Homs assault triggers global outrage

The Syrian military pounded rebel-held Sunni Muslim districts of Homs city for the 20th day yesterday, despite international outrage over the previous day's death toll of more than 80, including two Western journalists, activists said.
Tanks pushed into part of the Baba Amro neighborhood which has taken the brunt of the bombardment, activist Abu Imad said.
The plight of Homs and other embattled towns will dominate "Friends of Syria" talks in Tunis today involving the United States, European and Arab countries, Syria's neighbor Turkey and other nations clamoring for President Bashar al-Assad to halt the violence and relinquish power.
Russia, which along with China has vetoed two UN Security Council resolutions on Syria, has said it will not attend.
The White House, which so far has been against military intervention in Syria, yesterday hinted that if a political solution were impossible it might have to consider other options.
It issued a warning yesterday that all options are on its table if the international community fails to act decisively against the Syrian regime.
However, such a statement should not be seen as something that the US is looking at some military action, a White House spokesman said, adding that the Obama Administration still believes in use of diplomatic and economic measures to restore normalcy in the country.
He said the US will work with the "Friends of Syria" to help stand them up, to cement its organisational capacity, its unity, so that there is an entity in place as this inevitable transition.
Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich advocated arming Syrian rebels.
"We need to work with Saudi Arabia and with Turkey to say, 'You guys provide the kind of weaponry that's needed to help the rebels inside Syria,'" Romney said.
The warning came as Iran, Syria's main ally in the Middle East, said it would resist what it deems to be foreign interference by the United States to bring down Assad's regime.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran supports the Syrian government and will oppose those who act against Syria," Ali Akbar Velayati, a top foreign policy adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in remarks reported by the Fars news agency.
"With the help of the Arabs... America has targeted the most sensitive area of the resistance axis, not knowing that Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah are firmly standing by Syria," he said saying the attempt to topple the Syrian government will not become reality.
Meanwhile independent UN investigators called for perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Syria to face prosecution and said they had drawn up a confidential list of names of commanding officers and officials alleged to be responsible.
Rockets, artillery and mortar rounds rained on the Inshaat and Baba Amro districts, where Free Syrian Army rebels are entrenched. In the Khalidiya district mosques urged residents to take cover as mortar rounds started falling on the area.
Footage shot by activists in Homs shows smashed buildings, empty streets and doctors treating casualties in makeshift clinics in Baba Amro after nearly three weeks of bombardment.
Several hundred people have been killed in Homs by troops using artillery, tanks, rockets and sniper fire.