Syrian forces blast rebels, refugees escape bridge

The violence comes amid a flurry of diplomatic initiatives launched separately by the Arab League, the United Nations, Russia and China -- all aimed at ending the year-long tumult in Syria which the UN says has killed at least 7,500 people.

Soldiers in tanks and armoured carriers stormed the town of Herak in the province of Daraa, while army deserters clashed with troops overnight in villages of Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based watchdog also reported that troops backed by tanks circled the town of Tibet al-Imam in the central province of Hama and sent artillery shells crashing into Maaret al-Numan city in northwestern Idlib province.

The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP in Beirut that Syrian forces Tuesday also bombed a bridge used to evacuate the wounded and refugees to Lebanon from the central flashpoint province of Homs.

The bridge was in the village of Rableh, some three kilometers (nearly two miles) from the Lebanese border, and straddles the Orontes River.

Hadi Abdallah, a Syrian activist in Homs, said the bridge was used last week to transport wounded French reporter Edith Bouvier out of Homs, which has been the target of a fierce assault by regime forces.

"The bridge was hit by artillery shells," said Abdallah, reached by telephone from Beirut. "It can no longer be used."

The International Committee of the Red Cross, meanwhile, negotiated for a fourth day Tuesday with Syrian authorities to be allowed to deliver aid and evacuate the wounded from the battered Baba Amr rebel district of the city of Homs.

Rebel fighters retreated from Baba Amr last Thursday in the face of a ground assault by Syrian forces after almost a month of shelling, with fleeing residents giving terrifying accounts of atrocities committed by government troops.

The ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society have since sought in vain permission to enter Baba Amr with a seven-truck aid convoy.

With the convoy stalled, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday urged the international community to put pressure on Damascus to allow the delivery of relief supplies to civilians.

"Humanitarian aid corridors must immediately be opened," Erdogan told a parliamentary meeting of his AKP party in Ankara.

In New York, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said she had been granted permission by Damascus to go to Syria from Wednesday to Friday.

The aim of the visit, she said, would be "to urge all parties to allow unhindered access for humanitarian relief workers so that they can evacuate the wounded and deliver essential supplies."

After fleeing Baba Amr, the rebels regrouped in nearby Rastan city, which according to the Observatory and activists came under artillery fire on Sunday and Monday.

The violence in Homs province has sent more than 1,500 Syrian refugees, mainly women and children, fleeing across the border into Lebanon in the past few days, UN and Lebanese officials said on Tuesday.

The Observatory said at least six people, including two teenagers, were killed nationwide on Monday, while on Tuesday a man was shot and killed by a sniper in Maaret al-Numan and three bodies were found near police headquarters in Homs city.

With diplomatic efforts so far stymied, US Senator John McCain, an influential Republican, called for American air strikes on Syrian forces to protect population centres and create safe havens.

At the request of the Syrian opposition, McCain said in remarks on the floor of the Senate, "the United States should lead an international effort to protect key population centres in Syria, especially in the north, through air strikes on Assad\'s forces."

On the diplomatic front, former UN chief Kofi Annan is on Wednesday to launch a mission aimed at convincing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to silence the guns blamed for thousands of deaths since anti-regime protests broke out last March.

Annan is to hold talks with Arab leaders in Cairo before he heads to the Syrian capital on Saturday as joint special envoy for the United Nations and the 22-member Arab League.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, said he was to meet his Arab counterparts on Saturday in Cairo where the League has its headquarters to discuss Moscow\'s ally Syria.

Moscow and Beijing have since October twice wielded their Security Council veto to block UN condemnation of Syria.

China\'s former ambassador to Damascus, Li Huaxin, is due in Syria on Wednesday for meetings with the government and other parties.

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