Syria pleads Arab League for help

Syria pleads Arab League for help Syria's regime on Monday urged the Arab League to help it against the US, which it accused of involvement in "bloody events," as the opposition called for the "international protection" of civilians .
The pan-Arab group, which is trying to implement its blueprint to end the Syrian government's deadly eight-month crackdown on protesters, said it received the request in a letter from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.
The letter accused Washington "of actual involvement in bloody events in Syria" and asked the League to "condemn the involvement and to do what is necessary to end it," the group said in a statement.
It did not provide any details on the charges of US involvement in the Syrian bloodshed.
But Syria has in the past accused the US ambassador to Damascus, Robert Ford, of inciting violence by visiting protest hubs, before Washington recalled him last month following "credible threats against his safety in Syria."
In the letter, Syria, which is under growing pressure to implement an Arab plan, sought Arab assistance "to provide the appropriate atmosphere to implement the agreement," said the statement.
                               
 Arab League's deputy chief, Ahmed Ben Hilli, told AFP on Monday that Syria had sent a letter detailing the steps it took towards carrying out the plan, but he refused to elaborate.
The League has called an emergency meeting in Cairo next Saturday on Syria's failure to implement its roadmap, which calls on President Bashar al-Assad to open talks with the opposition.
A part of the opposition on Monday called for international protection of civilians in the central city of Homs, which is besieged by Assad's troops.
Declaring Homs a "humanitarian disaster area," the Syrian National Council (SNC) urged the United Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League to act "to stop the massacre committed by the regime."
More than 110 people have been reported killed in the past week in Homs, a city of about 800,000 that has turned into one of the main centers of protest and reprisal during the nearly 8-month-old revolt against Assad, according to Ibrahim Hozan, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees activist network.
The government called on the international community to send "Arab and international observers, instantly, to the city of Homs to oversee the situation on the ground, and prevent the regime from continuing to commit brutal massacres."
The SNC, which groups the main currents of the opposition, also called for the evacuation of civilians from "areas that are under shelling and destruction."
The group said Assad's forces had "launched a large-scale attack" overnight Sunday to Monday on parts of Homs, and that "indiscriminate slaughter is being committed by the regime's militias."
The army, which has sought to crush the protest movement that erupted in March through force, was "using heavy artillery, rocket launchers, and warplanes to bomb populated residential neighborhoods" in Homs, it said.
Homs is the only major city to remain outside the regime's control after military operations in Hama, northeastern Deir Ezzor and the coastal cities of Latakia and Banias reined in the dissent.
The industrial city is also a tinder box of sectarian tensions that risk escalating into civil war due to a massive presence of arms and the organisation of neighbourhoods along confessional lines.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said heavy artillery clashes erupted overnight between soldiers and presumed army defectors in Homs, leaving "dozens of dead and wounded in both camps."
"Shooting could be heard in Homs where neighbourhoods came under heavy machinegun fire at dawn," the Observatory said in a statement, adding "more than 40 explosions were heard."
                                              
 One citizen was killed in the Homs neighbourhood of Deir Baalba after "being shot by Syrian security forces," said the Observatory, adding soldiers had also entered Baba Amr district and "started demolishing shops."
Residents there saw a truck "filled with corpses."
Elsewhere in Homs province, an eight-year-old girl was killed and a woman wounded after security forces stationed at a checkpoint in the Hula area "fired indiscriminately," said the Observatory.
Violent overnight clashes pitting Syrian soldiers and gunmen believed to be dissidents also erupted in Khan Sheikhun in Idlib province, near the border with Turkey, but there was no immediate report on the casualties.
Soldiers also searched cars for people "wanted" by the regime, it said.
In Damascus province, a 63-year-old man succumbed to his wounds after being shot by security forces the previous day, the rights watchdog said.
In the coastal city of Banias, worshippers leaving from Al-Radwan mosque staged a rally calling for the "fall of the regime" and the "execution of the president."
Security forces responded by raiding the homes surrounding the mosque.
The regime forces reportedly killed at least 19 demonstrators on Sunday after prayers on Eid al-Adha, one of Islam's holiest days, bringing to at least 70 the death toll since Syria signed the Arab peace plan last Wednesday.
The United Nations estimates more than 3,000 people have been killed across Syria in the security crackdown since anti-regime protests erupted in mid-March.