Arab observers in Homs as death toll rises

Syria’s opposition yesterday urged United Nations and Arab League intervention as gunfire from security forces killed 23 people in the besieged central city of Homs.

Arab League observers have arrived in the flashpoint Syrian city of Homs but are unable to do their job, the head of the country’s main opposition group said yesterday.

Syrian National Council (SNC) head Burhan Ghaliun told reporters at a Paris news conference that some of the observers were in the besieged city “but they are saying they cannot go where the authorities do not want them to go.”

He also sought UN and Arab League intervention “to put an end to this tragedy,” and urged the UN Security Council to “adopt the Arab League’s plan and ensure that it is applied.”

Heavy gunfire killed 23 people in the besieged city yesterday.

On Sunday, the opposition SNC said Homs was under siege and facing an “invasion” from some 4,000 troops deployed near the city that has become a focal point of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

The observers are due to oversee a deal aimed at ending the crackdown, which the UN estimates has killed more than 5,000 people since March.

The mission is part of an Arab plan endorsed by Syria on November 2 that calls for the withdrawal of the military from towns and residential districts, a halt to violence against civilians and the release of detainees.

An initial group of 50 observers landed in Syria yesterday to oversee the deal aimed at ending a bloody crackdown on anti-regime dissent, which has showed no signs of abating since it erupted in March.

Earlier, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “rocket fire and heavy machineguns in the Baba Amro quarter killed 15 people and wounded dozens. “The situation is frightening and the shelling is the most intense of the past three days,” it said in a statement.

Seven civilians died in other parts of the central Syrian city and its suburbs, and a woman was killed at Talbisseh near Homs. Another three people, including a 14-year-old boy, were shot dead by security forces at a demonstration in Khattab and a youth was shot dead in Saraqeb in the northwestern province of Idlib.

In other developments, four army deserters died in clashes with loyalist troops near the Turkish border village of Al-Yunsieh, and explosions were heard amid fighting between deserters and soldiers in the Damascus suburb of Douma.

Since signing the agreement, Mr Assad’s regime has been accused of intensifying its crackdown.