Defected soldiers who had been defending the protest hot spot either fled to the surrounding countryside or were captured or killed, said residents and activists. Syrian troops combed through the neighborhood Monday detaining all the young men they encountered, and government supporters staged a noisy demonstration through the deserted streets.
The assault came as Assad’s government braced for the potential fallout from its failure to abide by the terms of an Arab League-sponsored peace initiative agreed to last Wednesday. Under the deal, Syria was to withdraw troops from cities, allow peaceful protests and release detainees.
Instead, the army launched an offensive in Homs, surrounding Bab al-Amr on the eve of the league’s announcement of the deal in Cairo and bombarding it with tank fire.
The offensive was accompanied by a surge in retaliatory sectarian killings in which hospital workers and human rights groups have said at least 70 people died, illustrating the potential for this religiously mixed city in the heart of Syria to serve as a crucible for a civil war many have feared since the uprising erupted in March.
For three days last week, members of the Sunni majority and the Alawite minority, to which Assad belongs, targeted one another in sectarian killings.
Those attacks appear to have abated in the past few days, but the military’s offensive has not. On Monday evening, several activists said a fresh government force of about 5,000 was seen assembling at the southern approaches of the city, apparently in preparation for an assault on other neighborhoods.
The Local Coordination Committee, which monitors and supports protests, said at least 40 civilians had been killed in the Homs offensive since the league peace plan was announced. Rami Abdelrahman of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll could be higher because many injured civilians were unable to reach hospitals.
Abdelrahman said that at least 30 defected soldiers died in a final pitched battle to defend the neighborhood Sunday, before the survivors fled. A medical worker at one of the city’s hospitals saw tanks firing at each other, suggesting some of the defected soldiers had access to significant firepower.
Medical teams that ventured into streets on the outskirts of the neighborhood Monday found the bodies of seven civilians who apparently had been injured in the bombardments but were unable to reach hospitals, said the medical worker, who was reached via Skype and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety.
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