Syrian troops massed around Homs, sparking calls Monday for women and children to flee the besieged flashpoint city, as Iranian warships docked at the port of Tartus in a show of force. The reported buildup came as the top US military officer, General Martin Dempsey, said any intervention in Syria would be “very difficult” and that it was “premature” to arm the unrest-swept country’s opposition movement. And China’s influential People’s Daily warned any Western support for Syria’s rebels would lead a “large-scale civil war.”
Activists and Syrian state media reported at least 14 people were killed Sunday, adding to the more than 6,000 people who have died in President Bashar al-Assad’s 11-month crackdown on dissent. “Infantry troops arrived yesterday (Sunday) in Homs,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP on the telephone Monday. A Homs-based activist voiced fears of an imminent attack on Baba Amr, the main rebel stronghold in the central city, speaking of “unprecedented military reinforcements coming from Damascus.”
“News has been leaked to us from army officers about a bloody attack that will burn everything in Baba Amr,” Hadi Abdullah of the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution said Sunday. “We were expecting the attack two nights ago, but it could have been just delayed because of the snowstorm,” he said. The Observatory said regime forces pounded Homs for the 17th straight day on Monday. Baba Amr neighbourhood was shelled early morning, and some rockets slammed into the districts of Karm al-Zaytoun and Al-Rifai.
Abdullah said Sunday that Baba Amr was shelled at the rate of four to five rockets a minute. The Homs districts Bab Sbaa, Bab Dreib and al-Safsafa were targeted with sporadic shelling. On Monday, Abdullah demanded a safe passage to allow women and children to leave Baba Amr. “We want women and children to be allowed to leave,” he told AFP, adding that “people were suffering from the weather while their conditions are miserable.” Abdel Rahman was cautious about the timing of the expected attack. “We do not know when the attack might happen,” he said. Two warships from Iran, a key backer of the Syrian regime, docked at the port of Tartus, Tehran’s state television reported on Monday, adding that their crew would train Syrian sailors. Iran’s navy chief, Admiral Habibollah Sayari, said on Saturday that the ships, a destroyer and supply vessel, had passed through the Suez Canal to show the Islamic republic’s military “might.” In Damascus, regime forces remained on alert after two days of large and unexpected protests, and after a call for a “day of defiance” was observed in restive neighbourhoods, according to activists. “Following the surprising demonstrations (on Friday and Saturday), the regime is reconsidering its security measures,” in the capital, said Abdel Rahman.
Syria bolsters troops as Iranian warships dock
