Today the regime vowed it will continue to pursue the "terrorists" who are "threatening" citizens in Homs. 
 
 The army is targetting areas of Homs where rebels from the Free Syrian Army have a strong presence, notably the district of Baba Amr. 
 
 Hundreds of shells and mortar bombs were reported to be falling every hour, while the insurgents were unable to retaliate with anything more effective than small arms fire. 
 
 "We can't count all the bodies from the streets and the collapsed buildings. Anyone who tries to go on the street might be killed - there are snipers," said Abu Abdu al-Homsi, spokesman for the Syrian Revolutionary Council, an opposition group, in Homs. "An old woman - her son was shot and killed in the street, she went to get his body and was shot dead too." 
 
 The army had surrounded the city with tanks, according to a statement from the Syrian National Council, an alliance of opposition groups, and the bombardment signalled the onset of "a major offensive", with fears that this may develop into an assault by troops. 
 
 "We are living in a tragedy," added Mr Homsi. "Homs is surrounded. Nothing is going in or out. It's besieged. People can't even run away or flee, and are dying in their homes. They are also shelling from the Citadel and the blockade line and from the tanks surrounding all the neighbourhoods." 
 
 Mohammed Saleh, who lives near Homs, tried to reach the Khalidiya area of the city yesterday. "They cut phone lines, landline and mobile, from 8.30am to 1pm, when the landlines but not the mobile lines came back. I have now gone further away, but can still hear the bombing even though I am now 25 km (15m) away." 
 
 Mr Assad's forces launched a near simultaneous assault on the town of Zabadani near Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based group. Troops backed by armoured vehicles carried out the attack, supported by "heavy tank-shelling". Across the country, a total of 66 people were killed yesterday, according to the Observatory. 
 
 Syrian activist Khalid Abu Salah calls on the international community for assistance in Bab Amr neighbourhood of Homs, Syria (EPA) 
 
 Homs, the third-biggest urban centre in Syria found near the country's western frontier with Lebanon, has become a stronghold for FSA guerrillas and one of their crucial supply routes. The city of about 1 million people has a history of sectarian tension, divided between a Sunni Arab majority, which forms the mainstay of the rebel movement, and Christian and Alawite minorities, many of whom back Mr Assad's regime. 
 
 Experts believe that two explanations may lie behind this renewed assault on the president's opponents. Mr Assad has been emboldened by the Russian and Chinese veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have endorsed an Arab League peace plan and called on him to step down and transfer power to his deputy. The defeat of this measure has all but eliminated any chance of the Security Council authorising outside military action against his regime, lifting the possibility of Mr Assad facing the kind of campaign that toppled Col Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. 
 
 In addition, the Syrian regime probably believes that its Western and Arab opponents will respond to their defeat at the UN by supplying the FSA rebels. Some countries might be willing to provide weapons, others could offer logistical support. This would make it imperative for Mr Assad to strike his enemies before they grow stronger. 
 
 A picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad sprayed with red paint (AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 His regime blamed the bloodshed in Homs on "terrorist gangs" who were allegedly pounding areas of the city with mortar bombs. They were also responsible for blowing up an oil pipeline running through the area yesterday, according to the official news agency in Damascus. "The security forces are pursuing the terrorists and clashing with them," reported state television. 
 
 But a video posted on Youtube by opposition activists showed the field hospital in Baba Amr immediately after the bombardment. Floors were smeared with blood, windows shattered and the wounded lay on stretchers. Other video footage showed a five-year old girl, apparently wounded by the shelling, her face and head swathed in white bandages. 
 
 Fresh from vetoing the proposed resolution at the UN, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, was expected to arrive in Damascus on Tuesday. He is expected to place pressure on Mr Assad to negotiate with domestic opponents and settle the conflict. 
 
 Meanwhile, the rebels announced a reorganisation, forming a "Higher Revolutionary Council" to command the FSA guerrillas, led by General Mustafa Ahmed al-Sheikh, a former Syrian army officer who has fled to Turkey. ||||| Photo Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 MOSCOW — Russia moved forcefully on Tuesday to show that it was seeking a peaceful resolution to the Syria crisis, sending its foreign minister to Damascus for talks that he called “very productive” and countering critics who said the Kremlin had endangered its standing in the Arab world because of its unbridled support for Syria’s embattled president, Bashar al-Assad. 
 
 The diplomatic effort by Russia came as a growing number of Arab and European countries recalled their ambassadors from Damascus, Syria’s capital, in outrage over Mr. Assad’s increasingly violent response to the 11-month-old popular uprising in Syria. 
 
 In Washington, the Obama administration, which closed the American Embassy in Damascus on Monday, hinted that it was seeking ways to provide what it called humanitarian support to Syrians whose lives have been upended by the repression. But officials said the administration was not considering armed assistance to the Syrian opposition. 
 
 “We never take anything off the table,” Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman, told reporters. She also said, “We don’t think more arms into Syria is the answer.” 
 
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 The violence in Syria has escalated since Saturday, when Russia, seconded by China, vetoed an Arab League-backed resolution at the United Nations Security Council that called on Mr. Assad to give up some powers as part of a plan to defuse the crisis, which increasingly resembles a civil war. 
 
 Rebuffing harsh criticism from the resolution’s sponsors and Western critics of Mr. Assad, the Russians insisted that the resolution amounted to outside interference in Syria’s affairs. 
 
 At the same time, the Kremlin is sensitive to the perception that Russia, Mr. Assad’s strongest foreign backer, had given the Syrian leader a green light to crush his political opponents. So Sergey V. Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, and Mikhail Y. Fradkov, the director of the Russian foreign intelligence service, were sent to Syria with what the Russians said was a proposal to end the crisis. Its substance was not divulged. 
 
 Russia’s United Nations ambassador, Vitaly I. Churkin, angrily denied what he called poisonous, unsourced reports on the Internet aimed at subverting Russia’s relationship with Arab countries in the aftermath of the Security Council veto. He was referring to accounts in Arabic that Mr. Churkin had personally threatened the prime minister of Qatar during negotiations over the Arab League proposal at the United Nations last week. He said Russia’s United Nations mission had been “inundated by calls” about the accounts. 
 
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 “Apparently somebody is trying very hard in order to drive a wedge between Russia and the Arab world,” Mr. Churkin told a news conference streamed on the United Nations Web site. Mr. Churkin, a fluent English speaker, offered a translation of what he called a Russian adage to the anonymous authors of those accounts: “Don’t spit into a well. You may well need it for a drink of water.” 
 
 With the collapse of other diplomatic efforts, first by the Arab League and then at the Security Council, the Russian overture by Mr. Lavrov, however tepid, appeared to be one of the last avenues of engagement left. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said his country would seek to draft a new initiative, but few details were forthcoming. 
 
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 “We have had a very productive visit with the leadership of Syria,” Mr. Lavrov said after his meeting with Mr. Assad, according to the RIA Novosti news agency in Moscow. “We have confirmed our preparedness to facilitate a rapid end to the crisis based on the positions set out in the Arab League initiative. In particular, the president of Syria gave assurance that he is fully committed to an end to violence, no matter its source.” 
 
 Mr. Lavrov also said that Mr. Assad was prepared to hold talks with representatives of Syria’s opposition, which is still deeply divided. “It is clear that efforts for ending the violence should be accompanied by dialogue between political forces,” he said. “Today we received confirmation from the president of Syria that he is prepared to cooperate in this effort.” 
 
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 It remained unclear whether Russia possessed the diplomatic power to significantly influence events on the ground. Because of Moscow’s vocal support for Mr. Assad’s government, the Russians have been unable to gain the trust of the Syrian opposition. Neither was it clear whether Russian diplomatic efforts could push Mr. Assad to a compromise, considering his repeated assertions that he is battling terrorism, not a popular uprising. 
 
 “After the scandal at the Security Council, Moscow needed to find some way to act,” said Aleksandr I. Shumilin, director of the Center for the Analysis of Middle East Conflicts, in Moscow. “Maybe something good will come of this, but at the very least they will be able to say that Russia is acting, and not sitting idly.” 
 
 There was no immediate comment on the meeting from Mr. Assad or from members of the opposition in Syria, who have already made it clear that they do not trust the government and want Mr. Assad to step down. 
 
 Mr. Lavrov’s delegation was greeted by thousands of cheering government supporters in Damascus who lined the streets. Syrian television showed some people carrying pictures of Mr. Assad and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Others held banners thanking Russia and China for their veto. 
 
 The epicenter of the latest spasm of violence convulsing Syria has been the city of Homs. The government pressed forward with its crackdown on the city for the fourth day, shelling several neighborhoods that have become strongholds of army defectors. Activists said that security forces used tanks and machine guns in a push to recover the rebel-held districts and that at least 15 people had been killed. The casualty reports could not be confirmed.
– Syria's regime is raining devastation down on Homs for a fourth day today, with the Telegraph reporting that hundreds of shells are hitting the city with each passing hour. Rebels there have been rendered defensively helpless, incapable of responding with anything more than gunshots. "We can't count all the bodies from the streets and the collapsed buildings," says an insurgent leader. "We are living in a tragedy. People can't even run away or flee, and are dying in their homes." The bombardment continues even as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived today in Damascus for talks with Bashar al-Assad, and a day after the US shuttered its embassy. Russia voted against a UN resolution urging Assad to step aside on Saturday, and Lavrov was welcomed by enthusiastic crowds, but the country is said to be pushing its own plan to end the bloodshed, notes the New York Times. “It is in our interests for Arab peoples to live in peace and agreement,” Lavrov said. Others are losing patience: France and Italy today recalled their ambassadors, while British Foreign Minister William Hague yesterday termed Assad's rule a "doomed regime, as well as a murdering regime." Click through the gallery for more scenes from Syria.