A damaged car is seen in the Khaldiyeh area of Homs yesterday.
AFP/Damascus
Air raids on Homs killed a woman and two children yesterday, monitors said, as Syrian government forces pressed a ferocious assault on rebel-held parts of the city dubbed the “capital of the revolution”.
Homs, the third largest city in Syria, was one of the first to join the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime more than two years ago.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that in addition to the three civilians, at least 24 regime force members had been killed in the latest fighting in Homs.
On the second day of a major assault on the central city, “Syrian warplanes carried out air strikes on the Old City... destroying a house and causing three deaths,” said the Observatory.
“Regime forces also carried out heavy shelling of the districts of Khaldiyeh and the Old City, and the sound of explosions could be heard.”
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the woman and two children were killed in the strikes on the Old City, and that dozens of people had been injured.
“The army is continuing its attempt to enter Khaldiyeh, but it hasn’t succeeded so far,” he said.
Speaking over the Internet, an opposition activist in Homs said government forces had not entered Khaldiyeh yesterday but were still bombarding the district.
“Hundreds of soldiers are involved in the offensive. I think it will last for a week or two because the regime is determined to enter at any price,” said the activist who only identified himself as Yazan.
The Observatory said troops were also targeting the rebel bastions of Bab Hud, Hamidiyeh and Bustan al-Diwan, calling the bombardments “unprecedented”.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on Syria’s regime to cease its “brutal” assault.
“It is clear that Assad is not interested in peace for Syria but rather is prepared to kill tens of thousands of innocent people and deprive millions more of humanitarian aid rather than work for a resolution of this conflict which has already killed too many,” said Hague.
“I call upon the Assad regime to cease its brutal assault on Homs and to allow full humanitarian access to the country. The violence must end and those responsible must be held to account.”
On the ground, the army “made qualitative new advances in the city of Homs amid fierce clashes with armed militias in Khaldiyeh and Bab Hud”, said pro-government daily Al Watan.
The opposition National Coalition appealed late on Saturday for “battalions of the Free Syrian Army to come to the aid of Homs with all means possible”.