REPORT: UN's Ban fears for 2,500 civilians trapped in Syria's Homs

The spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement on Tuesday that some 2,500 civilians are trapped in the Syrian town of Homs, the scene of heavy fighting.
   
Ban called on the warring sides to do their utmost to avoid civilian casualties.

He was also concerned about threats to seize two Shi'ite villages in the northern province of Aleppo, the statement said, without naming the villages.
 
Earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had made progress on plans to hold a Syria peace conference and that both sides had agreed it should be held soon.            

"There are still things that have to be worked out over the course of these next days, but Foreign Minister Lavrov and I felt that this meeting was a very useful meeting, it was constructive and productive," Kerry told reporters in Brunei, where he is attending an Asian regional security meeting.        

"We narrowed down some of the options with respect to the potential of that conference. We both agreed that that conference should happen sooner rather than later," he said, adding that the conference would likely take place after August.        

Washington and Moscow announced plans for the peace conference in May, but their relations have since deteriorated rapidly as momentum on the battlefield has swung in favor of President Bashar al-Assad.             

While the United States and its European and Arab allies are seeking to convince rebels to attend the conference, Russia's role is to bring government officials to the table.      

Kerry said that Russia and the United States were in agreement that no matter which side had the upper hand on the battleground, the peace conference would seek a transfer of power to an interim government.           

On the field:                     

Activists said Syrian troops have shelled a rebel-held suburb of Damascus, killing at least 11 people.                         

The shelling on Kfar Batna Tuesday appeared to be part of an ongoing government offensive against contested and rebel-held areas around the capital.      

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead include two women and a child.   Mohammed Saeed, an activist based in the nearby suburb of Douma, said the shelling began early Tuesday and lasted several hours, killing 13 people.                         

Saeed said Kfar Batna is usually relatively quiet and shelters a large number of Syrians displaced from other, more tense suburbs of Damascus.           

Activists say more than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011.    


REUTERS

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