Syrian Army Enters Homs Neighborhoods

Syrian troops entered Monday the Homs neighborhood of Baba Amro and "started demolishing shops," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Residents there saw a truck "filled with corpses," it added.

The Britain-based Observatory said heavy artillery clashes erupted overnight Sunday between Syrian soldiers and presumed army defectors in the central city of Homs leaving "dozens of dead and wounded in both camps."

"Shooting could be heard in Homs where neighborhoods came under heavy machinegun fire at dawn," said the Observatory in a statement, adding "more than 40 explosions were heard."

One citizen was killed in the neighborhood of Deir Baalba in Homs after "being shot by Syrian security forces" said the Observatory.

In Homs province, meanwhile, an eight-year-old girl was killed and a woman wounded after security forces stationed at a checkpoint in the area of Hula "fired indiscriminately," it said.

Syria's opposition on Monday called for "international protection for civilians" in Homs.

Declaring Homs a "humanitarian disaster area," the Syrian National Council urged the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League to act "to stop the massacre committed by the regime."

In a statement received by Agence France Presse, it called on the international community to send "Arab and international observers, instantly, to the city of Homs to oversee the situation on the ground, and prevent the regime from continuing to commit brutal massacres."

The Syrian National Council, which groups the main currents of the opposition, also called in its statement for the evacuation of civilians away from "areas that are under shelling and destruction."

The group said the Syrian regime had "launched a large-scale attack" overnight Sunday to Monday on the neighborhoods of Homs and that "indiscriminate slaughter is being committed by the regime's militias."

The army was "using heavy artillery, rocket launchers, and warplanes to bomb populated residential neighborhoods" in Homs, it said.

"For the fifth consecutive day, the Syrian regime imposed a brutal siege on the brave city of Homs, aiming to break the will of its residents, and to brutalize its steadfast people who have dared to reject the regime's authority and mandate, and insisted on demanding their legitimate rights for freedom and dignity," it added.

The United Nations estimates that more than 3,000 people have been killed across Syria in a bloody crackdown by the security forces since anti-regime protests erupted in mid-March.

The Arab League has called an emergency meeting in Cairo next Saturday on Syria's failure to implement its peace plan.

The League said the meeting was called because of "the continuation of violence and because the Syrian government did not implement its commitments in the Arab plan to resolve the Syrian crisis."

Security forces reportedly killed at least 19 demonstrators on Sunday after the Eid al-Adha prayers.

The latest deaths bring to at least 70 the number of people killed since President Bashar al-Assad's government signed on to the Arab League peace plan on November 2.