By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent
5:23PM GMT 26 Dec 2011
4 Comments
Video posted online from the city, the epicentre of the uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, showed twisted and bleeding bodies lying in the streets of the Bab al-Amr neighbourhood, which is surrounded by trenches and government tanks.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other human rights groups said that at least 23 people had been killed in the attack on Monday alone, 14 of them in Bab al-Amr. A further three people, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed in neighbouring Hama province.
Homs is expected to be visited by an Arab League monitoring mission whose leader, Lt Gen Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, arrived in Damascus on Saturday night.
Another 60 members of his team were flying by private jet from the Egyptian capital Cairo last night.
Burhan Ghaliun, the head of the Syrian NAtional Council, on Monday night said in Paris that some of the observers had already reached Homs but “they are saying they cannot go where the authorities do not want them to go.”
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The mission, comprising 50 politicians, military figures and human rights observers and 10 Arab League officials, will be divided into five groups and visit cities accompanied by Syrian officials, an arrangement described by one activist as akin to allowing a "rapist to act as a forensic expert assistant while examining the victim".
The government attack on Bab al-Amr has now been going on for four days.
The latest video footage shows four male bodies lying in a narrow alleyway.
The footage includes close-ups of one body's numerous bullet wounds.
Someone shouts over the soundtrack: "This is Baba Amr, December 26, 2011, and the random shelling is still falling on the neighbourhood."
Other footage shows tanks manoeuvring through the streets, accompanied by the sound of machine gunfire. Witnesses also said that rebel forces were firing back and inflicting their own casualties on government forces.
Lt Gen Dabi said he had received good co-operation from the authorities so far. However, after eight weeks of waiting since Damascus agreed to an Arab League-sponsored proposal to withdraw its troops from the streets and allow in monitors, the proof of the pudding will be in the situation discovered on the first visits by his team.
The authorities say that large parts of the country – including parts of Homs – are peaceful and support the regime, but that Islamist extremists and terror groups are waging a war on the army which has killed thousands of people.
It is an assessment shared by virtually no one else, with powerful neighbours such as Turkey having turned on President Assad.
A French foreign ministry spokesman said: "The Damascus authorities must imperatively, in accordance with the Arab League plan, allow observers access this afternoon to the city of Homs, where the violence is particularly bloody."
The human rights group Avaaz said there were now reports that Gen Assef Shawkat, the president's brother-in-law and one of the country's most powerful military figures, had arrived in Homs to take charge of the situation there personally.
Activists say the delay in the mission's arrival, during which time thousands of people have been killed and the country has descended into open warfare between the government and armed rebels, has made it pointless. They also claim that President Assad had carried out few of the promises whose implementation the observers are supposed to be monitoring.
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Showing 4 comments
King
44 minutes ago
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other human rights groups are the talk & lies machine of CIA & Mossad. Arab League was founded by security services & Foreign Office of England back in 50s.
What do you expect from all the lies told by the media and other lies machines about Libya & now Syria?
KlingonOffTheStarboardBow
46 minutes ago
In the entire universe it is difficult to believe there is a species as idiotic as Homo Sapiens.
scotch
Today 07:03 PM
they have failed before they even started ......Arab League my arse.
salfordlad
Today 06:26 PM
lol
you can almost write the script for these arab dictators
al saddam gadaffi duck etc
tiny minority problem of terorists
majority pro regime
western interference
more western interference
deny losing to a handful of terrorists
the people will soon rise up on behalf of the regime
more in denial mode
run away
found in hole/pipe
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conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
27122011
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CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
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