(NEW INFO GRAFS 4, 5)
The Red Cross on Saturday made fresh attempts to continue medical evacuations out of the besieged Syrian city of Homs, as the country's military took its bombardment of the city into a fourth week.
A spokesman for the the International Committee of the Red Cross said negotiations have resumed with Syrian authorities and the opposition in order to continue evacuating anyone in need of help.
On Friday, the Red Cross said that together with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, it evacuated seven wounded people and 20 women and children from the Baba Amr district of Homs. They have been unable so far to get out two wounded Western journalists and the bodies of two other reporters killed in the violence.
A Red Cross spokeswoman told VOA it is trying to get Syrian authorities to agree to a daily two-hour pause in the fighting so that humanitarian workers can provide assistance to victims.
Syrian government forces continued their bombardment of Homs on Saturday as thousands remain trapped in the area. Activist groups say at least nine people were killed in Homs and at least 28 throughout the country on Saturday, though independent figures are impossible to confirm.
Meanwhile, international pressure continues to mount on Syria with a group of Western and Arab-led delegates, known as the “Friends of Syria,” demanding that Syrian authorities immediately end all violence and allow the delivery of foreign humanitarian aid to hard-hit areas within days.
In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama said the U.S. and its allies will consider “every tool available” to stop the slaughter of innocent people in Syria. He said it is absolutely imperative for the international community to send a clear message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that it is time for the “regime to move on.”
In Tunis, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton predicted that Mr. Assad will pay a “heavy cost” for violating the rights of the Syrian people and ignoring international will over his crackdown on the opposition.
U.N.-appointed investigators estimate the death toll from the uprising at 6,400 civilians and 1,680 army defectors.
