Syria crisis: Forces tighten grip on Baba Amr in Homs

Syrian forces have tightened their stranglehold on the city of Homs, a day after launching a ground assault on the rebellious Baba Amr district.

Communication with the area has been largely cut off, and people are struggling to get in or out.

Syrian officials said their forces were "mopping up", but activists insisted the attack had been repelled.

The UN's rights council has passed a resolution condemning "systematic violations" against civilians.

The motion, supported by 37 nations, called for the regime to allow access for aid agencies, and demanded an immediate halt to the violence.

China, Russia and Cuba voted against the resolution.

The vote carries no legal weight, but analysts say it may embolden diplomats to take a tougher line in UN Security Council debates.

Unity call

Diplomats are launching several initiatives to try to end the violence in Syria.

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Eyewitness: Dr Jacques Beres

I can't really compare Homs to any other war zone I have worked in - apart, perhaps, from Chechnya.

I was based in a makeshift operating theatre. Everyone is too scared to go to the state-run hospital - they are terrified of having a limb amputated, or of being kidnapped. Only the Syrian army soldiers go there now.

I operated on 90 people. We couldn't help those who had been injured in the chest and the head, only those with wounds to the abdomen and below.

The people there are convinced that they will win. They are very brave but they are also desperate at having been bombarded for so long. They think they have been abandoned.

• 'I worked in Homs hospital'

The UN and Arab League appointed Kofi Annan as their envoy to Syria earlier, and he has called for unity behind a single mediation effort.

"If we are going to succeed it is extremely important that we all accept that there should be one process of mediation," he said.

"When you have more than one and people take their own initiatives the parties play with the mediators."

Russia and China have both vetoed UN resolutions on Syria and have also sent envoys to Damascus in recent weeks.

Mr Annan, who was installed by the UN and Arab League to try to broker a peace deal, said he was seeking talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The BBC's Jim Muir says the Syrian opposition and its international allies have so far ruled out dialogue with the regime, so Mr Annan's more balanced approach may make it hard for Damascus to close its doors to him.

Separately, foreign ministers of the six Gulf Arab states have they will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov next week to "express disappointment with the Russian stance", according to the AFP news agency.

The Gulf states have been vocal in their criticism of Syria's crackdown, while Moscow is seen as the regime's closest ally.

And Syrian opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council, has announced that it has formed a military council to formalise support for the rebel Free Syrian Army.

'Just miserable'

The Baba Amr district, where many opposition fighters are believed to be sheltering, has been under bombardment for almost a month.

Kofi Annan: "It is when the international community speaks with one voice that its voice is powerful"

Many of the area's estimated 100,000 residents have fled to escape the siege, and it is unclear how many are still trapped.

Ground troops moved into the besieged quarter earlier this week, and state TV broadcast footage of smashed and empty streets with the sound of gunfire reverberating.

Government officials claimed to have taken control of Baba Amr late on Wednesday.

But opposition activists strongly denied those claims, saying fighters from the Free Syrian Army had managed to push back regime forces.

"They've been trying to enter the neighbourhood of Baba Amr but the Free Syrian Army is fighting back," one activist said.

"It's just miserable here in Baba Amr."

Several Western journalists trapped in the latest bombardment have managed to escape to neighbouring Lebanon in recent days.

But two French journalists, Edith Bouvier, who is seriously wounded, and William Daniels, remain unaccounted for.

Activists say more than 7,500 people have died since the uprising against Mr Assad's government began last March.

The government, however, says at least 1,345 members of the security forces have been killed combating "armed gangs and terrorists", and puts the number of civilians killed at 2,493.