Troops and militiamen loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad entered a residential district of the city of Homs after six days of tank bombardment that killed scores of people and wounded hundreds, activists said today.
Army defectors who had taken refuge in Bab Amro and helped defend the residential district, which has seen regular street rallies against Dr Assad's rule, have withdrawn. Loyalist forces entered the district overnight, they said.
Syrians in the region surrounding Homs have performed special prayers for a major Muslim holiday amid explosions and gunfire as government troops push forward in the area, killing at least 11 people, activists said.
The violence, the first day of Eid al-Adha or Feast of the Sacrifice, adds to fears that a peace plan brokered by the Arab League last week is unravelling, and has prompt Qatar’s prime minister to call for an emergency meeting to discuss the Syrian government’s failure to abide by its commitments.
Egypt’s official news agency Mena reported that Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani called for the meeting “in light of the continuing acts of violence and the Syrian government’s non-compliance” with the terms of the Arab plan.
Violence has continued unabated, though Damascus agreed to halt its crackdown on the seven-month-old uprising that the UN says has left some 3,000 people dead.
Under the Arab League plan, Syria’s government agreed to pull tanks and armoured vehicles out of cities, release political prisoners and allow journalists and rights groups into the country.
Activists said government forces yesterday killed at least nine people in Homs, which has turned into one of the main centres of protest and reprisal during the revolt against Dr Assad.
Bloodshed linked to the military crackdown on dissent and what appear to be sectarian revenge killings have engulfed Homs in recent weeks, killing scores of people in the country’s third-largest city.
PA