REUTERS

AMMAN SYRIAN President Bashar al Assad’s forces rained rockets and bombs down on opposition-held neighbourhoods of the city of Homs on Wednesday, reducing buildings to rubble and killing more than 80 people, including two Western journalists.

The barrages marked an intensification of a nearly three-week offensive to crush resistance in Homs, one of the focal points of a nationwide uprising against Assad’s 11- year rule and its ferocity has caused international outrage.

More than 60 bodies, both rebel fighters and civilians, were recovered from one area of Homs’ Babo Amro neighbourhood after an afternoon bombardment, adding to the 21 killed earlier in the day, activists.

“Helicopters flew reconnaissance overhead then the bombardment started,” Homs activist Abu Abei said. Videos uploaded by opposition activists showed smashed buildings, deserted streets, and doctors treating wounded civilians in primitive conditions in Baba Amro district, the main target of Assad’s wrath. “President Assad wants to finish the Homs situation by Sunday to prepare for the constitutional referendum. Then he will turn to Idlib,” a Lebanese official said in Beirut.