Red Cross refused aid access to Baba Amr

Baba Amr in Homs The Red Cross has been refused permission to deliver aid to the Baba Amr district of the bombed-out Syrian city of Homs, despite earlier getting the go-ahead from the authorities. ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said the hold-up was "unacceptable". The delay has given rise to opposition allegations that government forces were trying to get rid of evidence of summary killings. The Red Cross aid convoy was prepared to enter the shattered Baba Amr district of Homs after a Syrian official declared the area “cleansed” and the opposition spoke of a massacre by Assad’s forces.
Syrian security forces on Friday opened fire to disperse demonstrations in the cities of Aleppo and Damascus as thousands took to the streets across Syria, activists and monitors said.
At least 52 were killed by the fire of Syrian security forces, mostly in Homs, said activists at the Local Coordination Committees (LCC). A shell hit a protest in Rastan killing 16 people, activists said.“God curse you Hafez for having a son like that,” shouted protesters in reference to Assad’s late father who ruled Syria for three decades until he died in 2000. “The people want to announce Jihad (Holy War),” read a banner.
The northern city of Aleppo was the scene of 12 protests, with demonstrators chanting support for Homs and other areas besieged by regime forces.
“Hundreds were taking part in several demonstrations in the Halab Al-Jadida district, while thousands demonstrated in other areas such as Salah Eddin, Fardoss and Marjeh,” he told AFP.
He said security forces fired live rounds at protesters in Salah Eddin and Saif A-Dawla neighborhoods, where several people were wounded and others arrested.
Five demonstrators were shot and wounded as security forces fired to disperse a protest outside Salam mosque in the Barzeh area of Damascus, after weekly Muslim prayers, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Activist Mohammed al-Shami told AFP that thousands of demonstrators turned out in several areas of the capital and its suburbs, such as Mazzeh, Hajar Al-Aswad, Al-Aasali, Douma, Qadam, Qaboon and Kfar Sousa.
The residential district became a symbol of resistance to Assad after government troops surrounded it with tanks and artillery and shelled it intensively for weeks, killing and wounding civilians cowering in its ruined buildings.
Activists accused regime forces of carrying out execution-style killings and burning homes Friday as part of a scorched-earth campaign in a restive neighborhood in the city of Homs, while the Red Cross headed to the area following a bloody, month-long siege to dislodge rebel forces.
Buildings have been reportedly left in ruins in the Syrian town of Atarib, on the outskirts of Aleppo, as government forces clashed with rebels.
US President Barack Obama said Assad's "days are numbered" and that Syria is on the “ropes”. The US president acknowledged that Syria is bigger, more sophisticated and more complicated than Libya, and that countries like Russia are blocking UN action.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday said in an interview with The Times that Moscow did not share a "special relationship" with Assad but desired humanitarian aid be granted to the country.
Israel also raised diplmatic pressure against Damascus, with Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman saying the situation was "unacceptable" and that the regime was a "killing machine".
Lieberman said he hoped that the international community would step in to stop the "barbarian behaviour of (Syria's) own leaders”.
The European Union is meanwhile considering a new round of sanctions against Syria, according to  draft conclusions from an EU summit in Brussels.
It also recognised the Syrian opposition as a "legitimate representative" of the Syrian people.
Calling the Syrian crisis "appalling", EU president Herman Van Rompuy said the bloc would go all-out to "ensure those responsible for the continuing atrocities are held responsible".
In the document, leaders of the 27-nation bloc request EU officials to prepare “further restrictive measures” against the government in Damascus.
It added that “those responsible will be held accountable” raising the prospect of putting individuals involved in human-rights abuses on trial.
Last month the EU froze the Syrian central bank’s assets and banned trade in precious metals and diamonds with the country. An oil embargo approved last September has just taken effect.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking in Brussels, said the "dreadful" Syrian regime would face a "day of reckoning".
French president Nicholas Sarkozy also announced the closure of its embassy in Damascus, following the lead taken by the UK, US and Switzerland.
The conditions in Homs, Syria's third-largest city, are said to be worsening with a severe lack of water, energy and medical supplies.
Rebels said they had pulled out "tactically" from Baba Amr on Thursday, the second day of an all-out ground assault by the feared Fourth Armoured Division led by President Assad's younger brother Maher.
The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) had earlier warned of a "massacre" in Baba Amr.
The storming of the rebel bastion began early Wednesday, following 27 straight days of relentless shelling of Homs, a central city that has been a protest hub since anti-regime demonstrations erupted in March last year.
A Syrian security official said in Damascus that the army was in total command of the Homs neighbourhood.
Authorities also found the bodies of US journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik in Baba Amr after the rebels retreated, the foreign ministry said. The journalists were killed in a rocket attack last month.
Two short videos released by activists in Homs claimed to show the burials of the pair.
French journalists Edith Bouvier, who sustained serious leg wounds in Syria, and William Daniels, trapped for days in bombarded Homs, escaped Syria for Lebanon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said late Thursday.
The assault on Baba Amr came as international envoy Kofi Annan said he hopes to travel to Damascus with a clear message that the "violence must stop."
UN political chief B Lynn Pascoe told the Security Council on Tuesday that "well over 7,500" people have been killed since the start of the crackdown.