Regime forces attack residential areas in Hama, Homs

Syrian government forces resumed the bombardment of Baba Amro for the 12th successive day Syrian forces have launched an offensive on Hama, firing on residential neighbourhoods from armoured vehicles and mobile anti-aircraft guns, Reuters reported opposition activists as saying .
Troops shelled Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods in Homs on the 13th day of their bombardment. The city has been at the forefront of the uprising against 42 years of rule by President Bashar Al-Assad and his late father Hafez.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday urged greater diplomatic pressure to force Syria's government to negotiate with the opposition but said it was against the use of foreign military intervention.
Secretary General of the 57-member organisation, Ekmeleddin Ihsanolu, told an audience in Canberra that military intervention would only harm the Syrian people, citing conflicts in Iraq, Libya and Somalia.
"All these military interventions worsened the position rather than solved the conflict," he said.
International powers, along with the OIC and the Arab League, plan to meet in Tunis on February 24 as part of a newly-created "Friends of Syria Group" to look for a way to peacefully end the conflict in Syria.
"This will throw increasing pressure on the government to talk to the opposition. We need to work out a blueprint for the future transformation of power," he said.
The head of Egypt's influential seat of Sunni Islamic learning, Al-Azhar, on Tuesday called for bold Arab action against the Syrian government, raising regional pressure on President Bashar Al-Assad, a member of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, that has dominated Syria for five decades.
Earlier this morning, Reuters news agency reported that an explosion hit a major oil pipeline in the Syrian city of Homs, near a large Sunni Muslim district under bombardment by government forces, Reuters quoted residents as saying.
It was not clear what caused the explosion. The pipeline, which runs from the Rumeilan fields in the eastern Syrian Desert to the Homs refinery, one of two in the country, has been hit several times before during the 11-month uprising against President Bashar alAssad.
Footage from an activist’s camera showed a dense plume of smoke rising behind houses in Baba Amro.
The authorities have accused “terrorist saboteurs” of hitting the pipeline, while opposition activists said the military, which began firing shells, mortar rounds and rockets into Baba Amro on February 3, has been hitting it by mistake.
Meanwhile yesterday, Syria has made it onto the agenda of a summit between European Union leaders and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Responding to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who appealed to "all members" of the UN Security Council to "act responsibly", Wen was quoted as saying: "China is absolutely not protecting any party, including the government of Syria. The future of Syria is for the Syrian people to decide."
Earlier today China said it had sent an envoy to discuss Syria with the chief of the Arab League in Cairo. Nabil Al-Arabi had previously criticised Beijing for contributing to the diplomatic impasse.
Syrian activist network the "Local Coordination Committees" (LCC) state Tuesday's death toll to be 14, 10 of whom were in Homs, including a 13-year-old girl in shelling after clashes between army defectors and soldiers. Three troops also died.
The security forces were reported to have raided homes in Daraa province in the south, cradle of the Arab Spring-inspired 11-month uprising against Syrian Presiden Bashar Al-Assad’s regime.
Activists also reported clashes in the town of Altarib, near Aleppo, in the north-west of the country.
Regime forces stormed the town earlier today and clashed with Free Syrian Army recruits, according to the LCC. The rebels were reported to have blocked the motorway between Syria and Turkey with burning tyres.
Meanwhile, the UN General Assembly (GA) will see its members circulating a draft resolution supporting the Arab League plan for peace-keeping forces and calling for an appointment of a joint UN/Arab League envoy on Syria. Although the GA does not possess any vetoes, resolutions are not legally binding.
The head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Ramy Abdel Rahman said the neighbourhood of Baba Amr in Homs, central Syria, has been subjected to “sporadic shelling since 5 am (local time) by the Syrian army.”
"There were fierce clashes between defectors and the army which stormed Lajat (also in Daraa province) and arrested the mothers of four dissidents," the Observatory said.
Activists also reported that the town of Rankous, near Damascus was shelled as Homs was attacked. Phone lines were reportedly cut and many residents have fled. Shelling was also reported in the town of Rastan early on Tuesday,
Syrian troops battered Homs on Tuesday in some of the heaviest shelling of the central flashpoint city for days, a monitoring group said.
"The shelling of the Baba Amr neighbourhood began at dawn and is the most intense in five days," said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, citing activists on the ground.
"Two rockets are falling a minute on average," the head of the Britain-based group told AFP on the phone.
Hadi Abdullah, an activist in Homs reached by telephone, said the shelling of Baba Amr was extremely heavy.
"The situation is tragic. There are pregnant women, people with heart problems, diabetics and, foremost, wounded people who we cannot evacuate," he told AFP on the phone from Homs.
"On Monday evening three activists entered the town by car transporting bread, baby milk and medicine," he said.
"Their car was hit by a rocket. They all burned to death.
"We told them it was dangerous but they said, 'If we don't help the residents who will'," said Abdullah.
He said the humanitarian situation is worsening in Homs. "The urgency is to evacuate the wounded. How can we let them die in cold blood?"
"For one week, the dead have been buried in gardens, because even the cemeteries and graves are being targeted. People are crammed into shelters," he added.
Monday saw 37 people die in violence across the country, the Syrian Revolution General Commission reported.
Assad swiftly rejected an Arab League initiative for a joint mission with the United Nations to end the bloodshed, and shelling resumed in Baba Amr, a rebel bastion in Homs, rights monitors said.
The latest violence came as Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, delivered a stark verdict on the consequences of the international community's failure to pass a UN resolution condemning the deadly crackdown.
"The nature and scale of abuses committed by Syrian forces indicate that crimes against humanity are likely to have been committed since March 2011," she told the UN General Assembly.
"The failure of the Security Council to agree on firm collective action appears to have emboldened the Syrian government to launch an all-out assault in an effort to crush dissent with overwhelming force."
The United States said it was considering whether a peacekeeping force would work while Russia, who with China vetoed a second UN resolution on Syria on February 4, said a ceasefire was needed before peacekeepers can be deployed.
China meanwhile sent an envoy to Cairo to meet with the head of the Arab League amid growing diplomatic pressure over Syria.
Envoy Li Huaxin had an "extremely frank and useful" exchange with League chief Nabil Al-Arabi yesterday, said the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
"Given the constantly escalating Syrian situation, the purpose of this visit to Cairo was to explain China's position and policies to the Arab League and Arab countries, and listen to their opinions. So far China has made its position on Syria reasonably clear, vetoing two draft UN resolutions on the crisis and remaining muted in reaction to an Arab League proposal for a joint UN/Arab peacekeeping force in the country," said a ministry statement.
Al-Arabi had previously said that the veto had cost China and Russia diplomatic credit in the Arab world.
Despite the relentless violence, protests took place across Syria, where activists say more than 6,000 people have died in the crackdown since last March.
Some denounced Assad and others supported the rebel Free Syrian Army, according to YouTube videos provided by the LCC.
"Arab League!!! Thank you but we need more," said a placard students carried at a rally in Jabala, in Idlib province.
A government official said Syria was determined to crush dissent, regardless of the latest Arab initiative, the official SANA news agency reported.
"This decision will not prevent the Syrian government from fulfilling its responsibilities in protecting its citizens and restoring security and stability," the unidentified official was quoted as saying.
"Syria rejects decisions that are a flagrant interference in the country's internal affairs and a violation of its national sovereignty."
Activists say Assad's forces have killed at least 500 people in Homs since they began bombarding it on February 4 -- the day Russia and China vetoed the second UN Security Council resolution.
That move prompted the pan-Arab bloc after marathon talks in Cairo at the weekend to ask for a joint Arab-UN peacekeeping mission, but the Syrian regime rejected the suggestion on Sunday.
The Arab League plan was on Monday welcomed by Britain, Germany, Italy and the European Union.
US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron renewed their condemnation of Syria's crackdown during a discussion on Monday, the White House said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meanwhile hit out at Syria's latest military offensive.
"It is deplorable that the regime has escalated violence in cities across the country, including using artillery and tank fire against innocent civilians," Clinton said in Washington at a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Clinton said she welcomed a fresh chance to put international pressure on Damascus when the 'Friends of Syria' group holds its first meeting in Tunisia next week and insisted more economic pressure would be exerted.
"We will strengthen our targeted sanctions, bring the international community in condemnation of the actions of the Assad regime," the chief US diplomat said.
Analysts, however, said the new Arab initiative was likely to fail.
"I find it very difficult that we will find member states who will actually contribute UN troops to something like this," said Salman Shaikh, head of the Brookings Doha Centre.