Carnage in Homs

According to Syrian opposition leaders as many as 260 people were killed, making it the deadliest day so far in President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on protests and one of the bloodiest episodes in the "Arab Spring" of revolts that have swept the region.

"We were sitting inside our house when we started hearing the shelling. We felt shells were falling on our heads," said Waleed, a resident of Khaldiya speaking by phone to reporters outside the city.

"The morning has come and we have discovered more bodies are on the streets," he said. "Some are still under the rubble. Our movement is better but there is little we can do without ambulances and other things."

Another activist in the neighbourhood contacted by journalists said residents were using primitive tools to rescue people and feared many were buried beneath the rubble.

"We are not getting any help, there are no ambulances or anything. We are removing the people with our own hands," he said, adding there were only two field hospitals treating the wounded. Each one had a capacity to deal with 30 people, but he estimated the total number of wounded at 500.

"We have dug out at least 100 bodies so far, they are placed in the two mosques."

"It's a real massacre in every sense of the word," said a third resident in Khaldiya, who gave his name as Abu Jihad. "I saw bodies of women and children lying on roads beheaded. It's horrible and inhuman. It was a long night helping people get to hospitals." Locals said at least 36 houses were completely destroyed with families inside.

Accounts by activists based on what they had been told by contacts inside Homs describe how the barrage was apparently unleashed after army defectors attacked two military checkpoints and kidnapped soldiers. One activist put the number of abducted soldiers at 13, another 19. They suggested that enraged Syrian Army commanders then ordered the assault which focused on the neighborhood of Khaldiya. Video footage released by opposition activists on the internet showed at least eight bodies assembled in a room, one of them with the top half of its head blown off. A voice on the video said the bombardment was continuing as the footage was filmed.

Opposition fighters of the Free Syria Army were said to be trying to get back to Homs from neighbouring Lebanon and other areas of Syria via back roads with blood supplies for the casualties.

The fighters now say that they're going to launch a general offensive some time in the next 24 hours in response to the attack on Homs.

Syria's state SANA news agency, meanwhile, has responded by issuing its own version of events denying that the city was shelled and, accusing rebels of staging the pictures, killing people and presenting them as casualties for propaganda purposes before a crucial UN vote on the Syrian crisis scheduled for yesterday.

"The corpses displayed by some channels of incitement are martyrs, citizens kidnapped, killed and photographed by armed terrorist groups as if they are victims of the supposed shelling," it quoted a "media source" as saying.

However, around the world the official Syrian account was dismissed and condemnation of the attack widespread. US President Barack Obama accused President al-Assad of launching an "unspeakable assault" on his own citizens, and called for him to resign and for democratic elections to be held.

"Yesterday the Syrian government murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women and children, in Homs through shelling and other indiscriminate violence, and Syrian forces continue to prevent hundreds of injured civilians from seeking medical help," Obama said in a written statement.

"Assad must halt his campaign of killing and crimes against his own people now. He must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately," he said.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague accused the Syrian regime of "cold-blooded cynicism in the face of mounting international pressure for the UN Security Council to do its utmost to end the bloodshed. "The escalating violence underlines the critical importance of the UN Security Council adding its weight to the Arab League's efforts to end the crisis in Syria," he said.

"The time is long past for the international community, particularly those that have so far sheltered the Assad regime, to intensify the pressure to end over 10 months of violence."

There was outrage too in some Arab states most notably Tunisia, which immediately started the procedure for withdrawing its recognition of the Syrian leadership under al-Assad and for expelling the Syrian ambassador.

Soon after the decision was announced, staff at Syria's embassy in the Tunisian capital lowered their national flag over the building, prompting a cheer from about 200 people protesting outside over the Syrian government's crackdown on opponents.

Tunisia's decision to sever ties with Damascus carries moral weight because the north African country's revolution last year started off the "Arab Spring" upheavals which later spread throughout the Middle East, including to Syria.

A message posted on the Facebook page of President Moncef Marzouki said: "Tunisia has announced the launch of procedures for the expulsion of the Syrian ambassador in Tunisia and the withdrawal of all recognition of the regime in power in Damascus.

"The only solution (to the violence in Syria) is the withdrawal of Bashar al-Assad from power, and the launch of a democratic transition," the message said.

The Homs bombardment came as diplomats at the Security Council were discussing the draft resolution supporting the Arab League demand for Assad to give up powers.

The Security Council was due meet at 1500 GMT but Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made clear early yesterday that Moscow would veto the resolution if it was presented without amendments.

Russia's main objection was that the resolution contained measures against Assad, but not against armed groups opposing him.

"Unless you do it both ways, you are taking sides in a civil war," insisted Lavrov.

Russia has balked at any UN Security Council language that would open the door to "regime change" in Syria, a rare Middle East ally where Moscow operates a naval base and sells billions of dollars in advanced weapons. But as events following the attack rapidly moved on yesterday with many of the world's top security and foreign affairs officials gathered at a conference in Munich, Lavrov changed tack pointing out that Russia did not regard the resolution as "hopeless."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was said to have had "vigorous" talks with Lavrov at the Munich security conference about his objections to the UN Security Council draft resolution and, according to a US official, Clinton still hoped Moscow would vote 'yes'. Clinton's optimism however was dashed later in the day after both Russia and China vetoed the Western-backed resolution at the Security Council in New York.

As the diplomatic wrangling and international condemnation continued, Syrian opposition activists around the world and the citizens of Homs were trying to come to terms with the assault and provide an accurate account of the casualties.

The Syrian National Council, which has sought to act as an umbrella group for the opposition, said more than 260 were killed describing it as "one of the most horrific massacres since the beginning of the uprising in Syria". Rami Abdulrahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll in Khaldiya had reached 237, with 60 people still missing.

"Syrian forces shelled the district with mortars from several locations, some buildings are on fire," he confirmed.

The opposition council said it believed Assad's forces were preparing for attacks around Damascus and the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour. "It does not seem they get it. Even if they kill 10 million of us, the people will not stop until we topple him," said an activist reached by phone in Hama, another restive city.

Homs, which sits in western Syria near the border with Lebanon, has been a stronghold and hub of the 11 month uprising. The city's own diverse population almost mirrors that of Syria as a whole. It has a Sunni Muslim majority that has backed the uprising, but at least three neighbourhoods are populated largely by Alawites, a strain of Islam that provides much of the leadership and support for President Bashar al-Assad's government.