Full War Ahead -- Still, Where Is The Fucking Arab League!!!???

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Syrian residents say they're bracing for full-blown war

By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 10:17 AM EST, Tue February 14, 2012


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(CNN) -- Fear and horror paralyzed residents in the Syrian city of Homs Tuesday, with snipers preventing anyone from moving and heavy shelling blasting through the air, opposition activists said.

"The snipers are even targeting those who intend to get bread from the bakeries," said one activist, who uses the pseudonym Abu Omar.

"They are shelling randomly -- why, I don't know," said another activist, identified only as Omar for security reasons. "There is no place here in this city that is a safe house or shelter or a basement. You have to be lucky to stay safe."

At least six civilians were killed by shelling in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition activist group.

At least 10 deaths were reported in Homs, including three farmers who were killed after being tortured, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria (LLC).

Another two people were killed in Daraa, one in Damascus, one in Damascus suburbs, two in Hama, and several in Deir Ezzor, the largest city in northeastern Syria, according to the LLC. That brought Tuesday's death toll to more than 16.

Syria, meanwhile, said on state-run news agency SANA that 13 "army and law enforcement martyrs" were buried Tuesday. "The martyrs were killed in the line of duty by armed terrorists groups in Damascus Countryside, Homs and Idlib."


While U.N. diplomats slammed the Syrian regime for the country's mounting bloodshed, residents wondered what lay ahead.

"Everyone we've been talking to ... believes that the country is heading towards, or already is in, a full-blown war, and recovering from that is going to be incredibly challenging," said CNN's Arwa Damon, who reported from inside Syria early Tuesday.

She spoke from an opposition safe house, describing a near constant flow of people and information. CNN is not disclosing her exact location because of concerns for her safety.

"What a lot of people are realizing and accepting at this stage is that this is going to be a bloody battle -- that more lives are going to be lost," Damon said.


Her report came a day after the U.N. high commissioner for human rights denounced the Syrian government's "ongoing onslaught" against its citizens. Navi Pillay spoke before the U.N. General Assembly, which could issue a formal condemnation of the Syrian regime.

"The nature and scale of abuses committed by Syrian forces indicates that crimes against humanity are likely to have been committed since March 2011," Pillay said.

Syria posted a banner on state TV Tuesday saying its foreign affairs ministry "absolutely rejects all the new allegations in the new report by the Human Rights High Commissioner."

Government forces again shelled Homs at dawn, opposition activists said. Tuesday's shelling was among the heaviest in the past five days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

More than 700 people have been killed over the past 10 days in Syria -- mostly in Homs, the Local Coordination Committees said.

CNN cannot independently confirm details of the events in Syria because the government has severely limited the access of international journalists.


Pillay said evidence shows President Bashar al-Assad's forces are carrying out a gruesome crackdown.

"Independent, credible and corroborated accounts indicate that these abuses have taken place as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians," Pillay said.

A U.N. General Assembly draft resolution that would condemn Syrian human rights violations has been discussed by diplomats but not formally introduced. It was unclear when the draft would be presented and when diplomats would vote on it.

The vote would not be binding, but would be the strongest U.N. statement yet on the violence. Russia and China vetoed previous attempts by the U.N. Security Council to condemn Syria for the crackdown.

"The people of Syria justifiably feel that the United Nations has shamefully abandoned their cause," British Ambassador to the U.N. Mark Lyall Grant told diplomats. "We must, as individual member states and collectively, send them a clear signal that this is not the case."


Rami Jarrah "The fact is, this is going on for too long.
Whereas, before there were solutions in the beginning stages.
Now we are reaching a point where something like this, isn't really a solution."
But Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, said the "aggressive, illegitimate" criticism of his country is designed to undermine the government.

An Arab League proposal over the weekend for a joint U.N.-Arab peacekeeping force in the country is an "incitement to terrorism," he said, because it would provide support to opposition fighters.

Syria routinely blames the violence in the country on "armed terrorist groups." SANA carried a story Tuesday quoting Jaafari saying, "Syria has the right to protect its citizens, combat terrorism and armed violence and put an end for them."

Along with a peacekeeping mission, the Arab League urged member states to provide political and financial support to the Syrian opposition and to cut ties with Damascus.

The destruction by al-Assad forces has yielded a humanitarian crisis.

Pillay said at least 5,400 people have died since protests seeking al-Assad's ouster began nearly a year ago, and that it is difficult to update that figure due to chaos on the ground. The LCC says the death toll has far exceeded 7,000.

Damon said every person interviewed has a horror story to tell.

"One man we met, he had four members of his family executed as government forces, he said, were raiding their village," she said.

She said some members of the opposition believe the regime will fall someday, but it's uncertain how many more lives will be lost before that happens.

"If there is military intervention, then yes, there will be a lot of bloodshed. But it's going to be over a lot quicker," one young activist said. "If there isn't military intervention, there is going to be even more bloodshed, and it's going to take a lot longer to bring down the regime."

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, Hamdi Alkhshali, Nada Husseini, Mick Krever, Richard Roth and Holly Yan contributed to this report.