Syria: Fears for Homs as Pro-Assad Force Surrounds City
The Syrian opposition called for the immediate deployment of armed international peacekeepers as residents said that rebel-held districts of Homs had been subjected the most sustained bombardment of the 15-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
“The army is systematically gutting neighbourhood by neighbourhood with artillery,” said Mohammed al-Homsi, an activist from the city. “Since the observers stopped working yesterday we have seen a clear escalation.”
The shelling appeared to be a prelude for a major assault on Homs, the most defiant of all Syria’s cities and the scene of repeated clashes that have claimed thousands of lives.
Activists claimed that as many as 30,000 soldiers and members of the feared pro-regime militia, the Shabiha, had surrounded the city and were waiting to move in once the artillery barrage had softened resistance.
“Around 85 per cent of Homs is now under shelling or bombardment with mortar rounds and heavy machine guns,” Abu Imad, one opposition campaigner, told the Reuters press agency.