Syrian forces overran the Baba Amr district of powderkeg Homs yesterday after rebels retreated, potentially marking a turning point in President Bashar al-Assad’s bid to crush an increasingly armed uprising.
As rebel fighters pulled back, the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) warned of a “massacre” in the rebel neighbourhood by Syrian forces, while aid agencies said they would urgently try to get there to deliver aid and evacuate the wounded.
The SNC, slamming “confusion” among the rebel ranks, said in Paris it would provide leadership to an outgunned and fragmented force and control the flow of arms to fighters on the ground.
The rebels said they had pulled out “tactically” from Baba Amr after nearly two days of an all-out assault by the feared Fourth Armoured Division, led by a younger brother of President Bashar al-Assad, Maher, following 27 straight days of relentless shelling of their bastion.
Rebels “have pulled out tactically in order to protect the remaining civilians,” said Colonel Riyadh al-Asaad, the leader of the Free Syrian Army, which is made up mostly of deserters.
The FSA was formed mid-2011 in response to a brutal crackdown by Assad’s forces on anti-regime protesters, and now boasts at least 20,000 armed fighters, although the numbers are impossible to verify.
A Syrian security official said in Damascus that the army was in total command of the Homs neighbourhood, which had become the symbol of resistance to the regime.
State TV aired footage it said was filmed inside Baba Amr, including interviews with people it said were residents angry with the rebels.
The SNC urged the international community to act to prevent to protect residents, charging that the Fourth Armoured Brigade was conducting “barbaric operations against civilians.”
“We urge the international community, Muslim and Arab states to intervene immediately to prevent a potential massacre in the coming hours against tens of thousands of children, women and elderly people,” it said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 21 people were killed in Homs yesterday, including 17 civilians caught up in the battle for control of Baba Amr.
Global campaigning organisation, Avaaz, said the 17 were “beheaded or partially beheaded” in the farming area on the outskirts of Baba Amr.