Syria regime tightens grip as UN halts operations

Syrian troops on Sunday tightened their grip on the flashpoint city of Homs as the opposition demanded the deployment of armed peacekeepers after UN observers halted their work because of bloodshed. Violence cost at least another 11 lives on Sunday, taking the overall weekend death toll across the unrest-swept country to 80, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Among them was a civilian killed in the rebel bastion of Khalidiyeh, which, like other parts of Homs, was "being shelled and shot at by regime forces who have been trying to enter these districts for several days," it said.
Speaking to AFP via Skype from the Old City neighbourhood of Homs, opposition activist Abu Bilal said the regime assault on several parts of the central city was "suffocating."
"They are shelling us all the time. There's very little food and water, and we're running out of medication." Abu Bilal reiterated fears expressed by the opposition and rights watchdogs that, should regime forces enter the besieged districts, people trapped inside them "will be massacred."
Dozens of civilians were wounded in the Old City, "and many of them will die if they don't get treatment as we can't get any of the injured out," he warned. Amateur video posted online by anti-regime activists in the Homs district of Jourat al-Shiah showed widespread destruction, deserted streets and parts of a building shelled and on fire. "We don't have any milk for the children, nor water, nor electricity," a mother of two whose house was destroyed tells the unidentified cameraman. "We just want a way to get our children out of here."
The Observatory had reported on Saturday that more than 1,000 families were trapped in Homs, and that there was a lack of medical staff and equipment.
Home to rebel hideouts, Homs has been under intermittent attack by regime forces ever since its district of Baba Amr was relentlessly pounded for a month earlier this year and retaken by the regime. The exiled Syrian National Council, the country's main opposition group called on the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to arm the observers.
"At a time when the regime is committing its worst crimes against the Syrian people, we are surprised by the UN observers' decision to suspend their work, because of what they described as 'an intensification' of violence," the SNC said in a statement.
The United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria, or UNSMIS, suspended its operations two months into its three-month mandate on Saturday, blaming the intensifying violence.