Syrian Armor Masses Outside of Opposition Stronghold of Homs After Hundreds Reported Killed in Shelling

Syrian forces continued their bombardment of rebel and Free Syrian Army positions in the western city of Homs Thursday and overnight into Friday. Opponents of the al-Assad regime in Damascus fear that this would be a final push by Damascus to crush organized opposition to the regime.


Recently bolstered by the late-January arrival of a substantial arms shipment from Russia and a Russian and Chinese veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the al-Assad regime for the violent crackdown of anti-regime demonstrations that have been taking place since late 2011, Syrian forces are said to have killed at least 200 rebel fighters and civilians in Homs this week. The al-Assad regime initially denied the artillery and rocket barrage even took place before claiming that the Syrian army was deployed to Homs at the urging of local residents earlier this week. While Syrian forces were shelling neighborhoods in Homs, Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Russia's head of foreign intelligence met with president Bashar al-Assad in Damascus for three hours on Tuesday.

While Syrian tanks and APCs probed the rebel defenses in Homs- Syria's 3rd largest city- civilians and wounded fighters were evacuating the city of Homs to the Wadi Khaled area some 50 miles southwest of the city, others have sought refuge across the border in northern Lebanon.

Also on Friday, two explosions rocked the northern city of Aleppo (Syria's largest city). State run TV said the explosions targeted two security compounds in the city and would not specify the number of casualties.

Shortly after this weeks UN Security Council vote, the State Department closed down the US Embassy in Damascus and evacuated all diplomatic personnel.