The United States is considering direct assistance to Syria’s opposition forces, including technical and communications equipment, to help in their fight against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The US is against taking unilateral military action in Syria.
Instead it’s focused its efforts on pursuing diplomacy and sanctions to force President Assad to step down.
The US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has told a Senate Committee the US is considering direct assistance to Syria’s rebels.
“Plans are being made to provide an array of non-lethal assistance including technical assistance,” he said.
The Defence chief left open the possibility of military action saying while the Obama administration continues to assess the situation, a military plan is underway that’ll provide the President with some options.
Red Cross convoy enters Syrian suburb of Baba Amr
The UN humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, who is currently visiting Syria, has described the Baba Amr district in the city of Homs as devastated and devoid of people.
She visited the area with members of the Syrian Red Crescent.
The Red Cross was blocked from delivering aid to Baba Amr for the past five days.
Red Cross spokeswoman Carla Haddad says it’s a case of too little, too late.
“We kept saying we need to enter to assess things first hand,” she said.
“Now the fact that the Syrian Arab Red Crescent entered is important but then if no one is left, what the point.
“I mean the point was to help people when they needed it, and we think we’ve managed to do that outside of Baba Amr and we’ve been doing that for days. “
Anti-government activists say military tanks bombarded other opposition areas in Homs throughout the evening, although an ICRC spokesman in Damascus said the city was quieter than before.
In the latest of several accounts of killings and other abuses, local activist Mohammed al-Homsi said troops and militiamen in support of president Bashar al-Assad had stabbed to death seven males, including a 10-year-old, from one family on Tuesday.
“Their bodies were dumped in farmland next to Baba Amr,” he said.
Syrian media curbs make it hard to verify such reports.
ABC/wires
