National coalition pleas International leader on Homs

 National coalition pleas International leader on Homs, Activists warn of hit by chemical weapons.

Assad's forces launched a major offensive in the last two days against rebels in Homs, a centre of the two-year-old uprising, in their latest drive to secure an axis connecting Damascus to the Mediterranean.

Activists said jets and mortars had pounded rebel-held areas of the city that have been under siege by Assad's troops for a year, and soldiers fought battles with rebel fighters in several districts.

The National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces urged the International community for an urgent act in Homs.

The main stream opposition body in Syria called also on fighters of the Free Syrian Army to "close ranks in the face of Assad's recent brutal attacks on Homs".

"Syria is in danger of disintegration as Assad's forces supported by Iran, Russia and Hezbollah militias launch a fierce offensive on the city of Homs," it said in a statement.

"The National Coalition calls on battalions of the Free Syrian Army to come to the aid of Homs with all means possible.

"We also emphasize the need for immediate effective and decisive actions by 'Friends of Syria' including through establishing a no-fly zone and carrying out military strikes against Assad's basic military bases."

Najati Tayyara, prominent dissident figure set off alarm bells, saying people of the besieged city fear the chemical weapons, according to Eqtsad newspapers.

 ''To the second day the regime jet fighters destroying Homs, killing civilians under green light from the sleeping world,'' activists said.

Analyst to Zaman Alwasl said that regime wants fiercely getting back Homs ants neighborhoods under his control, before Qusayr and Tal Kalakh, Homs now the main target of Assad's forces which backed by Hezbollah militia.

Walid al-Bunni, Coalition Member told Zaman Alwasl about Coalition intention to announce collective resignations if the international community will not act to save Homs.

 Another dissident, Dr. Kamal al-Labwani, asked to establish a new political body includes a military executive board along side with selected number of opposition figures, according to Zaman Alwasl reporter.

 Coalition Secretary General, Mustafa Sabbagh, proposed urgent meetings represented by National Coalition and chief of Staff with the influential leaders in the international community to find concrete solution to the Syrian crisis otherwise the opposition and the military supreme council will not attend on talks within Geneva 2.

Syria's armed forces battered rebel-held parts of Homs city on Saturday and sunday with air raids, shelling and a ground offensive that prompted the opposition to issue a desperate plea for foreign military intervention.

Syrian army air strikes in the central city of Homs on Sunday killed three civilians, as regime forces pressed forward with a new bid to to retake several rebel-controlled districts, activists said.

 "Regime forces also carried out heavy shelling of the districts of Khaldiyeh and the Old City, and the sound of explosions could be heard," the group added.

 "Warplanes carried out two consecutive raids against areas under siege in Homs city, as well as carrying out heavy shelling against the same districts," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

 The Britain-based Observatory described as "unprecedented" the all-out shelling concentrated on the neighbourhoods of Khaldiyeh, Bab Hud, Hamidiyeh and Bustan al-Diwan.

 Regime forces were using mortar shells, rockets, tank shells and heavy artillery in the assault, said the monitoring group, which relies on a network of sources on the ground for its reports.

 Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said troops were trying to storm Khaldiyeh and that fighting was underway around the Old City, two districts that have been under army siege for around a year.

 Homs, the third largest-city in the country, was one of the first to join the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's regime more than two years ago.

 A security source in Damascus confirmed fierce fighting was underway in Homs.

"Military operations never stopped in Homs, but their pace increases according to priorities," he told AFP.

"What's important is to cleanse those neighborhoods of Homs that are in the hands of armed terrorists, particularly Khaldiyeh, Hamidiyeh and the Old City," he added.

"The army is advancing on all fronts but at varying speeds," he said, insisting: "Advances may be slow but they are real."

Syrian state television said government troops were making "great progress" in Khaldiyeh where they "eliminated large numbers of members of armed terrorist groups" -- the term used by the government to describe the rebels.

An activist in Khaldiyeh told AFP on Saturday afternoon that the fighting had subsided somewhat since the morning.

"Today was the beginning of a new offensive," he confirmed, describing air raids and shelling on the town.

"The situation is even worse than before, we're suffering shortages of basic materials such as rice and sugar," he told AFP over the Internet.

On Thursday, Syrian regime troops took the town of Al-Qariatayn, in Homs province as part of a wider campaign to gain ground in the central region.

The Observatory chief said the army appeared to be trying to "isolate the south of (central) Hama province and the north of Homs province to cut the supply lines between the two provinces."

 The 27-month-long conflict has claimed more than 100,000 lives, the Observatory announced Wednesday. Meanwhile, Assad’s forces, backed by militants from the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, have made creeping gains in recent months.

 

Editing by Mohamed Hamdan