Syria resumes shelling after rejecting peace force

Syria: Regime forces resumed their assault on the Syrian protest city of Homs yesterday, activists said, after Damascus rejected an Arab plan to send a peacekeeping force to the unrest-hit country. Shortly before sunrise, the army launched mortars into Baba Amr, a rebel stronghold in the central city, as forces swept through southern Daraa province arresting dissidents, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The neighbourhood of Baba Amr has been subjected to sporadic shelling since 5:00 am (0300 GMT) by the Syrian army," the Britain-based Observatory said in a statement sent to AFP.

"Forces launched an assault and are arresting people in Sasra al-Sham after an explosion in Dael, in Daraa province," cradle of the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

"There were fierce clashes between defectors and the army which stormed Lajat and arrested the mothers of four dissidents," it said, adding a sniper killed a civilian in the central city of Hama.

Rights groups say Assad's forces have killed at least 500 people in Homs since they began attacking the central city with a barrage or tank shells, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades on February 4.

After marathon talks in Cairo on Sunday, the Arab League said it had agreed to open contacts with Syria's opposition and ask the United Nations to form a joint peacekeeping force to the nation.

Arab League diplomats "will open channels of communication with the Syrian opposition and offer full political and financial support, urging (the opposition) to unify its ranks," said a League statement obtained by AFP.

They would also "ask the UN Security Council to issue a decision on the formation of a joint UN-Arab peacekeeping force to oversee the implementation of a ceasefire."

The 22-member bloc announced an end to its own observer mission to Syria, suspended last month amid an upsurge in violence.

Syria's ambassador to Cairo denounced the resolution, which only Algeria and Lebanon expressed reservations about.

"The Syrian Arab Republic categorically rejects the decisions of the Arab League," which "reflects the hysteria of these governments" after failing to get foreign intervention at the UN Security Council, said Yusef Ahmed.

Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to Syria's government, on Monday slammed Arab nations for backing the latest peace initiative, singling out Qatar.

AFP