BEIRUT —Syrian forces launched a fresh assault on Homs on Saturday as the Red Cross pressed forward with efforts to deliver badly needed aid to thousands of people stranded in a besieged neighborhood.
“We are still in negotiations to enter Baba Amr,” said International Committee of the Red Cross spokesman Hicham Hassan.
The Syrians said they were not letting the Red Cross into Baba Amr because of safety concerns, including land mines, Hassan said, adding the organization had not been able to verify the danger.
In Damascus, Red Crescent officials handed over to embassy officials the bodies of two foreign journalists who were killed in shelling while trapped inside Baba Amr.
The Syrian regime has said that it was fighting “armed gangs” in Baba Amr, which has become a symbol of the revolt against President Bashar Assad. More than 7,500 people have died, according to the United Nations.
The Local Coordination Committees activist network said mortars slammed into the districts of Khaldiyeh, Bab Sbaa and Khader.
A Khaldiyeh resident who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals said that the district has been without water and heating fuel for a week amid cold and snow.
