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Syria: live from the frontline in Homs Syria: live from the frontline in Homs
(7 days later)
11.59am: We're wrapping up this live blog now but coverage will continue tomorrow.
In the meantime, here's a round up of today's main developments:
• The uprising against Bashar al-Assad has turned from a grinding war of attrition into an unforgiving battle to the death, the Guardian's Martin Chulov reports. Casualties have been streaming out of the besieged city of Homs, which is under heavy bombardment by Assad's forces. Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army seems to be getting resupplied, and its numbers are growing. A growing numbers of Syrian Christians and Alawites – members of the same sect as Assad's family – are also reported to have joined the uprising.
• Today's death toll has now reached 126, including 107 in Homs according to the Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 63 deaths in Homs. These figures cannot be independently verified.
• Prematurely born babies are dying in Homs because of the lack of incubators, according to Muhammad Al-Muhammad, who claims to be a doctor in the Baba Amr district.
• Britain has no plans to arm the Syrian rebels but cannot rule out getting involved in military action, according to foreign secretary William Hague.
• The US is pursuing plans to help organise the first meeting of the Friends of Syria group, which will coordinate ways to tackle Assad's regime. Meanwhile Arab League foreign ministers will meet in Cairo on Sunday to discuss establishing a joint mission in Syria with the UN.
• Libya has reportedly ordered Syrian embassy staff to leave the country within 72 hours. In October, Libya became the first country to recognise the opposition SNC as Syria's legitimate government.
Thanks for reading and for your comments below.
11.41pm: A growing numbers of Syrian Christians and Alawites – members of the same sect as Assad's family – have joined the uprising against the regime, Al Jazeera reports.
In this video report, some members of the Alawite minority say they cannot ignore the bloodshed any longer and are speaking out against the government.
Al Jazeera notes that this is a significant development as the regime has claimed that one of the main reasons for its brutal crackdown is to protect minority groups from armed groups within the majority Sunni Muslims.
10.15pm: Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay, who is in Homs, says residents are expecting an imminent all out ground assault.
Posting on his Twitter account, he predicts a massacre, adding that from Homs to the Lebanese border people are preparing to die. Ramsay adds that the the Free Syrian Army are hopelessly outmatched by Assad's forces.

FSA say as many as 10 thousand troops deployed outside Homs - can't confirm.
Tanks apc artillery infantry everywhere - FSA all but overwhelmed - counting bullets.
FSA attacking across region but feels like a hornet on an elephant.
Villages are emptying ahead of expected onslaught around Homs towards [Lebanese] border.
Top FSA commander hit in assault this morning. Still fighting.
FSA attacked for 12 hours today - but they just dont have the gear to make a difference. nobody expects outside help.
9.28pm: The latest Guardian story on Syria describes how Syrian troops have sealed off the population of a rebel stronghold in the city of Homs and bombarded it using tanks, helicopters and artillery.
Eyewitnesses said roads in and out of Baba Amr, in the south-east of Homs, were blocked, preventing the evacuation of children or the wounded, and food, water and medicine were running out fast in the besieged suburb.
The story also covers the lack of agreement by the international community on how to confront Assad's regime.
The international community appeared to flounder over a coherent response. The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, condemned the Russian and Chinese veto of a security council resolution on the crisis over the weekend as "disastrous for the Syrian people". He said the failure to agree on collective action "has encouraged the Syrian government to step up its war on its own people".
8.35pm: A cousin of Assad has won a legal bid to unfreeze 3 million francs ($4m) held in Swiss bank accounts, AP reports.
Swiss authorities froze the funds on Hafez Makhlouf's four Geneva bank accounts in May. That decision was overturned four months later but prosecutors sought to prevent the release of the funds by launching a money laundering investigation in September.
But the Federal Criminal Court agreed with Makhlouf's argument that prosecutors had previously dismissed money laundering suspicions. The court ordered the funds unblocked and granted Makhlouf 1,800 francs ($1,975) in damages.
8.26pm: The US has set out some of its plans to help organise the first meeting of the Friends of Syria group, which will coordinate ways to tackle Assad regime.
The top Middle East envoy of the state department , Jeffrey Feltman, has been dispatched to Morocco, France and Bahrain to help put the meeting together and determine the group's membership and its mandate, AP reports.
Arab League foreign ministers are due to meet Sunday in Cairo and could announce a date and venue for the meeting after that.
France and Turkey, both of which have historic and commercial interests in Syria, have offered to host the meeting. Morocco, which sponsored the UN Security Council resolution calling for Assad to step down, which Russia and China vetoed, is also a candidate to host.
State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said:

Now that the UN Security Council action has been blocked by the double veto, we are compelled to work outside the UN system, and so that's why you see this sort of groundswell of work now to get this friends group together.
8.07pm: Here's the Guardian's latest video of the violence in Syria.
Footage obtained from social media websites purports to show the assaults on Homs and Idlib. Other footage is reported as showing the Free Syrian Army attacking a military checkpoint in Homs.
7.44pm: The Arab League will discuss a proposal to send a joint mission with the UN to Syria.
The League's deputy head, Ahmed Ben Helli said:
There is a proposal from the secretary-general of the Arab League to form a joint mission for Syria in coordination with the United Nations, and it will be presented before the planned Arab foreign ministers' meeting on Sunday in Cairo.
Arab ministers are considering whether to extend or scrap an observer mission sent to Syria in December, which was criticised by anti-Assad groups, and retreated to hotels for safety as the bloodshed in the country worsened.
One Arab diplomat said the meeting could also issue a statement on a decision by Russia and China to veto a UN resolution that was based on a peace plan put forward by the league, which had the backing of Western powers.
Earlier this week, Arab League secretary-general Nabil Elaraby said a new mission could be sent but it would have to be larger, better equipped and have a stronger mandate.
7.19pm: CNN has posted a video interview with a Syrian activist who describes how he saw a friend shot in the head by government forces.
The broadcaster also reports on the terrible scenes at a makeshift clinic in the Baba Amr area of Homs:
Some arrive with heads decapitated or their torsos split open like animals after slaughter. Or their limbs are mangled under the crush of rubble.
The Associated Press has posted a video of the shelling of Homs, which shows a body on a stretcher being taken from the ruins of a residential home.
7.01pm: Britain has no plans to arm the Syrian rebels but cannot rule out getting involved in military action, according to the foreign secretary, William Hague.
Amid speculation that Britain could assist the rebels with weapons or other equipment, Hague told Sky News:
We are clearly not planning military intervention. Britain is not engaged in that and we haven't done that in any of the conflicts or we certainly don't have any plans to do such.
We are intensifying our contacts with opposition groups, opposition groups mainly outside Syria. We're also increasing our support for organisations that get food and medical supplies in to people so badly affected by this situation.
Addressing rumours that Britain was arming the rebels, he added:
No, our plans at the moment are to intensify our diplomatic work which is what we are doing with the Arab League, with our partners at the United Nations Security Council, to help with food and medical supplies, to work with the opposition outside Syria.
These are the things we're doing, there is a lot the United Kingdom can do on all those fronts but we're not engaged in conflict within Syria.
6.35pm: Human Rights Watch has condemned the Syrian government for its "indiscriminate" assault on the civilian population of Homs.
Anna Neistat, associate emergencies director of HRW, said:

This brutal assault on residential neighbourhoods shows the Syrian authorities' contempt for the lives of their citizens in Homs. Those responsible for such horrific attacks will have to answer for them.
The human rights organisation said eyewitness accounts, as well as video reviewed by the group's arms experts, suggest Assad's forces are using long-range mortars to pound the city. It said such weapons "are inherently indiscriminate when fired into densely populated areas."
This video report by Danny Daem posted on YouTube purports to show residential homes in the Baba Amr district of Homs destroyed by shelling. The Guardian is unable to verify this content.
This photo posted on Twitter purports to show a home in the same district destroyed in the bombardment.
6.17pm: This is David Batty – I'm taking over the live blog for the rest of the evening. You can follow me on Twitter @David_Batty.
Residents of Homs have described the increasingly dire situation in Homs to the Associated Press. The heavy shelling of neighbourhoods such as Baba Amr has made it difficult to get medicine and care to the wounded, and some areas have been without electricity for days, according to activists.
Abu Muhammad Ibrahim, an activist in Homs, told the news agency:
Snipers are on all the roofs in Baba Amr, shooting at people. Anything that moves, even a bird, is targeted. Life is completely cut off. It's a city of ghosts.
Mohammed Saleh, another activist, said Assad's ground forces were keeping their distance from the city while it was under heavy shelling. He added:
There is medicine in the pharmacies, but getting it to the field clinics is very difficult. They can't get the medicine to the wounded.
5.00pm: Here's a summary of today's events in Syria:
• The situation is very tense, with a lot of gunfire and lot of shelling, says Martin Chulov, who is reporting for the Guardian from close to the city of Homs. Casualties have also been streaming out of the city. Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army seems to be getting resupplied, and its numbers are growing.
• Today's death toll has now reached 126, including 107 in Homs according to the Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria. Other activists quote lower figures and the Syrian Revolution Coordinating Commission said at least 30 civilians were killed in Homs. These figures cannot be independently verified.
• Prematurely born babies are dying in Homs because of the lack of incubators, according to Muhammad Al-Muhammad, who claims to be a doctor in the Baba Amr district.
• Libya has reportedly ordered Syrian embassy staff to leave the country within 72 hours. In October, Libya became the first country to recognise the opposition SNC as Syria's legitimate government.
4.43pm: On The Atlantic's website, Geoffrey Goldberg has been comparing casualty figures. The Syrian death toll is now thought to be about 6,000 since last March.
A total of 2,294 Palestinians and Israelis died in the first intifada and 10,760 in the second intifada, Goldberg says. Meanwhile, the Irish troubles cost about 3,000 lives over three decades.
Casualty figures for the 1982 Hama massacre in Syria are uncertain, though estimates range from 10,000 to as many as 40,000.
Goldberg does not mention the decade-long Algerian civil war that began in 1991, though estimates of casualties in that conflict are usually estimated at more than 100,00 dead, and possibly as many as 200,000.
4.25pm: Libya has ordered Syrian embassy staff to leave the country within 72 hours, al-Jazeera is reporting. In October, Libya became the first country to recognise the opposition SNC as Syria's legitimate government.
Two days ago, the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – announced they were expelling Syrian ambassadors and recalling their own ambassadors from Damascus.
3.57pm: Sanctions against Syria are unlikely to topple the Assad regime and might even strengthen its popular support, Turkey's ambassador to the EU has warned.
European countries are working towards imposing tougher sanctions by the end of this month – probably including a freeze on the assets of Syria's central bank and banning trade in diamonds, gold and other precious metals.
But the Turkish ambassador, Selim Yenel, told Reuters:
We don't believe in sanctions. They never work. That's why we are against them in Iran ... In Syria they will hurt people. Whether in the long term they will turn them into more vocal opposition, I don't know. We have never seen that happen before.
Assad still has backing The middle class is still supporting Assad. They are afraid of what comes after him.
The regime is not just a person, or one family. It's a big group of people and ... they want to hold on to power.
3.47pm: Today's death toll has increased to 126 people, including 107 in Homs according to the latest unverified update from activist group the Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria.
Other activists quote lower figures. The Syrian Revolution Coordinating Commission said at least 30 civilians were killed in Homs, according to Reuters.
3.24pm: In his latest video appeal Muhammad Al-Muhammad, who claims to be a doctor in Baba Amr, says prematurely born babies are dying in the city because of the lack of incubators.
He shows one new born baby who he claims will die without help
Speaking from a makeshift delivery ward in a Mosque, Muhammad said the baby had been born two month premature.
He needs an incubator now. Without one he will die. Nine premature babies have died in Homs.
Where are you the clerics of Damascus and Aleppo?
If we leave him like this he will die. Shall we leave him like this. We can't do anything for him. We are using a mosque for a hospital because of the heavy bombing by the rockets and the helicopters.
3.12pm: "The violence and brutality I have witnessed over the last ten months shocks me," writes Britain's ambassador to Syria Simon Collis.
In a new blogpost, Collis who was recalled from Damascus last week, claims that the violence documented on YouTube is authentic.
He also urges the Syrian opposition to refrain from violence.
I tell the Syrian opposition at every opportunity to avoid the path of an armed resistance. But the sad truth is that violence begets violence. That is why it is important that all sides refrain from violence and that the regime allows a political transition instead of repeating its hollow promises of reform..
Without context, it can be hard to make sense of YouTube images shot on a mobile phone. It can be hard to understand why a man with a family in a town in Syria would decide to take up arms against his government. It can be hard to believe that over 5,000 people have been killed in ten months, or that torture is a regular occurrence in prisons, children brutalised and tanks and mortars used by the army against its own citizens. If I hadn't seen for myself what the Syrian regime has done I would be asking these questions too.
But I have. And it is too shocking to ignore. That is why I am so appalled by the vetoing of the draft resolution, tabled by Morocco, which supported the Arab League efforts to resolve the crisis. The resolution did not impose any sanctions. It did not authorise military action. And at every stage we worked to accommodate the concerns of others. There was nothing in the draft to warrant opposition. Those opposed to it will have to account to the Syrian people for their actions and the horror of the unfolding tragedy.
2.36pm: This appears to be one of the bloodiest days yet in Syria, according to another unverified update from activists.
The number of martyrs in Syria today has reached 105 so far including 10 children. Ninety-three martyrs in the affected city of Homs, four in Maarat Al-Noman in Idlib, five in two Damascus suburbs (Madaya and Zabadany), two from Ain Al-Arab (Kobany) in Aleppo and one in Lattakia. These numbers were reported by activists and doctors in the fields in the different areas. We are not able to document the names of martyrs due to the intense shelling.
2.23pm: British prime minister David Cameron pledged today to keep up the pressure on the Syrian regime, PA reports.
Speaking at an international gathering in Sweden, he said:
It is quite clear that this is a regime hell-bent on killing, murdering and maiming its own citizens ... we need to take the toughest possible response we can.
We also need to work with the [Syrian] opposition to try and help shape their future and assist them in whatever way we can. We also need to put together the strongest possible contact group of like-minded nations.
2.02pm: "It has a grim foreboding feeling of a place that is already in the midst of a civil war," Martin Chulov reports from outside the Syrian city of Homs.
Speaking via satellite phone he said:
Much of the countryside in the lead up to Homs has been taken by the Free Syrian Army for now, and we can move around. But as we get closer to Homs there is a lot more fighting. There is gunfire all around, rockets are landing.
Casualties have been streaming out of Homs into various clinics. We've been to a clinic this morning. Four people were bought in dead another couple died when they got there.
It is very tense, there is a lot of gunfire, and there's a lot of shelling. It's two-way gunfight going on or so it would seem. There's certainly mortar fire coming in from regime forces and there seems to be some gunfire coming back. We did see a resupply [for rebels] come in of very old mortar tubes. There is some attempt to set up a defensive perimeter or a fight back. But it is by and large one sided.
The regime is not looking to take ground at the moment. It is softening up Baba Amr and al-Khaldiyeh [districts in Homs], and other places nearby, with what appears to be a more heavy rocket round today and some artillery. Today they have stepped it up a little.
Intensive gun fights in the Homs countryside feel like a civil war, @martinchulov reports from #Syria (mp3)

Defected soldiers are armed with RPGs and Kalashnikovs, Martin said. Asked if it resembled a civil war, Martin said:

Very much so. The Free Syrian Army is able to hold some territory at this point. They do have the stated intent to overthrow the regime, they are getting resupplied, and their numbers are steadily building. It has a grim foreboding feeling of a place that is already in the midst of a civil war.
The FSA does hold some strategic parts, especially near some border crossings from Turkey and Lebanon. The fact that it has held ground does show that it has a resilience. They are looking to consolidate those gains and advance on the regime once this shelling stops.
Most of them [the rebel fighters] aren't sleeping. All those we've spoken to today looked traumatised and looked like people very much fighting a war. It is a very grim focus.
1.56pm: A Syrian activist in Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon, said today that the army is arbitrarily shelling the town. The NOW Lebanon website reports:
The shelling has killed a woman, a young man and a child, Local Free Council spokesperson Ali Ibrahim told Future News.
He added that the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "has targeted the mosques in the city and Zabadani's church."
Ibrahim also said that the city is experiencing "food shortages," adding that "communication lines have been cut off."
Once again, we are unable to provide independent confirmation of the statement.
1.47pm: Here's a summary of events so far today:
• The assault on Homs continues. Local Coordinating Committees in Syria say today's death toll has reached 65, including 57 in Homs alone, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights puts today's death toll at 20 people. These figures cannot be independently verified.
• The leader of the Free Syrian Army, Colonel Riad al-Asaad, appears to be trying to mend his differences with the opposition Syrian National Council. Earlier, in a BBC interview, he had accused the SNC of treachery.
• The United Nations and the Arab League have proposed sending a joint observer mission to try to end the crisis in Syria.
1.12pm: The Local Coordinating Committees in Syria claim that today's death toll has risen to 65, including 57 in Homs alone.
The claim could not be independently verified. The LCC usually provides the names of those killed, but could not today "because of heavy shelling in most areas".
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights puts today's death toll at 20 people, AP reports.
12.47pm: Activists are claiming seven members of Syrian security forces were killed in a rebel ambush. Awaiting details/confirmation.
12.38pm: Syrian writer Khaled Khalifa (author of In Praise of Hatred, which was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction) has posted an open letter on his Facebook page calling for international solidarity with the Syrian people. He says:
I know that writing stands helpless and naked in front of the Russian guns, tanks and missiles bombing cities and civilians, but I have no wish for your silence to be an accomplice of the killings as well.
An English version of the letter is here. It has also been translated into French, Spanish, Norwegian and Albanian.
12.12pm: The Syrian government should immediately stop its shelling of residential areas in Homs, Human Rights Watch said in a new statement. It said:
Since 3 February, the attacks have killed more than 300 persons in the city, according to Syrian monitoring groups, and wounded hundreds others, including women and children. No adequate medical assistance is available to the victims due to a blockade of the city by government forces and fear of arrest if treated at government-controlled hospitals ...
Eight witnesses to the attacks interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that government troops have fired hundreds of "shells and mortars" into populated neighborhoods. Videos and photos of the attacks, reviewed by Human Rights Watch's military experts, and accounts from international journalists on the ground, confirm that government forces launched long-range indirect fire attacks into densely populated areas.
Anna Neistat, associate emergencies director at HRW, said:
It is clear the Syrian government has interpreted the Russia-China veto as a carte blanche to launch an all-out assault on cities like Homs without caring who's killed in the process. Russia and China now have a particular responsibility to force the Syrian government to end its onslaught. If they can't do that, they should stop obstructing security council action.
11.55am: The activist group, the Local Co-ordination Committee in Syria, claims 56 people have been killed so far today. The vast majority of the victims were in Homs.
It also said four people had been killed in the former opposition stronghold of Zabadani - 20 miles north-west of Damascus.
Yesterday activist Fares Mohamad told the Guardian that tanks were surrounding the city and that 18 people had been killed since the assault started.
New video footage purports to show a residential areas in the hill town coming under bombardment.
Another clip from Zabadani purports to show rationed bread being sold (Mohamad told us bread was running low in the town).
A man in clip said:
We have a bread crisis. We don't have any flour. We have no fuel or food. He [Bashar al-Assad] even banned Red Crescent cars fromp reaching the city, because he is so mean and filthy. They are fighting us with our bread.
We will not allow him into Zabadani. As will allow him in only over our dead bodies.
11.46am: Muhammad Al-Muhammad, who claims to be a doctor in Baba Amr, has made two more emotional video appeals from a makeshift field hospitals in Homs.
In the first Muhammad shows the wounded bodies of five children from the same family. [warning: graphic content].
According to our translator, Mona Mahmood, he said:
People of Syria, go down to the street to put pressure on this criminal regime. But it is useless - you don't have any sense of religion, you have no shame.
Look at this child is she one of the criminal gangsters, or her sister, or her other sister, or this child.
I ask you in the name of God to move.
In another disturbing clip Muhammad speaks over the dead body of woman who he claims is the mother of seven children [warning: graphic content].
Today is Thursday, and we have martyr after martyr. Our martyrs are going to paradise, your dead are going to hell.
This woman is not one of the armed gangsters. This is a mother of seven children. She has been killed by Assad's criminal gangs. Since 6am we have been bombed by the heaviest rockets.
On Wednesday Muhammad, dressed in a blood-stained hospital gown, appealed to Arab leaders to intervene to end the crisis.
11.11am: AP has more on the expulsion of those Syrian diplomats from Germany.
Germany says it is expelling four Syrian diplomats following the arrest earlier this week of two men accused of spying on Syrian opposition groups in Germany.
Foreign minister Guido Westerwelle (pictured) said in a statement Thursday that he ordered the expulsions of the four Syrian Embassy employees, and that the ambassador had been informed.
He did not give details on the diplomats.
German federal prosecutors said Tuesday they had arrested a Syrian and a German-Lebanese dual national on suspicions that they spied on Syrian opposition supporters in Germany over several years.
Syria's ambassador to Germany was summoned to the Foreign Ministry the same day and told that Berlin cannot tolerate such activities.
10.59am: The leader of the Free Syrian Army, Colonel Riad al-Asaad [pictures], appears to be trying to mend his differences with the opposition Syrian National Council [SNC] after accusing it of treachery in a BBC interview, the FT reports.
But Roula Khalaf says that a new joint statement by Asaad and the SNC pledging to overcome disagreements does little to defuse the perception of disarray within the opposition.
The dispute has turned the spotlight again on the dilemma of the Syrian opposition, which western and Arab governments are calling upon to show greater unity.
The formation of the Syrian National Council last year was seen as a significant step, and was hailed by activists on the ground. But the group has yet to win official recognition by foreign powers.
Attempts by the Arab League to bring together the SNC and a rival group known as the Syrian National Co-ordination Committee have failed. The Syrian National Co-ordination Committee is opposed to the militarisation of the uprising and to providing backing for the FSA.
10.53am: Omar, who we just spoke to, sent a link to this clip purporting to show Baba Amr coming under attack today.
Once again the footage cannot be independently verified.
10.44am: Multi-rocket launchers attack Baba Amr every three minutes, an activist, who claimed to be in the area, told the Guardian.
Speaking via Skype the man who gave his name as Omar said:
Hundreds of houses have been destroyed. The casualty numbers are rising too high. We don't have exact numbers of lives lost today, but there are huge numbers.
Every two or three minutes a new missile hits down on another house ... There are many tanks in the neighbourhood. It is kind of a collective punishment on the people of Baba Amr, because this neighbourhood is a stronghold of the revolution.
Multi-rocket launchers fire every 3 minutes in Baba Amr as helicopters are seen over head, an activist in Homs claims #Syria (mp3)

Omar said he saw helicopters over the area this morning. He believed the helicopters fired at Baba Amr, but he didn't see them shoot.

Today in early in the morning I started to see the first [use of the] airforce in Baba Amr. We saw some helicopters from very far [away]. We had five missiles probably from those helicopters. Six people died straight away.
Asked about the number of injured, he said:
Trust me there are hundreds of them. We used to have a field hospital, it has been hit by a missile as well. Now we treat people in normal houses. There is a great shortage of medication, food, bread, baby food, milk, all this kind of stuff.
I believe Assad's army is committing genocide against humanity in Baba Amr, and the world is just watching and having a good time.
Commenting on the armed resistance Omar said:
Assad's army has not yet sent troops in on the ground. That's why there have been no clashes between the Syrian Free Army [FSA] and Assad's army. The FSA just has light machine guns. They have RPGs for the tanks but so far they [the regular army] are firing from a long distance using multi rocket launchers. They [the FSA] don't have weapons against those rockets.
Asked what he would like the international community to do, Omar said:
Would the international community like to see another Kosovo in 2012. They intervened in Libya in 11 days. Now we have been on the streets for 11 months.
What are they waiting for? We are dying here. We have children here dying because there is no baby milk. Assad's regime should be taken to the international criminal court.
10.39am: There are breaking reports that Germany is expelling four Syrian diplomats.
10.29am: Syria's top Sunni cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun, met Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday and thanked Iran for supporting the Syrian regime.

According to Amadinejad's website, Hassoun expressed "the appreciation and congratulations of the Syrian nation and president for the stands adopted by the Iranian president, nation and leadership".
Ahmadinejad reportedly told him: "America and its allies are trying to flicker the flames of another war in the region, and meanwhile break the line of Islamic resistance, but we believe relying on unity, trusting in God, and taking advantage of wisdom, we can keep resisting against them effectively."
10.08am: Patrick Seale, a prominent Syria-watcher who wrote a biography of President Assad's father, argues in a new article that the rise of an armed opposition "has provided the Syrian regime with the justification it needed to seek to crush it with ever bloodier repression". Writing for Middle East Live he says:
The opposition's mistake has been to resort to arms – to become militarised – largely in the form of the Free Syrian Army, a motley force of defectors from the armed services, as well as free-lance fighters and hard-line Islamists. It has been conducting hit-and-run attacks on regime targets and regime loyalists. The exiled opposition leadership is composed of a number of disparate, often squabbling, groupings – of which the best known is the Syrian National Council. Inside the SNC, the Muslim Brotherhood is the best organised and funded element of the opposition. Outlawed since its terrorist campaign in 1977-1982 to overthrow the regime of Hafiz al-Asad – an attempt crushed in blood at Hama – it is driven by a thirst for revenge.
No regime, whatever its political colouring, can tolerate an armed uprising without responding with full force.
9.31am: A Syrian journalist, Mazhar Tayyara, is reportedly among those killed in Homs.
The New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says:
Tayyara, known as "Omar the Syrian," was reporting from the Homs neighborhood of Al-Khaldiyeh [on Saturday] when government forces shelled the district, the news website Citizenside reported. The journalist began helping people injured from the blasts when "a second volley of shells fell and he was hit," Tayyara's friend told AFP. The journalist sustained multiple severe injuries and died in the hospital within hours, news reports said.
The CPJ has documented the deaths of three other journalists in Syria during the last four months. In November, cameraman Ferzat Jerban was found in Homs with his eyes gouged out. Basil al-Sayed, a videographer, was shot and killed at a Homs checkpoint in late December, and French journalist Gilles Jacquier was killed in January while covering a pro-regime rally in Homs.
9.20am: More video from Baba Amr shows the already bomb-torn neighbourhood being pounded by shell after shell on Wednesday.
The video cannot be independently verified but it what it shows would be impossible to fake.
Activist Omar Shakir, who claims to be in Homs, tweeted this image:
#Syria #Homs #UN #Assadcrimes #Babaamr where are the #UN twitter.com/OmarShakir91/s…
— Omar shakir (@OmarShakir91) February 9, 2012
Syrian-American Dima Moussa, spokesperson Revolutionary Council of Homs, has a new unverified update on today's death toll.
We have at least 31 confirmed martyrs in #Homs today, most of them from #BabaAmr. It's not even noon yet. #Syria
— Dima Moussa (@dimam78) February 9, 2012
9.06am: China's foreign ministry has said a Syrian opposition delegation visited the country this week and met a deputy foreign minister, Zhai Jun, Reuters reports.
It was the first contact reported by China in the wake of escalating violence in Syria and Beijing's veto in the UN of a draft resolution on the country.
China's communist rulers have always resented the advent of 'humanitarian intervention', writes Steve Tsang director of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham.
After all, if the western powers can impose regime change on authoritarian states on humanitarian grounds, why would this stop at China's borders? But, until now, there was little that China's leaders could do about it. Now, with the costs of the West's misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan (and, to a lesser extent, in Libya) compounded by its major economies' weakness, China's leaders appear to see an opportunity to push back.
With Russia on its side, the Chinese government can take a stand without appearing isolated. And, while a long-term strategic alliance between Russia and China may not be in the offing, tactical cooperation to stop the West from imposing its values on the global community is likely to persist, so long as Vladimir Putin retains power in Russia.
A rising great power like China taking on a proactive global role is, in principle, a positive development. But the world will not be a better place if China's newfound assertiveness is focused – or, just as importantly, is perceived to be focused – almost exclusively on helping autocrats to stay in power through brutal repression of their citizens.
8.57am: "We don't want monitors again, we want the UN to interfere with the army," British-Syrian activist Danny Abdul Dayem says in his latest video appeal from Homs.
He was speaking as he toured the wreckage of house in the Baba Amr district of Homs where he claimed four civilians had been killed.
8.36am: (all times GMT) Welcome to Middle East Live. Syria remains the focus. The UN has offered to join the Arab League monitoring mission amid the continuing crackdown on opposition strongholds by president Bashar al-Assad's forces.8.36am: (all times GMT) Welcome to Middle East Live. Syria remains the focus. The UN has offered to join the Arab League monitoring mission amid the continuing crackdown on opposition strongholds by president Bashar al-Assad's forces.
Here's a roundup of the latest developments:Here's a roundup of the latest developments:
• Activists say Syrian forces have renewed their assault on Homs in the heaviest bombardment the city has seen, AP reports. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 12 people were killed Thursday morning but an exact death toll couldn't immediately be determined because of the chaos in the city.• Activists say Syrian forces have renewed their assault on Homs in the heaviest bombardment the city has seen, AP reports. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 12 people were killed Thursday morning but an exact death toll couldn't immediately be determined because of the chaos in the city.
• The United Nations and the Arab League have proposed sending a joint observer mission to try to end the crisis in Syria, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has announced.• The United Nations and the Arab League have proposed sending a joint observer mission to try to end the crisis in Syria, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has announced.

Ban also suggested that Russia and China's veto of the draft resolution on Syria has been "disastrous for the people of Syria". He said the failure to agree on collective action "has encouraged the Syrian Government to step up its war on its own people".

Ban also suggested that Russia and China's veto of the draft resolution on Syria has been "disastrous for the people of Syria". He said the failure to agree on collective action "has encouraged the Syrian Government to step up its war on its own people".

• Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the international community needed to provide something more forceful than an observer mission. Speaking to Reuters before flying to Washington for talks on Syria, he said: "It is not enough being an observer. It is time now to send a strong message to the Syrian people that we are with them."• Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the international community needed to provide something more forceful than an observer mission. Speaking to Reuters before flying to Washington for talks on Syria, he said: "It is not enough being an observer. It is time now to send a strong message to the Syrian people that we are with them."
• The west and the Arab world are scrambling to find a new diplomatic strategy without Russian and Chinese help. A "friends of Syria" conference is expected to be called in the next few days to agree joint measures, including new sanctions, anti-Assad resolutions at the UN general assembly, and diplomatic support for the opposition Syrian National Council with the aim of molding it into a credible alternative to the Assad regime. The next steps will be decided at meetings of the Gulf Co-operation Council on Saturday and the Arab League on Sunday.• The west and the Arab world are scrambling to find a new diplomatic strategy without Russian and Chinese help. A "friends of Syria" conference is expected to be called in the next few days to agree joint measures, including new sanctions, anti-Assad resolutions at the UN general assembly, and diplomatic support for the opposition Syrian National Council with the aim of molding it into a credible alternative to the Assad regime. The next steps will be decided at meetings of the Gulf Co-operation Council on Saturday and the Arab League on Sunday.
• The Pentagon is drawing up contingency plans for intervention in Syria that include military action. The defence department has for several weeks been planning a range of US actions, from dealing with a flood of refugees and the provision of medical relief to a direct military assault on Syria. Included in the planning is intervention coordinated with allies such as Turkey and other countries in Nato. Administration officials said the "internal review" was at the initiative of the Pentagon, not the White House, in order to be able to present options to President Obama if he were to call for them.• The Pentagon is drawing up contingency plans for intervention in Syria that include military action. The defence department has for several weeks been planning a range of US actions, from dealing with a flood of refugees and the provision of medical relief to a direct military assault on Syria. Included in the planning is intervention coordinated with allies such as Turkey and other countries in Nato. Administration officials said the "internal review" was at the initiative of the Pentagon, not the White House, in order to be able to present options to President Obama if he were to call for them.
• Residents in Homs said on Wednesday that the noose was tightening around their besieged city, with the Syrian army carrying out a ferocious bombardment against the helpless civilians trapped inside. At least 27 people were killed on Wednesday, with about 200 injured, 50 seriously, activists said, after unrelenting artillery attacks. Activist Waleed Farah told the Guardian, "It isn't war between two armies. It's between the army and civilians. You hear the rockets and explosions. You feel you are at the front. The situation for civilians is pitiful."• Residents in Homs said on Wednesday that the noose was tightening around their besieged city, with the Syrian army carrying out a ferocious bombardment against the helpless civilians trapped inside. At least 27 people were killed on Wednesday, with about 200 injured, 50 seriously, activists said, after unrelenting artillery attacks. Activist Waleed Farah told the Guardian, "It isn't war between two armies. It's between the army and civilians. You hear the rockets and explosions. You feel you are at the front. The situation for civilians is pitiful."
• The foreign power most actively involved inside Syria is Iran, says Simon Tisdall.• The foreign power most actively involved inside Syria is Iran, says Simon Tisdall.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted Syrian sources saying Suleimani was, in effect, acting as chief regime adviser and strategist ...The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted Syrian sources saying Suleimani was, in effect, acting as chief regime adviser and strategist ...
Iranian Revolutionary Guards are said to be present in Syria in numbers ranging into the hundreds, though exact figures cannot be confirmed. They act as trainers, advisers and intelligence-gatherers to regime forces, in much the same way as Iranian agents assisted extremist Shia and Sunni groups fighting US forces during the occupation of Iraq ...Iranian Revolutionary Guards are said to be present in Syria in numbers ranging into the hundreds, though exact figures cannot be confirmed. They act as trainers, advisers and intelligence-gatherers to regime forces, in much the same way as Iranian agents assisted extremist Shia and Sunni groups fighting US forces during the occupation of Iraq ...
For Assad, Iran is a source of protection, security and funds.For Assad, Iran is a source of protection, security and funds.
• The Free Syrian Army should end their suicidal resistance and broker for peace, argues former UN diplomat Daniel Serwer in the Atlantic. • The Free Syrian Army should end their suicidal resistance and broker for peace, argues former UN diplomat Daniel Serwer in the Atlantic.
The Free Syria Army, an informal collection of anti-regime insurgents, is nowhere near able to protect the population. Their activities provoke the government and its unfree Army to even worse violence. It would be far better if defected soldiers worked for strictly defensive purposes, accompanying street demonstrators and rooting outagents provocateurs rather than suicidally contesting forces that are clearly stronger and better armed. A few automatic weapon rounds fired in the general direction of the artillery regiments bombarding Homs are going to help the artillery with targeting and do little else ...The Free Syria Army, an informal collection of anti-regime insurgents, is nowhere near able to protect the population. Their activities provoke the government and its unfree Army to even worse violence. It would be far better if defected soldiers worked for strictly defensive purposes, accompanying street demonstrators and rooting outagents provocateurs rather than suicidally contesting forces that are clearly stronger and better armed. A few automatic weapon rounds fired in the general direction of the artillery regiments bombarding Homs are going to help the artillery with targeting and do little else ...
The opposition should ask for a ceasefire and the return of the Arab League observers, who clearly had a moderating influence on the activities of the regime. And, this time around, they should be beefed up with UN human rights observers. If the violence continues to spiral, the regime is going to win.The opposition should ask for a ceasefire and the return of the Arab League observers, who clearly had a moderating influence on the activities of the regime. And, this time around, they should be beefed up with UN human rights observers. If the violence continues to spiral, the regime is going to win.
8.57am: "We don't want monitors again, we want the UN to interfere with the army," British-Syrian activist Danny Abdul Dayem says in his latest video appeal from Homs.
He was speaking as he toured the wreckage of house in the Baba Amr district of Homs where he claimed four civilians had been killed.
9.06am: China's foreign ministry has said a Syrian opposition delegation visited the country this week and met a deputy foreign minister, Zhai Jun, Reuters reports.
It was the first contact reported by China in the wake of escalating violence in Syria and Beijing's veto in the UN of a draft resolution on the country.
China's communist rulers have always resented the advent of 'humanitarian intervention', writes Steve Tsang director of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham.
After all, if the western powers can impose regime change on authoritarian states on humanitarian grounds, why would this stop at China's borders? But, until now, there was little that China's leaders could do about it. Now, with the costs of the West's misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan (and, to a lesser extent, in Libya) compounded by its major economies' weakness, China's leaders appear to see an opportunity to push back.
With Russia on its side, the Chinese government can take a stand without appearing isolated. And, while a long-term strategic alliance between Russia and China may not be in the offing, tactical cooperation to stop the West from imposing its values on the global community is likely to persist, so long as Vladimir Putin retains power in Russia.
A rising great power like China taking on a proactive global role is, in principle, a positive development. But the world will not be a better place if China's newfound assertiveness is focused – or, just as importantly, is perceived to be focused – almost exclusively on helping autocrats to stay in power through brutal repression of their citizens.
9.20am: More video from Baba Amr shows the already bomb-torn neighbourhood being pounded by shell after shell on Wednesday.
The video cannot be independently verified but it what it shows would be impossible to fake.
Activist Omar Shakir, who claims to be in Homs, tweeted this image:
#Syria #Homs #UN #Assadcrimes #Babaamr where are the #UN twitter.com/OmarShakir91/s…
— Omar shakir (@OmarShakir91) February 9, 2012
Syrian-American Dima Moussa, spokesperson Revolutionary Council of Homs, has a new unverified update on today's death toll.
We have at least 31 confirmed martyrs in #Homs today, most of them from #BabaAmr. It's not even noon yet. #Syria
— Dima Moussa (@dimam78) February 9, 2012
9.31am: A Syrian journalist, Mazhar Tayyara, is reportedly among those killed in Homs.
The New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says:
Tayyara, known as "Omar the Syrian," was reporting from the Homs neighborhood of Al-Khaldiyeh [on Saturday] when government forces shelled the district, the news website Citizenside reported. The journalist began helping people injured from the blasts when "a second volley of shells fell and he was hit," Tayyara's friend told AFP. The journalist sustained multiple severe injuries and died in the hospital within hours, news reports said.
The CPJ has documented the deaths of three other journalists in Syria during the last four months. In November, cameraman Ferzat Jerban was found in Homs with his eyes gouged out. Basil al-Sayed, a videographer, was shot and killed at a Homs checkpoint in late December, and French journalist Gilles Jacquier was killed in January while covering a pro-regime rally in Homs.
10.08am: Patrick Seale, a prominent Syria-watcher who wrote a biography of President Assad's father, argues in a new article that the rise of an armed opposition "has provided the Syrian regime with the justification it needed to seek to crush it with ever bloodier repression". Writing for Middle East Live he says:
The opposition's mistake has been to resort to arms – to become militarised – largely in the form of the Free Syrian Army, a motley force of defectors from the armed services, as well as free-lance fighters and hard-line Islamists. It has been conducting hit-and-run attacks on regime targets and regime loyalists. The exiled opposition leadership is composed of a number of disparate, often squabbling, groupings – of which the best known is the Syrian National Council. Inside the SNC, the Muslim Brotherhood is the best organised and funded element of the opposition. Outlawed since its terrorist campaign in 1977-1982 to overthrow the regime of Hafiz al-Asad – an attempt crushed in blood at Hama – it is driven by a thirst for revenge.
No regime, whatever its political colouring, can tolerate an armed uprising without responding with full force.
10.29am: Syria's top Sunni cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun, met Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday and thanked Iran for supporting the Syrian regime.

According to Amadinejad's website, Hassoun expressed "the appreciation and congratulations of the Syrian nation and president for the stands adopted by the Iranian president, nation and leadership".
Ahmadinejad reportedly told him: "America and its allies are trying to flicker the flames of another war in the region, and meanwhile break the line of Islamic resistance, but we believe relying on unity, trusting in God, and taking advantage of wisdom, we can keep resisting against them effectively."
10.39am: There are breaking reports that Germany is expelling four Syrian diplomats.
10.44am: Multi-rocket launchers attack Baba Amr every three minutes, an activist, who claimed to be in the area, told the Guardian.
Speaking via Skype the man who gave his name as Omar said:
Hundreds of houses have been destroyed. The casualty numbers are rising too high. We don't have exact numbers of lives lost today, but there are huge numbers.
Every two or three minutes a new missile hits down on another house ... There are many tanks in the neighbourhood. It is kind of a collective punishment on the people of Baba Amr, because this neighbourhood is a stronghold of the revolution.
Multi-rocket launchers fire every 3 minutes in Baba Amr as helicopters are seen over head, an activist in Homs claims #Syria (mp3)

Omar said he saw helicopters over the area this morning. He believed the helicopters fired at Baba Amr, but he didn't see them shoot.

Today in early in the morning I started to see the first [use of the] airforce in Baba Amr. We saw some helicopters from very far [away]. We had five missiles probably from those helicopters. Six people died straight away.
Asked about the number of injured, he said:
Trust me there are hundreds of them. We used to have a field hospital, it has been hit by a missile as well. Now we treat people in normal houses. There is a great shortage of medication, food, bread, baby food, milk, all this kind of stuff.
I believe Assad's army is committing genocide against humanity in Baba Amr, and the world is just watching and having a good time.
Commenting on the armed resistance Omar said:
Assad's army has not yet sent troops in on the ground. That's why there have been no clashes between the Syrian Free Army [FSA] and Assad's army. The FSA just has light machine guns. They have RPGs for the tanks but so far they [the regular army] are firing from a long distance using multi rocket launchers. They [the FSA] don't have weapons against those rockets.
Asked what he would like the international community to do, Omar said:
Would the international community like to see another Kosovo in 2012. They intervened in Libya in 11 days. Now we have been on the streets for 11 months.
What are they waiting for? We are dying here. We have children here dying because there is no baby milk. Assad's regime should be taken to the international criminal court.
10.53am: Omar, who we just spoke to, sent a link to this clip purporting to show Baba Amr coming under attack today.
Once again the footage cannot be independently verified.
10.59am: The leader of the Free Syrian Army, Colonel Riad al-Asaad [pictures], appears to be trying to mend his differences with the opposition Syrian National Council [SNC] after accusing it of treachery in a BBC interview, the FT reports.
But Roula Khalaf says that a new joint statement by Asaad and the SNC pledging to overcome disagreements does little to defuse the perception of disarray within the opposition.
The dispute has turned the spotlight again on the dilemma of the Syrian opposition, which western and Arab governments are calling upon to show greater unity.
The formation of the Syrian National Council last year was seen as a significant step, and was hailed by activists on the ground. But the group has yet to win official recognition by foreign powers.
Attempts by the Arab League to bring together the SNC and a rival group known as the Syrian National Co-ordination Committee have failed. The Syrian National Co-ordination Committee is opposed to the militarisation of the uprising and to providing backing for the FSA.
11.11am: AP has more on the expulsion of those Syrian diplomats from Germany.
Germany says it is expelling four Syrian diplomats following the arrest earlier this week of two men accused of spying on Syrian opposition groups in Germany.
Foreign minister Guido Westerwelle (pictured) said in a statement Thursday that he ordered the expulsions of the four Syrian Embassy employees, and that the ambassador had been informed.
He did not give details on the diplomats.
German federal prosecutors said Tuesday they had arrested a Syrian and a German-Lebanese dual national on suspicions that they spied on Syrian opposition supporters in Germany over several years.
Syria's ambassador to Germany was summoned to the Foreign Ministry the same day and told that Berlin cannot tolerate such activities.
11.46am: Muhammad Al-Muhammad, who claims to be a doctor in Baba Amr, has made two more emotional video appeals from a makeshift field hospitals in Homs.
In the first Muhammad shows the wounded bodies of five children from the same family. [warning: graphic content].
According to our translator, Mona Mahmood, he said:
People of Syria, go down to the street to put pressure on this criminal regime. But it is useless - you don't have any sense of religion, you have no shame.
Look at this child is she one of the criminal gangsters, or her sister, or her other sister, or this child.
I ask you in the name of God to move.
In another disturbing clip Muhammad speaks over the dead body of woman who he claims is the mother of seven children [warning: graphic content].
Today is Thursday, and we have martyr after martyr. Our martyrs are going to paradise, your dead are going to hell.
This woman is not one of the armed gangsters. This is a mother of seven children. She has been killed by Assad's criminal gangs. Since 6am we have been bombed by the heaviest rockets.
On Wednesday Muhammad, dressed in a blood-stained hospital gown, appealed to Arab leaders to intervene to end the crisis.
11.55am: The activist group, the Local Co-ordination Committee in Syria, claims 56 people have been killed so far today. The vast majority of the victims were in Homs.
It also said four people had been killed in the former opposition stronghold of Zabadani - 20 miles north-west of Damascus.
Yesterday activist Fares Mohamad told the Guardian that tanks were surrounding the city and that 18 people had been killed since the assault started.
New video footage purports to show a residential areas in the hill town coming under bombardment.
Another clip from Zabadani purports to show rationed bread being sold (Mohamad told us bread was running low in the town).
A man in clip said:
We have a bread crisis. We don't have any flour. We have no fuel or food. He [Bashar al-Assad] even banned Red Crescent cars fromp reaching the city, because he is so mean and filthy. They are fighting us with our bread.
We will not allow him into Zabadani. As will allow him in only over our dead bodies.
12.12pm: The Syrian government should immediately stop its shelling of residential areas in Homs, Human Rights Watch said in a new statement. It said:
Since 3 February, the attacks have killed more than 300 persons in the city, according to Syrian monitoring groups, and wounded hundreds others, including women and children. No adequate medical assistance is available to the victims due to a blockade of the city by government forces and fear of arrest if treated at government-controlled hospitals ...
Eight witnesses to the attacks interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that government troops have fired hundreds of "shells and mortars" into populated neighborhoods. Videos and photos of the attacks, reviewed by Human Rights Watch's military experts, and accounts from international journalists on the ground, confirm that government forces launched long-range indirect fire attacks into densely populated areas.
Anna Neistat, associate emergencies director at HRW, said:
It is clear the Syrian government has interpreted the Russia-China veto as a carte blanche to launch an all-out assault on cities like Homs without caring who's killed in the process. Russia and China now have a particular responsibility to force the Syrian government to end its onslaught. If they can't do that, they should stop obstructing security council action.
12.38pm: Syrian writer Khaled Khalifa (author of In Praise of Hatred, which was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction) has posted an open letter on his Facebook page calling for international solidarity with the Syrian people. He says:
I know that writing stands helpless and naked in front of the Russian guns, tanks and missiles bombing cities and civilians, but I have no wish for your silence to be an accomplice of the killings as well.
An English version of the letter is here. It has also been translated into French, Spanish, Norwegian and Albanian.
12.47pm: Activists are claiming seven members of Syrian security forces were killed in a rebel ambush. Awaiting details/confirmation.
1.12pm: The Local Coordinating Committees in Syria claim that today's death toll has risen to 65, including 57 in Homs alone.
The claim could not be independently verified. The LCC usually provides the names of those killed, but could not today "because of heavy shelling in most areas".
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights puts today's death toll at 20 people, AP reports.
1.47pm: Here's a summary of events so far today:
• The assault on Homs continues. Local Coordinating Committees in Syria say today's death toll has reached 65, including 57 in Homs alone, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights puts today's death toll at 20 people. These figures cannot be independently verified.
• The leader of the Free Syrian Army, Colonel Riad al-Asaad, appears to be trying to mend his differences with the opposition Syrian National Council. Earlier, in a BBC interview, he had accused the SNC of treachery.
• The United Nations and the Arab League have proposed sending a joint observer mission to try to end the crisis in Syria.
1.56pm: A Syrian activist in Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon, said today that the army is arbitrarily shelling the town. The NOW Lebanon website reports:
The shelling has killed a woman, a young man and a child, Local Free Council spokesperson Ali Ibrahim told Future News.
He added that the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "has targeted the mosques in the city and Zabadani's church."
Ibrahim also said that the city is experiencing "food shortages," adding that "communication lines have been cut off."
Once again, we are unable to provide independent confirmation of the statement.
2.02pm: "It has a grim foreboding feeling of a place that is already in the midst of a civil war," Martin Chulov reports from outside the Syrian city of Homs.
Speaking via satellite phone he said:
Much of the countryside in the lead up to Homs has been taken by the Free Syrian Army for now, and we can move around. But as we get closer to Homs there is a lot more fighting. There is gunfire all around, rockets are landing.
Casualties have been streaming out of Homs into various clinics. We've been to a clinic this morning. Four people were bought in dead another couple died when they got there.
It is very tense, there is a lot of gunfire, and there's a lot of shelling. It's two-way gunfight going on or so it would seem. There's certainly mortar fire coming in from regime forces and there seems to be some gunfire coming back. We did see a resupply [for rebels] come in of very old mortar tubes. There is some attempt to set up a defensive perimeter or a fight back. But it is by and large one sided.
The regime is not looking to take ground at the moment. It is softening up Baba Amr and al-Khaldiyeh [districts in Homs], and other places nearby, with what appears to be a more heavy rocket round today and some artillery. Today they have stepped it up a little.
Intensive gun fights in the Homs countryside feel like a civil war, @martinchulov reports from #Syria (mp3)

Defected soldiers are armed with RPGs and Kalashnikovs, Martin said. Asked if it resembled a civil war, Martin said:

Very much so. The Free Syrian Army is able to hold some territory at this point. They do have the stated intent to overthrow the regime, they are getting resupplied, and their numbers are steadily building. It has a grim foreboding feeling of a place that is already in the midst of a civil war.
The FSA does hold some strategic parts, especially near some border crossings from Turkey and Lebanon. The fact that it has held ground does show that it has a resilience. They are looking to consolidate those gains and advance on the regime once this shelling stops.
Most of them [the rebel fighters] aren't sleeping. All those we've spoken to today looked traumatised and looked like people very much fighting a war. It is a very grim focus.
2.23pm: British prime minister David Cameron pledged today to keep up the pressure on the Syrian regime, PA reports.
Speaking at an international gathering in Sweden, he said:
It is quite clear that this is a regime hell-bent on killing, murdering and maiming its own citizens ... we need to take the toughest possible response we can.
We also need to work with the [Syrian] opposition to try and help shape their future and assist them in whatever way we can. We also need to put together the strongest possible contact group of like-minded nations.
2.36pm: This appears to be one of the bloodiest days yet in Syria, according to another unverified update from activists.
The number of martyrs in Syria today has reached 105 so far including 10 children. Ninety-three martyrs in the affected city of Homs, four in Maarat Al-Noman in Idlib, five in two Damascus suburbs (Madaya and Zabadany), two from Ain Al-Arab (Kobany) in Aleppo and one in Lattakia. These numbers were reported by activists and doctors in the fields in the different areas. We are not able to document the names of martyrs due to the intense shelling.
3.12pm: "The violence and brutality I have witnessed over the last ten months shocks me," writes Britain's ambassador to Syria Simon Collis.
In a new blogpost, Collis who was recalled from Damascus last week, claims that the violence documented on YouTube is authentic.
He also urges the Syrian opposition to refrain from violence.
I tell the Syrian opposition at every opportunity to avoid the path of an armed resistance. But the sad truth is that violence begets violence. That is why it is important that all sides refrain from violence and that the regime allows a political transition instead of repeating its hollow promises of reform..
Without context, it can be hard to make sense of YouTube images shot on a mobile phone. It can be hard to understand why a man with a family in a town in Syria would decide to take up arms against his government. It can be hard to believe that over 5,000 people have been killed in ten months, or that torture is a regular occurrence in prisons, children brutalised and tanks and mortars used by the army against its own citizens. If I hadn't seen for myself what the Syrian regime has done I would be asking these questions too.
But I have. And it is too shocking to ignore. That is why I am so appalled by the vetoing of the draft resolution, tabled by Morocco, which supported the Arab League efforts to resolve the crisis. The resolution did not impose any sanctions. It did not authorise military action. And at every stage we worked to accommodate the concerns of others. There was nothing in the draft to warrant opposition. Those opposed to it will have to account to the Syrian people for their actions and the horror of the unfolding tragedy.
3.24pm: In his latest video appeal Muhammad Al-Muhammad, who claims to be a doctor in Baba Amr, says prematurely born babies are dying in the city because of the lack of incubators.
He shows one new born baby who he claims will die without help
Speaking from a makeshift delivery ward in a Mosque, Muhammad said the baby had been born two month premature.
He needs an incubator now. Without one he will die. Nine premature babies have died in Homs.
Where are you the clerics of Damascus and Aleppo?
If we leave him like this he will die. Shall we leave him like this. We can't do anything for him. We are using a mosque for a hospital because of the heavy bombing by the rockets and the helicopters.
3.47pm: Today's death toll has increased to 126 people, including 107 in Homs according to the latest unverified update from activist group the Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria.
Other activists quote lower figures. The Syrian Revolution Coordinating Commission said at least 30 civilians were killed in Homs, according to Reuters.
3.57pm: Sanctions against Syria are unlikely to topple the Assad regime and might even strengthen its popular support, Turkey's ambassador to the EU has warned.
European countries are working towards imposing tougher sanctions by the end of this month – probably including a freeze on the assets of Syria's central bank and banning trade in diamonds, gold and other precious metals.
But the Turkish ambassador, Selim Yenel, told Reuters:
We don't believe in sanctions. They never work. That's why we are against them in Iran ... In Syria they will hurt people. Whether in the long term they will turn them into more vocal opposition, I don't know. We have never seen that happen before.
Assad still has backing The middle class is still supporting Assad. They are afraid of what comes after him.
The regime is not just a person, or one family. It's a big group of people and ... they want to hold on to power.
4.25pm: Libya has ordered Syrian embassy staff to leave the country within 72 hours, al-Jazeera is reporting. In October, Libya became the first country to recognise the opposition SNC as Syria's legitimate government.
Two days ago, the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – announced they were expelling Syrian ambassadors and recalling their own ambassadors from Damascus.
4.43pm: On The Atlantic's website, Geoffrey Goldberg has been comparing casualty figures. The Syrian death toll is now thought to be about 6,000 since last March.
A total of 2,294 Palestinians and Israelis died in the first intifada and 10,760 in the second intifada, Goldberg says. Meanwhile, the Irish troubles cost about 3,000 lives over three decades.
Casualty figures for the 1982 Hama massacre in Syria are uncertain, though estimates range from 10,000 to as many as 40,000.
Goldberg does not mention the decade-long Algerian civil war that began in 1991, though estimates of casualties in that conflict are usually estimated at more than 100,00 dead, and possibly as many as 200,000.
5.00pm: Here's a summary of today's events in Syria:
• The situation is very tense, with a lot of gunfire and lot of shelling, says Martin Chulov, who is reporting for the Guardian from close to the city of Homs. Casualties have also been streaming out of the city. Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army seems to be getting resupplied, and its numbers are growing.
• Today's death toll has now reached 126, including 107 in Homs according to the Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria. Other activists quote lower figures and the Syrian Revolution Coordinating Commission said at least 30 civilians were killed in Homs. These figures cannot be independently verified.
• Prematurely born babies are dying in Homs because of the lack of incubators, according to Muhammad Al-Muhammad, who claims to be a doctor in the Baba Amr district.
• Libya has reportedly ordered Syrian embassy staff to leave the country within 72 hours. In October, Libya became the first country to recognise the opposition SNC as Syria's legitimate government.
6.17pm: This is David Batty – I'm taking over the live blog for the rest of the evening. You can follow me on Twitter @David_Batty.
Residents of Homs have described the increasingly dire situation in Homs to the Associated Press. The heavy shelling of neighbourhoods such as Baba Amr has made it difficult to get medicine and care to the wounded, and some areas have been without electricity for days, according to activists.
Abu Muhammad Ibrahim, an activist in Homs, told the news agency:
Snipers are on all the roofs in Baba Amr, shooting at people. Anything that moves, even a bird, is targeted. Life is completely cut off. It's a city of ghosts.
Mohammed Saleh, another activist, said Assad's ground forces were keeping their distance from the city while it was under heavy shelling. He added:
There is medicine in the pharmacies, but getting it to the field clinics is very difficult. They can't get the medicine to the wounded.
6.35pm: Human Rights Watch has condemned the Syrian government for its "indiscriminate" assault on the civilian population of Homs.
Anna Neistat, associate emergencies director of HRW, said:

This brutal assault on residential neighbourhoods shows the Syrian authorities' contempt for the lives of their citizens in Homs. Those responsible for such horrific attacks will have to answer for them.
The human rights organisation said eyewitness accounts, as well as video reviewed by the group's arms experts, suggest Assad's forces are using long-range mortars to pound the city. It said such weapons "are inherently indiscriminate when fired into densely populated areas."
This video report by Danny Daem posted on YouTube purports to show residential homes in the Baba Amr district of Homs destroyed by shelling. The Guardian is unable to verify this content.
This photo posted on Twitter purports to show a home in the same district destroyed in the bombardment.
7.01pm: Britain has no plans to arm the Syrian rebels but cannot rule out getting involved in military action, according to the foreign secretary, William Hague.
Amid speculation that Britain could assist the rebels with weapons or other equipment, Hague told Sky News:
We are clearly not planning military intervention. Britain is not engaged in that and we haven't done that in any of the conflicts or we certainly don't have any plans to do such.
We are intensifying our contacts with opposition groups, opposition groups mainly outside Syria. We're also increasing our support for organisations that get food and medical supplies in to people so badly affected by this situation.
Addressing rumours that Britain was arming the rebels, he added:
No, our plans at the moment are to intensify our diplomatic work which is what we are doing with the Arab League, with our partners at the United Nations Security Council, to help with food and medical supplies, to work with the opposition outside Syria.
These are the things we're doing, there is a lot the United Kingdom can do on all those fronts but we're not engaged in conflict within Syria.
7.19pm: CNN has posted a video interview with a Syrian activist who describes how he saw a friend shot in the head by government forces.
The broadcaster also reports on the terrible scenes at a makeshift clinic in the Baba Amr area of Homs:
Some arrive with heads decapitated or their torsos split open like animals after slaughter. Or their limbs are mangled under the crush of rubble.
The Associated Press has posted a video of the shelling of Homs, which shows a body on a stretcher being taken from the ruins of a residential home.
7.44pm: The Arab League will discuss a proposal to send a joint mission with the UN to Syria.
The League's deputy head, Ahmed Ben Helli said:
There is a proposal from the secretary-general of the Arab League to form a joint mission for Syria in coordination with the United Nations, and it will be presented before the planned Arab foreign ministers' meeting on Sunday in Cairo.
Arab ministers are considering whether to extend or scrap an observer mission sent to Syria in December, which was criticised by anti-Assad groups, and retreated to hotels for safety as the bloodshed in the country worsened.
One Arab diplomat said the meeting could also issue a statement on a decision by Russia and China to veto a UN resolution that was based on a peace plan put forward by the league, which had the backing of Western powers.
Earlier this week, Arab League secretary-general Nabil Elaraby said a new mission could be sent but it would have to be larger, better equipped and have a stronger mandate.
8.07pm: Here's the Guardian's latest video of the violence in Syria.
Footage obtained from social media websites purports to show the assaults on Homs and Idlib. Other footage is reported as showing the Free Syrian Army attacking a military checkpoint in Homs.
8.26pm: The US has set out some of its plans to help organise the first meeting of the Friends of Syria group, which will coordinate ways to tackle Assad regime.
The top Middle East envoy of the state department , Jeffrey Feltman, has been dispatched to Morocco, France and Bahrain to help put the meeting together and determine the group's membership and its mandate, AP reports.
Arab League foreign ministers are due to meet Sunday in Cairo and could announce a date and venue for the meeting after that.
France and Turkey, both of which have historic and commercial interests in Syria, have offered to host the meeting. Morocco, which sponsored the UN Security Council resolution calling for Assad to step down, which Russia and China vetoed, is also a candidate to host.
State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said:

Now that the UN Security Council action has been blocked by the double veto, we are compelled to work outside the UN system, and so that's why you see this sort of groundswell of work now to get this friends group together.
8.35pm: A cousin of Assad has won a legal bid to unfreeze 3 million francs ($4m) held in Swiss bank accounts, AP reports.
Swiss authorities froze the funds on Hafez Makhlouf's four Geneva bank accounts in May. That decision was overturned four months later but prosecutors sought to prevent the release of the funds by launching a money laundering investigation in September.
But the Federal Criminal Court agreed with Makhlouf's argument that prosecutors had previously dismissed money laundering suspicions. The court ordered the funds unblocked and granted Makhlouf 1,800 francs ($1,975) in damages.
9.28pm: The latest Guardian story on Syria describes how Syrian troops have sealed off the population of a rebel stronghold in the city of Homs and bombarded it using tanks, helicopters and artillery.
Eyewitnesses said roads in and out of Baba Amr, in the south-east of Homs, were blocked, preventing the evacuation of children or the wounded, and food, water and medicine were running out fast in the besieged suburb.
The story also covers the lack of agreement by the international community on how to confront Assad's regime.
The international community appeared to flounder over a coherent response. The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, condemned the Russian and Chinese veto of a security council resolution on the crisis over the weekend as "disastrous for the Syrian people". He said the failure to agree on collective action "has encouraged the Syrian government to step up its war on its own people".
10.15pm: Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay, who is in Homs, says residents are expecting an imminent all out ground assault.
Posting on his Twitter account, he predicts a massacre, adding that from Homs to the Lebanese border people are preparing to die. Ramsay adds that the the Free Syrian Army are hopelessly outmatched by Assad's forces.

FSA say as many as 10 thousand troops deployed outside Homs - can't confirm.
Tanks apc artillery infantry everywhere - FSA all but overwhelmed - counting bullets.
FSA attacking across region but feels like a hornet on an elephant.
Villages are emptying ahead of expected onslaught around Homs towards [Lebanese] border.
Top FSA commander hit in assault this morning. Still fighting.
FSA attacked for 12 hours today - but they just dont have the gear to make a difference. nobody expects outside help.
11.41pm: A growing numbers of Syrian Christians and Alawites – members of the same sect as Assad's family – have joined the uprising against the regime, Al Jazeera reports.
In this video report, some members of the Alawite minority say they cannot ignore the bloodshed any longer and are speaking out against the government.
Al Jazeera notes that this is a significant development as the regime has claimed that one of the main reasons for its brutal crackdown is to protect minority groups from armed groups within the majority Sunni Muslims.
11.59am: We're wrapping up this live blog now but coverage will continue tomorrow.
In the meantime, here's a round up of today's main developments:
• The uprising against Bashar al-Assad has turned from a grinding war of attrition into an unforgiving battle to the death, the Guardian's Martin Chulov reports. Casualties have been streaming out of the besieged city of Homs, which is under heavy bombardment by Assad's forces. Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army seems to be getting resupplied, and its numbers are growing. A growing numbers of Syrian Christians and Alawites – members of the same sect as Assad's family – are also reported to have joined the uprising.
• Today's death toll has now reached 126, including 107 in Homs according to the Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 63 deaths in Homs. These figures cannot be independently verified.
• Prematurely born babies are dying in Homs because of the lack of incubators, according to Muhammad Al-Muhammad, who claims to be a doctor in the Baba Amr district.
• Britain has no plans to arm the Syrian rebels but cannot rule out getting involved in military action, according to foreign secretary William Hague.
• The US is pursuing plans to help organise the first meeting of the Friends of Syria group, which will coordinate ways to tackle Assad's regime. Meanwhile Arab League foreign ministers will meet in Cairo on Sunday to discuss establishing a joint mission in Syria with the UN.
• Libya has reportedly ordered Syrian embassy staff to leave the country within 72 hours. In October, Libya became the first country to recognise the opposition SNC as Syria's legitimate government.
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