Syria armour moves on Homs as violence spreads

Syrian armour moved on the protest centre of Homs and a general was gunned down in Damascus on Saturday as the bloodshed showed no signs of abating, even spilling over into Lebanon.
The Syrian National Council (SNC) said Arab recognition of the opposition umbrella group was imminent, ahead of key talks in the Egyptian capital on the crisis. In Aleppo, tensions escalated as President Bashar al-Assad’s forces stepped up security after twin car bombs killed 28 people in Syria’s second city on Friday, activists said. Another four civilians were killed by shelling and heavy machinegun fire in Baba Amr, the main centre of resistance in Homs, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Government forces have been waging a withering assault on the central city that has killed more than 450 people in the past week, rights groups say. Two civilians died in the southern town of Daraa, cradle of the revolt, and another was killed in the Damascus district of Qabun, the Observatory said, adding three security force members died elsewhere.
A general was gunned down outside his Damascus home, state media said. If confirmed, it would be one of the most brazen attacks on the top brass in the capital since the uprising erupted in March last year. “An armed terrorist group this morning assassinated brigadier general and doctor, Issa al-Khawli, the director of Hamish hospital, outside his home in the district of Ruknaddin,” the official SANA news agency said. In Lebanon, two people died and 18 were wounded in fierce clashes betwee Sunni Muslims hostile to Syria’s regime and Alawites who support it, a security official said.
“A Sunni and an Alawite were killed and 18 people were wounded in clashes that continued since Friday between people from the neighbourhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tebbaneh,” in the northern city of Tripoli, he told AFP. The two sides were firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades at each other in the bloodiest clashes since June, when six people were killed in the wake of demonstrations against Syria’s government. Syrian state media blamed “terrorists” for Friday’s double car bomb attacks on security posts in Aleppo, which killed at least 28 people and wounded 235. The rebel Free Syrian Army accused the regime of launching the attacks in a bid to divert attention from its bloody nationwide crackdown.