Opposition groups said the assault demonstrated that the Syrian government was not serious about the peace deal, and they again appealed to the international community to provide protection for civilians.
The Syrian National Council, the umbrella organization formed last month in Istanbul to represent the opposition, said that Homs should be declared a “disaster” zone and that the international community should act to provide medical relief and monitors.
Amateur video emerged on Monday purportedly showing recent clashes in three Syrian cities between forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and those who want him to step down. (Nov 7.)
Arab leaders have effectively declared the initiative dead, and Qatar has summoned an emergency meeting of the league to address next steps against Syria.
But the emergency meeting won’t take place until Saturday, and Syrian activists accused Arab leaders of slowing their response to give the government time to crush the revolt in this last major opposition stronghold. The Syrian Revolution General Commission, which represents several protest groups inside Syria, urged the league to meet sooner and “not to give the regime another opportunity to bombard, strike and burn.”
Homs has emerged in recent months as the epicenter of the nearly eight-month-old revolt, replacing the city of Hama after protests there that drew hundreds of thousands of people to a central square were crushed in August.
The sprawling, working-class Bab al-Amr neighborhood on the southeastern edge of the city, where dozens — and, some say, hundreds of defected soldiers — had gathered to defend protesters and keep government forces out, had become the focus of the opposition movement in the city.
The crushing of yet another protest hot spot suggests the government’s strategy of relying on overwhelming force to quell the uprising is working, at least for now. The uprising has emerged as the most serious challenge to four decades of Assad family rule.
But human rights activists pointed to the persistence of protests in other parts of the country that apparently had been crushed, including the southern town of Daraa and Hama, where demonstrations have been staged in recent days.
“It’s bad news in the short term but not in the long term,” Abdelrahman said. “The Syrian regime can win a battle, but we are sacrificing our blood and we will win the war.”
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