http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/world/middleeast/syria-hands-over-bodies-of-2-journalists-to-diplomats.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22

 

March 3, 2012

Syria’s Government Blocks Aid Convoy, Tightening Its Hold on a Devastated Area

By KAREEM FAHIM and HWAIDA SAAD

ANTAKYA, Turkey — As the Syrian government continued to block an aid convoy from entering a devastated neighborhood in the city of Homs, Syrian refugees and activists reported Saturday that government forces were turning their guns on other restive cities.

Syrians who have fled to Turkey in recent days have described intensifying military operations in the city of Hama, and in northern Idlib Province.  A Turkish official said the number of Syrian refugees seemed to be increasing.  

The local coordination committees, an antigovernment group, reported heavy clashes between government forces and opposition fighters in Deir Ezzor, in northeastern Syria, and Dara’a, in the south.

And an activist in the coastal city of Latakia said that the military had begun an operation against five villages in the suburbs. The accounts of escalating violence were difficult to confirm, but suggested a widening government campaign against its opponents.

The bodies of two Western journalists killed in the shelling of Homs last month were handed over to foreign diplomats on Saturday.

The journalists, Marie Colvin, an American who was a reporter for The Sunday Times of London, and Rémi Ochlik, a French photographer, were killed on Feb. 22, after a building where they were working was destroyed.

On Saturday, Ms. Colvin’s body was handed over to a Polish Embassy official, acting on behalf of the United States, which closed its embassy in Damascus last month, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Ochlik’s body was handed over to the French ambassador.

Government troops meanwhile tightened their hold on Homs, whose Baba Amr district had been a stronghold of antigovernment resistance. After a monthlong siege in which hundreds of people were killed, the city fell to government forces on Thursday.

Pictures on Syrian television on Saturday hinted at the devastation, showing roads completely covered with debris, shredded metal storefronts and buildings that had crumbled under artillery fire.

Antigovernment activists said there was still shelling in some neighborhoods on Saturday.

As a state television host wandered the streets of the neighborhood, officials with the International Committee of the Red Cross said the government — citing safety concerns, including land mines — was still preventing the organization from delivering food and medical supplies.

The government had previously given permission for the seven-truck convoy to enter the district, where international aid officials have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis.

“We are still in negotiations to enter Baba Amr,” a Red Cross spokesman, Hicham Hassan, told The A.P., saying the group had not been able to verify the danger. “It’s important that we get in today. We are not about to give up.”

The Syrian state news agency said that three people were killed and more than 20 were wounded on Saturday after a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at a roundabout in Dara’a.

It was at least the fourth reported suicide bombing in Syria since late December.

The bombings have raised concerns among some opposition activists that foreign extremists are trying to hijack a homegrown revolt. Haytham Manna, a leading dissident, who said he opposed arming the opposition, said that bombings like the one in Dara’a would undermine the protests. “Iraqis, Lebanese and Salafis are becoming more involved in the fighting,” he said.

© 2011 The New York Times Company

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"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs