REUTERS

AMMAN/CAIRO: Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar Assad killed 13 people in attacks in the city of Homs Tuesday, residents said, an escalation of a crackdown against a focal point for pro-democracy protests.
Among those killed were three mourners at a funeral for 10 people who were killed by security forces Monday, said the Local Coordination Committee, an activists group.

“We could not bury the martyrs at the city’s main cemetery so we opted for a smaller cemetery near the mosque, when the militiamen began firing at us from their cars,” one mourner, who gave his name as Abdallah, told Reuters by telephone.

He said the bodies had been taken to Khaled Ibn al-Walid mosque in the eastern Khalidiya district of the city.
“Khalidiya is totally besieged by the military. We are cut off from the rest of Homs as if we are a separate country.”
Homs has been a major center of protests against Assad’s rule and tension has run high between the majority Sunni inhabitants and members of the Alawite minority, the same sect as Assad.
Khalidiya is inhabited by members of Sunni tribes from rural Homs while the nearby Nozha neighborhood is home to most of the country’s security forces and militiamen, from the Alawite sect.

The six deaths reported in Homs’ Khalidiya and Bab Amr neighborhoods Tuesday brought the total death count since the weekend to at least 30, activists and residents said.
Another resident said: “There are troops and armored vehicles in every neighborhood. The irregular forces with them are death squads. They have been firing indiscriminately since dawn with rifles and machineguns. No one can leave their homes.”

The government has expelled most foreign journalists, making it hard to verify witness accounts or official statements. Troops and tanks first entered Homs, 165 km north of Damascus, two months ago and occupied the main square after large protests demanding political freedoms.

The Syrian National Human Rights Organization said seven people were killed over the weekend in attacks by security forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 30 bodies were found in Homs over the weekend, and that some were mutilated.
“After failing to ignite a sectarian civil war, the regime is expanding military operations to subdue the mass protests in Homs,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Reuters.

In eastern Syria, residents of Albu Kamal, on the border with Iraq, said security had eased its grip after holding talks with the troops. Notables from the region want to avoid an assault after defections among security forces who had tried to quell street demonstrations there, residents said.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said Tuesday he has visited Syria to discuss the “necessity of reform,” but declined to give details of a meeting with Assad.

Elaraby met Assad last week and was quoted by media as saying the League did not accept “outside interference in the internal affairs of the Arab countries,” even as diplomatic pressure mounts on Damascus.
The League has kept a low profile in discussing the Syrian protests and Elaraby’s predecessor only voiced “worry,” signaling division in the 22-member body over how to proceed.

“I met with President Bashar Assad … I spoke to him about the necessity of reform and I received a promise from him that he will work on that,” Elaraby, named as the League’s new Secretary General in May, said at its Cairo-based headquarters.

“This is all I will say and I cannot clarify more on that.” Diplomatic pressure mounted on Assad Monday after Qatar, previously a supporter, shut its embassy in Damascus and the European Union said it was considering tougher sanctions.

Qatar was a major backer of Syria until protests broke out in March, but relations deteriorated when Sunni Muslims began to be killed by Assad’s security forces, whose leaders, like the president, belong to the minority Alawite sect.
Assad has described the uprising as a foreign conspiracy to sow sectarian strife. His troops and security forces have killed over 1,400 civilians and arrested more than 12,000, according to rights groups.

Analysts say the Arab League’s reticence may be a reflection of fears of what the Middle East may look like without Bashar, whose family has ruled Syria for 41 years.
“On Syria … it has to be clear that the Arab League … is a diplomatic institution,” Elaraby said. “Not all that is being said inside closed rooms could be discussed with the media.”