Syrian forces pound Homs, kill 57

Syrian forces killed 57 civilians on Tuesday as they blitzed the city of Homs and a village in Idlib province in an attempt to quell the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime.

At least 33 civilians were killed in an operation by Syrian forces in the village of Abdita in the northwestern province of Idlib that extended to the neighbouring villages of Ibleen and Balshon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

And despite a plea by activists on Monday to allow women and children to flee Homs' besieged Baba Amr neighbourhood, troop reinforcements were sent to the outskirts of the restive city, which residents say has been under assault for 18 straight days.

Activists fear they are preparing to storm its defiant neighbourhoods. The Observatory said 16 people, including three children, died in 'intensive shelling' that targeted Baba Amr, with the Khaldiyeh and Karm al-Zaytoun districts also blasted.

Eight more civilians, including a child, were reportedly killed by gunfire elsewhere in the country.

Homs-based activist Hadi Abdullah of the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution, who had earlier voiced fears of an imminent ground attack against the Baba Amr area, said that 'large reinforcements were heading to Homs'.

"We counted at least 150 shells crashing in Baba Amr within two hours this morning. We gave up counting afterwards," he said.

Omar Shaker, another activist, said that the neighbourhood had 'no electricity, nor fuel', and that 'snipers have hit water tanks', rendering the situation 'bad beyond imagination'.

Human Rights Watch said it had confirmed the use of Russian-made 240 mm mortars in Homs. "It is by far the most powerful mortar in modern use - most other countries stop at 160mm mortars, and a very powerful weapon," HRW emergency director Peter Bouckaert said.

AFP