With diplomacy stalled, the bloodletting in the Syrian city of Homs continues. Syrian forces continue its relentless attack on the city of Homs. Snipers are the new terror in the city, and hospitals are running short of supplies. ITN's Paul Davies reports.
By msnbc.com staff and news services
??Syrian government forces have deployed tanks in the streets and?are bombing indiscriminately in the city of Homs, according to a BBC correspondent on the scene.
The BBC?s Paul Wood, who is reporting from the outskirts of Homs with anti-government forces, described the mood as one of ?despair? as the city comes under the heaviest bombardment so far in a five-day assault.
Activists claim hundreds have been killed in the violence, from 40 to 100 on Wednesday alone, though their reports have not been independently verified.
Wood is one of the few Western news reporters inside Syria, where the government tightly controls access to news. He said many people in the city are hiding in their homes, too afraid to leave.
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The aid group Doctors Without Borders quoted Syrians as saying that many wounded civilians are unable to get adequate medical treatment ? in part because security forces have taken over many public hospitals, The Associated Press reported.
As world condemnation of President Assad and his forces grows, his British born wife, Asma, has sent an email in support of her husband. Before the crisis in Syria she was a popular and visible first lady. ITN's Daisy McAndrew reports.?
The aid group released a video in Paris on Wednesday showing interviews with 10 wounded Syrians and 5 Syrian doctors who have fled the nation.
Group: Militia 'slaughtered' 3 families in Syria's Homs
The unidentified witnesses said many wounded are afraid to go to hospitals for treatment, knowing that Syrian authorities could arrest them and subject them to interrogation or even torture. Instead, some get whatever treatment they can in private clinics or makeshift hospitals in homes.
Testimonies from injured people and doctors from across Syria were collected by Doctors Without Borders/M?decins Sans Fronti?res (MSF) staff between January 30 and February 6, 2012. MSF is not authorized to operate inside Syria at present and thus is unable to fully verify the information collected here.
Doctors Without Borders, which is not authorized to work in Syria, said it could not independently confirm the Syrians' accounts.
The onslaught on Homs has not relented despite a promise to end the bloodshed that Syrian President Bashar Assad gave to Russia.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe dismissed Syrian pledges of peace as deceit, "and we're not going to fall for it."?
US shutters embassy in Syria, withdraws all personnel
A Western and Arab backed draft resolution calling for Assad to cede power to his deputy failed in the United Nations Security Council after Russia and China vetoed the move on Saturday.
The United Nations' top human rights official called on Wednesday for urgent international action. Navi Pillay, High Commissioner for Human Rights, said he was "appalled by the Syrian government's wilful assault on the city of Homs, and its use of artillery and other heavy weaponry in what appear to be indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas in the city."?
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