on Saturday.
The Baba Amr neighbourhood has been blasted by the fiercest shelling, activists say, with entire areas destroyed in an apparent bid by the regime to pave the way for a tank-backed ground assault.
"The shells are raining down on us and regime forces are using heavy artillery," said Ali Hazuri, a doctor in Baba Amr reached by telephone from Beirut.
Omar Shaker, an activist in Baba Amr also reached by phone, added that residents of the neighbourhood were hiding on the ground floors of buildings as there were no underground shelters.
"When you venture outside, you can see craters every 10 metres (yards)," he said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that the "appalling brutality" of the assault on Homs "is a grim harbinger of worse to come."
He launched the idea of sending a joint observer mission with the Arab League as he bemoaned the UN Security Council’s failure to agree a resolution on the crisis.
The pan-Arab bloc’s secretary general, Nabil al-Arabi, said he had spoken with Ban on the proposed mission which would include a UN envoy.
The 22-member League suspended its monitoring mission to Syria on January 28 because of the mounting violence.
The UN secretary general said consultations would be held with the Arab League and UN Security Council members in coming days "before fleshing out the details."
Ban hit out at Russia and China for their steadfast refusal to back UN resolutions condemning the violence in Syria, saying their move had encouraged the regime of President Bashar al-Assad to continue with the repression.
Moscow, a staunch ally of the regime in Damascus, has insisted that any solution to end nearly one year of bloodshed must come from within Syria.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that any outside intervention would have the destructive effect of "a bull in a china shop."
However the United States, France and Britain have dismissed such arguments while piling pressure on Moscow to change course.
"What is clear is that siding with the Assad regime at this stage will not get Russia anything except for the alienation of the Syrian people," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Rights groups estimate more than 6,000 people have died in the regime crackdown on protests since mid-March.
Western and Arab efforts to address the violence have met resistance from Russia, whose foreign minister said after meeting Assad this week that the Syrian leader remained "fully committed" to ending the bloodshed.
But British Prime Minister David Cameron said he had little confidence in such promises and urged the Russians to "look at their conscience and realise what they have done."
"Frankly, Russia and China set themselves against Arab opinion and world opinion in passing what would have been a strong and good UN resolution," he said.
Turkey meanwhile said Wednesday it was planning an international conference of regional players and world powers on solving the crisis.
"We are determined to establish a broad-based forum to promote international understanding with all countries concerned," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a televised interview.
The conference could take place in Turkey or in another country but it must certainly be "in the region" and "as soon as possible", he added.
Source: Middle East Online
