Violence in Syria Continues After Diplomacy Fails

[maddezmom]

BEIRUT — Syrian forces shelled the battered city of Homs for another day Monday, opposition groups said, striking a makeshift clinic and killing at least 17 people in a mounting toll that has made the city the epicenter of the 11-month Syrian uprising. The city, Syria’s third-largest, has emerged as an arena of some of the revolt’s worst violence, with scores dead there in just the past few days.

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The bloodshed on Monday followed an onslaught this weekend, when opposition groups said Syrian forces shelled Khaldiya and other neighborhoods for several hours Friday and Saturday, killing more than 200 people in one of the deadliest days of the revolt.

The government has flatly denied the tolls quoted by opposition groups. On Saturday, it said Homs was quiet. State-run media blamed the violence Monday on “armed terrorist groups” firing mortars within Homs, an opposition stronghold.

Explosions could be heard over the phone when speaking with residents. Videos smuggled out by activists showed a chaotic scene at a clinic, as people rushed past doctors and medical staff, shouting, “Oh God.” In one video, purporting to document the scene, blood smeared the sidewalk outside. Another showed bloodied corpses.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/world/middleeast/violence-in-syria-continues-after-diplomacy-fails.html

[maddezmom]

1. Syrian regime smashes Homs with shells and rockets in unrelenting offensive

Syria's army rained shells and mortar bombs onto the city of Homs on Monday, launching the biggest offensive against President Bashar al-Assad's enemies since the conflict began almost a year ago.


8:41PM GMT 06 Feb 2012





The intense bombardment claimed at least 42 lives, with a field hospital being struck by shells. Beginning at 6am, local time, the army targeted areas of Homs where rebels from the Free Syrian Army have a strong presence, notably the district of Baba Amr.


Hundreds of shells and mortar bombs were reported to be falling every hour, while the insurgents were unable to retaliate with anything more effective than small arms fire.


"We can't count all the bodies from the streets and the collapsed buildings. Anyone who tries to go on the street might be killed - there are snipers," said Abu Abdu al-Homsi, spokesman for the Syrian Revolutionary Council, an opposition group, in Homs. "An old woman - her son was shot and killed in the street, she went to get his body and was shot dead too."


The army had surrounded the city with tanks, according to a statement from the Syrian National Council, an alliance of opposition groups, and the bombardment signalled the onset of "a major offensive", with fears that this may develop into an assault by troops.

more:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9065043/Syrian-regime-smashes-Homs-with-shells-and-rockets-in-unrelenting-offensive.html