The U.N. humanitarian chief is expected to meet with Syrian officials and humanitarian representatives in Damascus Thursday, a day after touring the former rebel stronghold of Baba Amr.
A spokeswoman for Valerie Amos said Wednesday she found parts of the district “completely devastated,” and that few people were around – most having fled to nearby areas where aid workers are distributing food and medical supplies.
Amos and a Syrian Arab Red Crescent team spent 45 minutes in Baba Amr. The spokeswoman said they tried to access opposition-held areas of the town, but could not negotiate access with the opposition.
Amos met earlier Wednesday with Syria's foreign minister, who told her she is free to go anywhere in Syria.
The visit was the first by an independent observer since the Syrian military began its month-long assault on the rebellious neighborhood that was seized from rebel control last week. Activists and witnesses say the assault killed hundreds of people and left residents desperately short of food, water and medical care.
The Syrian government has kept Baba Amr sealed off for the past six days, saying it is too dangerous for humanitarian workers to enter. But activists accused the government of engaging in a “mopping-up” operation to hide their atrocities.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Syria's blocking of humanitarian supplies for civilians represents a “new low” in President Bashar al-Assad's violent campaign against his political opponents. She said tons of food and medicine have been standing by while civilians die and the government launches new assaults. She called the situation “unacceptable.”
Also Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the top U.S. military leader outlined the challenges in Syria, saying the country's air defenses are five times more sophisticated than what the allied coalition faced in Libya. They also said Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons is 100 times larger, and that the country is far more diverse than Libya demographically, ethnically and religiously.
Panetta said the situation in Syria is “terrible” and there are “no easy answers.”
“We all wish there was a clear and unambiguous way forward to directly influence the events in Syria. That, unfortunately, is not the case. That is not an excuse. That is reality. Only our clear path – our only clear path – is to keep moving in a resolute, determined, but deliberate manner with the international community to find a way to return Syria to the Syrian people.”
General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told U.S. lawmakers that Syria's opposition numbers 100 groups.
Republican Senator John McCain has called for U.S. air strikes to end Mr. Assad's bloody crackdown. He and other powerful senators also have raised the possibility of arming the Syrian rebels.
In New York, Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin accused Libya of training Syrian opposition fighters in Libyan camps and sending them back to Syria to attack pro-Assad forces.
“We have received information that in Libya, with the support of authorities, there is a special training center for the Syrian revolutionaries and their people are sent to Syria to attack the legal government. This is completely unacceptable according to all legal basis. This activity is undermining stability in the Middle East. We think that al-Qaeda is in Syria and therefore there is the issue, should the export of revolution, is that not turning into the export of terrorism?”
Churkin did not offer additional information, but said the activity is undermining stability in the region.
Russia has been unhappy with how the international community has implemented Security Council resolutions, mandating the protection of Libyan civilians during the fight for liberation from Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year dictatorship.
In Council discussions on the nearly year-long government crackdown in Syria, Russia has repeatedly invoked Libya as a bad example and worked to prevent any kind of international interference in the Syrian conflict.
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