Red Cross: Situation In Syria Deteriorating

By RFE/RL
 
June 13, 2012
 
The International Red Cross says the situation in several parts of Syria is deteriorating as fighting intensifies.
 
A Red Cross spokesman said hundreds of people had fled this week from parts of the city of Homs, a rebel stronghold facing intensified bombardment by government forces.
 
Meanwhile, United Nations monitors were turned back from the town of Al-Haffa on June 12 by angry crowds.
 
As they left, three of their vehicles were fired on. No one was hurt.
 
Government forces have been bombarding positions held by rebels in Al-Haffa for more than a week.
 
Al-Haffa is close to Kardaha, the hometown of President Bashar al-Assad's family.
 
UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous agreed with an assessment that Syria is now in full-scale civil war as government forces try to recapture areas lost to the rebels fighting against forces loyal to Assad.
 
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was concerned Moscow could be sending attack helicopters to Syria.
 
"We are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria, which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically," Clinton said.
 
Clinton dismissed Russian reasoning that its arms shipments to Syria were not linked to the conflict there.
 
"We have confronted the Russians about stopping their continued arms shipments to Syria. They have from time to time said that we shouldn't worry, everything they're shipping is unrelated to their actions internally. That's patently untrue," Clinton said.
 
On a visit to Pakistan, British Foreign Secretary William Hague compared the situation in Syria to the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s.
 
"This is reminiscent of Bosnia in the early '90s. So I don't think we should be thinking of it in terms of the Libya situation last year. All our efforts are going into supporting a peaceful transition in Syria and a peaceful solution, because any violent solution would clearly involve many more deaths and a great deal more hardship for the Syrian people," Hague said.
 
Hague said Western nations are still seeking a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria with no plans for foreign military intervention.
 
Meanwhile, a new United Nations report said that in Syria, children as young as 9 years of age have been victims of killing and maiming, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, and sexual violence, and have been used as human shields.
 
With reporting by dpa and Reuters