A Free Syrian Army fighter stands guard in Idlib in northwestern Syria, near the Turkish border, on Sunday.
By msnbc.com news services
GENEVA -- The International Committee of the Red Cross says it is negotiating with Syrian authorities and opposition fighters to broker a cease-fire in some of the most violence-torn areas.
"We are currently discussing several possibilities with all those concerned, and it includes a cessation of fighting in the most affected areas," Red Cross spokeswoman Carla Haddad told The Associated Press.
She said the talks weren't aimed at resolving entrenched political differences, but to allow the humanitarian agency enough time to deliver aid to civilians hardest hit by the conflict.
"The idea is to be able to facilitate swift access to people in need," Haddad said.
Activists in embattled cities such as Homs say food is running out and doctors lack medicine to treat the wounded.
?Cut off from the outside world?
Opposition activists said five people had been killed in government shelling of Homs's Baba Amro district on Monday, adding to a reported death toll of several hundred since the operation began there on February 3.
Activists in the western city of Hama said troops, police and militias had set up dozens of roadblocks, cutting neighborhoods off from each other.
"Hama is cut off from the outside world. There are no landlines, no mobile phone network and no Internet. House-to-house arrests take place daily and sometimes repeatedly in the same neighborhoods," an opposition statement said.
Rebel fighters have been attacking militiamen, known as shabbiha, while avoiding open confrontations with the armored forces that had massed around Hama, a city north of Homs on the Damascus-Aleppo highway.
The government restricts foreign media access in Syria, making it hard to verify the activists' reports independently.
In a bold protest in Damascus, opposition youths unfurled a pre-Assad era national flag over a road bridge at the edge of the capital, YouTube footage showed. That followed a weekend that saw one of the biggest demonstrations yet in the capital as the uprising neared its first anniversary.
Security forces have killed more than 5,000 people, according to human rights groups, in a campaign to crush the revolt while the Assad government says more than 2,000 soldiers and security agents have been killed.
Activists in embattled cities such as Homs say food is running out and doctors lack medicine to treat the wounded.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
dexter season 6 andy rooney 60 minutes andre johnson andre johnson arrested development arrested development shannon tweed
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন