Homs faces another day of attack as the Russian hold talks with the regime

7^th February 2012

Rajeeb Gurung

Rajeeb Gurung

7 February 2012

Syrian forces continued the deadly assault on the city of Homs for the fourth consecutive day as the foreign secretary of Russia held talks with President Assad in a bid to prevent the violence from escalating further more.

City of Homs has endured another day of artillery attack from the regime killing around 400 people. The city was bombarded with explosions and missiles as the buildings were blown up with families inside sparing neither the woman nor the children. The army has stationed their artillery to the east of Bab al-Amar, where another military strike was ensued affecting the efficiency of the makeshift hospital for the rebels. The nearby university was also vacated as the snipers took their positions shooting at sight, disabling the rebels from aiding the injured or venturing out for basic supplies of food and water.

The district of Khalidiyeh also suffered one of the worst shelling from the forces along with the neighbouring Bayada. The electricity has been cut off and with the current lack of food, submission to the government may be the only remaining option.

“We were not expecting that the Syrian army would attack in this way,” said one of the locals by the name of Fadi. “We thought it was some kind of exaggeration that would be over soon, but the explosion kept coming and coming.”

In the wake of backlash after the veto by Russia and China against the UN resolution which was branded a “travesty “ by the US, the foreign mister of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, visited Damascus in Syria to hold meetings with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President, in hopes of finding a peaceful solution to the crisis.

In the meeting President al-Assad affirmed his decision to carry out national dialogues with the representatives of the government and opposition to come to a peaceful conclusion of the current ordeal faced by the nation emphasising the importance of solving the predicament internally.

Minister Lavrov later released his statement to the press confirming his willingness to help Syria overcome its crisis internally on the basis of the Arab League plan.

“We believe that the region needs peace and that Syria needs peace… all external forces must assist in national dialogue and reaching national agreement and reconciliation away from interference in Syrian internal affairs,” he said.

Rajeeb Gurung