AMMAN, Feb 22, (Agencies): Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, trying to hammer the city of Homs into submission, on Wednesday killed 19 more people including two Western journalists in an onslaught that has caused an international outcry for intervention to end the bloodshed.
Hundreds of people have been killed in daily bombardments of Homs by Assad’s besieging forces using artillery, rockets and Soviet-built T-72 tanks, stoking fears of Assad subjecting the city to the same devastation as his late father inflicted on the rebellious town of Hama 30 years ago, killing at least 10,000.
With diplomacy to halt Syria’s bloodshed at a standstill and Assad’s forces intensifying offensives to wipe out rebels, the United States appeared to open the door to eventually arming the Syrian opposition, saying that if a political solution to the crisis was impossible it might have to consider other options.
The Homs district of Baba Amro where the 19 deaths were reported has been under bombardment since Feb 3, taking the conflict to a new dimension which is bound to dominate “Friends of Syria” talks in Tunis on Friday where US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets officials from 70 countries and groups.
In a further sign of worsening carnage in Syria, activists said that troops and militia loyal to Assad captured and shot dead 27 young men on Tuesday in northern villages in the thick of an 11-month-old uprising against his autocratic rule.
Russia, one of Assad’s few remaining allies and seen as retaining some leverage over him, said on Wednesday it was seeking safe passage of aid convoys to Syrian civilians trapped in the spreading violence.
The killing of two Western journalists in Syria is “another example of the shameless brutality” of the Syrian regime, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told AFP on Wednesday.
American-born Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin and freelance French photojournalist Remi Ochlik were killed in the besieged city of Homs earlier Wednesday by shelling from President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

Tragic
“This tragic incident is another example of the shameless brutality of the Assad regime,” Nuland told AFP as she left Washington on a trip to London with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
British Prime Minister David Cameron paid tribute to Colvin, who was in her mid 50s, at his weekly questions session in parliament, describing her as “talented and respected.”
Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Sunday Times, said in an email to staff that the company was doing all it could to recover Colvin’s body.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy meanwhile said the journalists’ deaths showed “that enough is enough, this regime must go.”
Colvin was US-born but based in London for many years, and a 30-year career saw her cover some of the world’s bloodiest conflicts, and most recently she reported on the Arab Spring from Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
Ochlik, who was 28, had covered fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008, the 2010 presidential elections and cholera epidemic in Haiti and the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
Western powers condemned Syria on Wednesday for the killing of two foreign journalists, with Washington slamming the regime’s “shameless brutality” and Paris demanding an immediate end to attacks.
Three other Western journalists were wounded in the attack on a makeshift media centre in the Baba Amr district, including Colvin’s British photographer colleague Paul Conroy and French reporter Edith Bouvier of Le Figaro.
“This tragic incident is another example of the shameless brutality of the Assad regime,” US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told AFP.
France demanded access to the victims of the attack and summoned Syria’s envoy to Paris.
“I am asking the Syrian government to immediately stop attacks and respect its humanitarian obligations,” Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.
“I have asked our embassy in Damascus to require the Syrian authorities provide secure medical access to assist the victims with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross,” he said in a statement.
He said he had also “summoned the Syrian ambassador... to remind him of the intolerable nature of the Syrian government’s behaviour.”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the incident was a further sign that Assad should give up power.
“This shows that enough is enough, this regime must go. There is no reason why Syrians should not have the right to live their lives, to freely choose their destiny,” Sarkozy said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron paid tribute to Colvin, saying her death in Syria showed the risks journalists face in exposing the truth.
“This is a desperately sad reminder of the risks that journalists take to inform the world of what is happening and the dreadful events in Syria,” Cameron told parliament.
Russia on Wednesday condemned the “tragic” killing of a US war correspondent and French photojournalist in the Syrian flashpoint city of Homs.
The foreign ministry said “Moscow resolutely condemns and is seriously concerned” by the Western journalists’ slaying.
“This tragic event once again confirms the need for all the sides of the Syrian conflict to end the violence and move toward a political course with the start of an all-encompassing national dialogue without preconditions.”