Red Cross again barred; Assad vows revenge

Syria again barred aid workers from a devastated part of the central city of Homs as the top U.N. relief official arrived to appeal for immediate aid access. President Bashar Assad said he was determined to press on in his bid to crush protesters, whom he described as terrorist gangs financed by hostile foreign powers. "The Syrian people, who have in the past managed to crush foreign plots ... have again proven their ability to defend the nation and to build a new Syria through their determination to pursue reforms while confronting foreign-backed terrorism," the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency quoted him as saying. State television showed what it said were residents returning on foot to Homs' devastated Baba Amr neighborhood, held by rebels until they were defeated late Thursday by Syria's elite 4th Armored Division, led by Brig. Gen. Maher Assad, a younger brother of Syrian President Bashar Assad, after a monthlong siege. TV images showed men, women and children slogging past ruined and bullet-pocked buildings. Other images showed a cramped tunnel state television said was used to smuggle arms to rebels. But locals told the British newspaper The Guardian the reports had been fabricated. "No one has tried to go back there," one Homs resident in a neighborhood next to Baba Amr told the newspaper. "It makes me laugh when I see state TV," he said. "We know that it is untrue." The International Committee of the Red Cross -- the only relief agency permitted in Syria -- said Tuesday Red Cross and Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid workers were still prohibited from entering Baba Amr, despite repeated public promises of access by the Assad regime. Troops loyal to the regime told the aid workers the neighborhood was sealed, citing security problems. "Despite a green light given to us last Thursday by the authorities, and repeated daily assurances, it remains the case that we have not been allowed into Baba Amr," ICRC spokesman Sean Maguire told the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. "Security reasons were again given for the refusal of access," he said. The ICRC repeated its appeal for a daily 2-hour ceasefire across the country to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid. The appeal came as Valerie Amos, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, was to arrive in Damascus after being given permission to visit Syria for three days. The Assad regime had refused for a month to let Amos visit. Before traveling, Amos said she intended "to urge all sides to allow unhindered access for humanitarian relief workers so they can evacuate the wounded and deliver essential supplies." Amos said she planned to leave the Syrian capital Friday. Her visit was to be followed Saturday by that of Kofi Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general appointed last week as a special representative to Syria for the United Nations and the Arab League. Annan said he intended "to seek an urgent end to all violence and human-rights violations, and to initiate the effort to promote a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis." Syria "welcomes" Annan's visit, SANA said Monday. Violence continued across Syria, with armored vehicles and tanks massed on the western fringe of the city of Herak, in Daraa province, attacks intensifying in Rastan, 12 miles north of Homs, and raids mounting in the city of Deir al-Zor, in northeastern Syria, opposition organizations said. The reports could not be independently verified. U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday called the Syrian bloodshed "heartbreaking and outrageous." But Obama told a news conference he was not prepared to send U.S. forces to try to stop the carnage or to help overthrow Assad, as some Republicans in Congress have urged. He added that Assad had "lost legitimacy" and his downfall was a question of "when not if."