Elite Syrian forces trying to destroy rebels besieged in Homs yesterday pounded the shattered district of Baba Amro, despite international alarm at the plight of civilians trapped there.
Snow blanketed the city, slowing down the military assault, but also worsening conditions for civilians, activists said.
“We have not seen such snow in Homs in years. The bombardment on Baba Amro and other parts of the city is continuing, but the fighting has subsided after the army was repelled yesterday [Wednesday],” activist Abu Imad said from Homs.
He said casualties on both sides had been heavy, but no tally was available because of the fighting and bad weather.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is increasingly isolated in his struggle to crush an armed insurrection that now spearheads an almost year-long uprising against his 11-year rule.
However, Russia, China and Cuba voted against a resolution, adopted overwhelmingly by the 47-member UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, that condemned Syria for violations that may amount to crimes against humanity.
A senior official in the rebel Free Syrian Army said that outgunned fighters in Baba Amro were fending off more than 7,000 government troops. Opposition forces had promised to step up attacks elsewhere in Syria to try to relieve the pressure.
“Baba Amro will be the straw that will break the regime’s back,” Mohaimen al-Rumaid said from an area in Turkey near the Syrian border. “All of Syria is turning into Baba Amro.”
Heavy shelling resumed overnight after several hours of sporadic bombardment, opposition sources in the city said.
The exile opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) yesterday said it had formed a military council to oversee and organize armed anti-al-Assad groups under a unified leadership.
“The creation of the military council was agreed upon by all armed forces in Syria,” SNC leader Burhan Ghalioun told a news conference in Paris. “We will be like a defense ministry.”
The SNC has been under pressure from within Syria for not overtly backing the armed struggle led by the Free Syrian Army, made up of army deserters and other insurgents.
With al-Assad’s forces closing in rebels in Homs, the SNC appealed for help late on Wednesday, urging the UN-Arab League envoy on Syria, Kofi Annan, to go to Baba Amro “tonight.”
Annan said in New York he expected to visit Syria soon and urged al-Assad to engage with efforts to end the turmoil.
Syria, which denied entry this week to UN humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos, adopted a guarded approach to Annan’s role.
The state news agency SANA quoted Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad al-Maqdisi as saying the government was “waiting for a clarification from the UN on the nature of his mission.”
The ministry also said Amos had asked to come at an “inconvenient” time, but that it was ready to discuss a new date for her to visit.
Meanwhile, Britain has withdrawn its diplomatic staff from Syria because of a growing risk to their safety, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said yesterday.
British diplomats left Syria on Wednesday and will return to Britain soon, he said in a written statement to parliament.
“I wish to inform the House that I have taken the decision on security grounds to suspend the services of the British embassy in Damascus and to withdraw all diplomatic staff,” Hague said.
Britain has maintained an embassy in Damascus since al-Assad’s forces began cracking down on anti-regime protests that erupted in March last year, but Hague said the security situation had worsened.
“We now judge that the deterioration of the security situation in Damascus puts our embassy staff and premises at risk and have taken the decision to withdraw staff accordingly,” he said.
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