Red Cross calls for daily humanitarian ceasefire in Syria

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on Syrian authorities and rebels on Tuesday to agree immediately on a daily ceasefire of at least two hours to allow life-saving aid to reach civilians in hard-hit areas including Homs.   

"Over the past few days, we have been in contact with the Syrian authorities and members of the opposition to request this halt in the fighting," ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said in a statement calling for "an immediate decision to implement a humanitarian pause in the fighting".   

"It should last at least two hours every day, so that ICRC staff and Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers have enough time to deliver aid and evacuate the wounded and the sick," he said.

Syrian government forces killed at least 16 people and wounded some 340 on Tuesday when they unleashed a heavy artillery barrage on a rebel-held district of the city of Homs, activists said.   

The bombardment rained down as International Committee of the Red Cross officials tried to negotiate a halt to the fighting to allow them to bring aid to civilians suffering in horrendous conditions after 18 days of attacks on Homs.   

In Idlib, security forces killed at least 33 people on Tuesday during army raids on villages, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.   

"The army stormed the village of Abdita and chased people in Iblin and Balshoon, they killed 33 people. All are civilians," the rights group said.

In Damascus, security forces opened fire on demonstrators overnight, wounding at least four, activists said, in the latest sign that the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad was taking a grip on the capital as well as the provinces.   

Western powers and the Arab League prepared for a meeting of the "Friends of Syria" contact group in Tunisia on Friday to pressure Assad to step down, while Russia and China backed Assad's own program for reforms.    

Russia said it would not attend the meeting because the Syrian government would not be represented. The Russian Foreign Ministry suggested the United Nations Security Council should send a special humanitarian envoy to Syria.   

Activists said government forces launched the artillery attack on Homs after rebel fighters holding the opposition Baba Amro district blocked troops from entering.   

"Several shells are falling each minute," activist Nader al-Husseini told Reuters from the district, adding that two children were among the victims.   

The London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights said at least 250 shells and rockets had hit Baba Amro since the morning and Syrian Airforce planes were flying reconnaissance missions.   

Government forces backed by armor and under the control of Alawite officers, from the same minority sect as Assad, have been advancing on Baba Amro, a Muslim Sunni neighborhood, since the offensive on Homs began on Feb 3. Tanks are deployed at the Inshaat district next to Baba Amro, opposition sources said.   

Homs, a city of one million people strategically sited on the Damascus-Aleppo highway, has been at the heart of the uprising against Assad's 11-year-rule.   

The dangerous conditions and government restrictions on access make it difficult for foreign media to verify details of the activist reports; but international rights and aid organizations confirm a bloody and desperate scenario in which several hundred people have been killed.