Syrian troops kill hundreds in Homs

Washington Post:

 Syrian government forces launched a heavy assault on Syria’s third-largest city Friday night, killing more than 200 people and wounding hundreds as rockets crashed into neighborhoods and slammed into buildings that collapsed on terrified residents, according to activists. 

If the death toll is confirmed, the military assault on Homs would be the single deadliest attack of the 10-month-old uprising that has devastated the country. 

The attack occurred on the eve of a U.N. Security Council vote on condemning the government’s violent response to anti-regime protests. The vote comes after months of swelling international outrage over the crackdown. 

Military forces began to fire shells and rockets on the neighborhood of Khaldiyeh, a hotbed of protest, in the late evening, said activist Omar Shakir, speaking by telephone from the city. He said he heard hundreds of missiles strike the area. 

The assault then spread to the Baba Amr and Bab al-Sebaa neighborhoods, with buildings crumbling on top of wailing residents. He estimated that at least 220 people were dead and more than 700 injured. 

It was not possible, he said, to take the injured to hospitals because roads were blocked by security forces. Armed pro-government gangs had taken injured and dead people from the al-Amal hospital near Khaldiyeh, apparently to remove evidence of the offensive, he said. 

People were being treated in makeshift field hospitals, he said, but he feared that many with head and chest injuries would die. 

“Assad has lost control of this city and became mad, he became crazy to do these crimes,” he exclaimed.

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Assad is not worried because the Russians still have his back at the UN and the rest of the world is too timid to act without the blessings of the dysfunctional organization.  It is going to take more involvement from Syria's neighbors to save its people from Assad's mad attempt to hold onto power.