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Activist Abu Bilal in the Old City said the regime siege of several parts of Homs was “suffocating”.
“They are shelling us all the time. There’s very little food and water, and we’re running out of medication.”
UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition activist network, say the shelling killed at least one person yesterday.
The Observatory urged the UN to intervene and evacuate more than 1 000 Homs families, including women and children. It says their lives are in danger.
The latest shelling comes a day after UN observers suspended their patrols in Syria due to a recent spike in violence.
About 300 observers are deployed in Syria, tasked with monitoring a ceasefire and supporting the full implementation of a six-point peace plan drafted by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, which was supposed to lead to talks between the two sides.
However, hundreds of people have been killed since the first observers were deployed in April and the mission has been harshly criticised by the opposition.
Activists said that more than 50 people were killed on Saturday alone in clashes and shelling in towns close to Damascus, in the central provinces of Homs and Hama, in the seaside province of Latakia, the northern provinces of Idlib and Deir al-Zour and the southern province of Daraa.
The mission’s chief General Major Robert Mood said the suspension would be reviewed on a daily basis and operations would resume when the situation was fit.
“The lack of willingness by the parties to seek a peaceful transition, and the push towards advancing military positions is increasing the losses on both sides: innocent civilians, men, women and children are being killed every day,” his statement said. “It is also posing significant risks to our observers.”
He said intensifying violence in the past 10 days was “limiting our ability to observe, verify, report as well as assist in local dialogue and stability projects”.
The National Coordination Committee (NCC), one of Syria’s main factions of opposition, expressed their regret over the suspension and called for the supervision mission to strengthen its security apparatus and resume operations.
Mahmoud Morei, the NCC head, said the Syrian government should shoulder the majority of responsibility for the intensifying violence. He suggested that the government should first stop using violence because it hasn’t resolved the problem over the past 10 months. On the contrary, it had deepened the crisis, Morei said. “We demand the Syrian authorities to stop all violence right away, even if it is a unilateral ceasefire in order to seek a way out from the crisis.”
Meanwhile, the suspension of UN observers’ patrols in Syria shortly ahead of the upcoming G-20 summit in Mexico triggered superpowers’ preparation for “next steps toward a Syrian-led political transition” without shunning aside military options.
Immediately after the observers’ decision to suspend their patrols, Washington said it is studying the next measures it would undertake to deal with the Syrian crisis without shunning aside the military option.
Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for US National Security Council, said his country is now working with allies “regarding next steps toward a Syrian-led political transition” without the Syrian president. “The sooner this transition takes place, the greater the chance of averting a lengthy and bloody sectarian civil war,” he said.
The UN Security Council’s five permanent members will also consider the next steps for the observer mission after Mood briefs them on the situation in Syria tomorrow.
Observers believe that no major step would be taken until after the G-20 summit amid reports that the recent violence in Syria will be at its top agenda as world powers try to overcome pro-Syrian government Russia’s stance.
Al-Thawra, a Syria newspaper, said yester-day that no one could “exonerate the US statements that have come in parallel with the temporary suspension of the UN mission”.
What has further sustained the belief that the US and its allies are pushing for militarisation are recent reports that around 6 000 people, including Arabs, Afghans and Turks, have been recruited and trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to commit “terrorist” acts in Syria. — Al Jazeera/Xinhua.
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