Relentless Syrian shelling Wednesday in the opposition stronghold of Homs has killed at least 19 people including two Western journalists, as government forces step up attacks.
As the crisis escalates, the United Nations said it wants to send its humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, to Syria to secure access for aid workers seeking to deliver emergency relief.
Syria's main opposition group said in Paris Wednesday that foreign military intervention may be the only way to ensure emergency aid can reach those pinned down by fighting.
The French government identified the two reporters killed Wednesday in Homs as Marie Colvin, a prominent American war correspondent working for Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik. Activists said several other journalists were wounded in the attack on a makeshift media center in the rebel-held Baba Amr district of Homs.
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders told VOA it is investigating whether Syrian forces deliberately targeted the building. The Syrian government issued a statement saying it was not aware that the journalists were in the country. Syria does not permit foreign journalists to roam freely and has kept most of them out.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the deaths showed the time has come for President Bashar al-Assad's government to end. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe called the killings “murder,” while the U.S. State Department said they are “another example of [the Syrian government's] shameless brutality.”
Before she was killed, Colvin had described how she was smuggled into Homs. Wednesday's deaths came one day after a Syrian sniper shot and killed Rami al-Sayyed, a well-known videoblogger, in the same besieged Homs neighborhood.
Reporting on another area of Syria, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian government helicopters opened fire with machine guns on the village of Ifis in northwestern Idlib province. Idlib is a main base of the rebel Free Syrian Army.
Activists say Syrian security forces killed at least 63 people Tuesday in assaults on villages in Idlib and shelling in Homs. Casualty figures could not be independently verified.
An international meeting has been called for Friday to push for a resolution of Syria's crisis.
France's Juppe says he hopes the “Friends of Syria” gathering in Tunis will be able to move towards a peaceful solution of the situation.
The contact group — made up of Western and Arab nations openly seeking Mr. Assad's downfall — will use the meeting to increase pressure on the Syrian government to halt the bloodshed.
Russia and China back Syrian President Assad's reform program, which the Syrian opposition has soundly rejected.
On Wednesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said in telephone talks that the Syrian crisis must be resolved swiftly, but without foreign intervention. The two countries have remained Mr. Assad's strongest international backers throughout the bloody, 11-month anti-government uprising.
In Geneva, a delegation from the opposition Syrian National Council held talks with the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC is calling for a daily two-hour cease-fire so it can bring emergency aid to affected areas and evacuate the sick and wounded.
Human rights activists say Syria's violence has killed at least 6,000 people.
