Syria forces kill 58 civilians,red cross calls truce

Syrian forces killed 58 civilians Tuesday as they blitzed the city of Homs and a village in Idlib province, monitors said, as the Red Cross sought a truce to deliver aid and the UN demanded access for humanitarian workers. The latest killings came as Russia, a key ally of President Bashar al-Assad, said it will boycott a conference in Tunis this week aimed at seeking political change in Syria. It also comes ahead of a weekend referendum on a new constitution that could end nearly five decades of rule by Assad''s Baath party, said an AFP report. At least 33 civilians were killed by Syrian forces in the village of Abdita in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. And despite a plea by activists to allow women and children to flee Homs'' besieged Baba Amr neighbourhood, more troops were sent to the outskirts of the restive city, with activists expressing fear they were preparing to storm it. The Observatory said 16 people, including three children, died in "intensive shelling" that targeted Baba Amr, with the Khaldiyeh and Karm al-Zaytoun districts also blasted. Nine more civilians, including a child, were reportedly killed by gunfire elsewhere in the country. Meanwhile, the UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Valerie Amos, called on Syria to allow aid groups unimpeded access to the country. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Syria was increasingly under pressure. A Friends of Syria meeting in Tunis on Friday will "demonstrate that Assad''s regime is increasingly isolated and that the brave Syrian people need our support and solidarity," she said on a visit to Mexico. The meeting "will send a clear message to Russia, China and others who are still unsure about how to handle the increasing violence but are up until now, unfortunately, making the wrong choices," she added. Russia announced that it will not take part in the meeting because it was being convened "for the purpose of supporting one side against another in an internal conflict," the foreign ministry said.