Washington Seeks International Alliance on Syria

UPDATE: Russia and China's vetoes of a U.N. resolution calling on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down were nothing short of a "travesty," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said this weekend as she called for the formation of an international coalition to support Syria’s opposition.

"Faced with a neutered Security Council, we have to redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people's right to have a better future," Clinton said, according to the Associated Press. Britain’s Foreign Minister William Hague and France’s Alain Juppe offered similar criticism Russia and China.

Clinton added that the United States will “seek regional and national sanctions against Syria and strengthen the ones we have.”

There is fear that violence will now quickly escalate in Syria as opposition fighters increasingly see an armed struggle as their only option. Before the U.N. vote, both the opposition and the government had an interest in trying to at least appear peaceful. “Now both sides are likely to move quickly toward a bloodier showdown,” writes the Wall Street Journal.

Saturday, Feb. 4 12:52 p.m.: As was largely expected, Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution Saturday that called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Hours after activists claimed that Syrian troops killed hundreds in the city of Homs, the Security Council voted 13 to 2 in support of a resolution that would have backed an Arab League peace plan for the country. The BBC says that early reports of more than 200 deaths in Homs were later revised down to 55 by one of Syria’s main activist groups.

The United States and other Western countries had been working against the clock to apply “unprecedented pressure” on Syria’s ally Russia to allow the resolution to make it through the Security Council, but in the end Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said they weren’t able to convince Moscow, reports Reuters. Western powers tried to assure Russia that a military intervention wasn’t on the table, but that didn’t seem to help change any opinions. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted a consensus was still possible but said the resolution’s wordings needed to be changed in order to avoid “taking sides in a civil war.”

Russia had long said it would oppose any resolution that called for Assad’s removal, but the sponsors pushed for a vote regardless, “virtually daring Russia to exercise its veto and risk mounting international opprobrium for preventing action to stanch the escalating death toll in Syria,” writes the New York Times.

Meanwhile, President Obama was among the world leaders to condemn Syria for early reports that more than 200 people were killed in Homs. Assad “has no right to lead Syria, and has lost all legitimacy with his people and the international community,” Obama said.

Saturday, Feb. 4 9:52 a.m.: In what many are labeling a massacre, Syria troops killed more than 200 people Friday night and Saturday morning as they launched an attack on Homs, the country’s third-largest city, according to activists. As usual, the numbers are nearly impossible to confirm but if accurate it would mark by far the deadliest day in the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. The attack on Homs occurred as the U.N. Security Council prepares to vote on a resolution that would condemn Assad for the regime's violence toward protesters.

The attacks led to a swift reaction across the world, as protesters gathered outside Syrian embassies in London and Washington, D.C., among others. In Cairo a crowd stormed the embassy and broke furniture as well as set fire to parts of the building. Meanwhile, Tunisia has decided it will expel Syria’s ambassador in response to the “bloody massacre,” reports the Associated Press.

The heavy attacks appear to have begun when members of the Free Syrian Army attacked army checkpoints. Al-Jazeera hears word that around 10 soldiers were killed, while the New York Times cites activists saying that somewhere between 13 and 19 soldiers were kidnapped. That seems to have raised the ire of commanders who then appear to have ordered an unflinching assault on Homs using artillery and mortars. Activists said at least 36 houses were destroyed with the families inside, Reuters reports. The attacks seemed to be random. Everyone expects the death toll will continue increasing as more bodies are found under the rubble. Also, hospitals were reportedly overwhelmed even as many of the injured couldn’t receive medical assistance because of roadblocks.

The government strongly denied there was an assault, saying that armed groups are lying in order to get a global reaction in advance of the U.N. Security Council vote. Russia has strongly opposed any resolution that calls for a transition of power in Syria. “The corpses displayed by some channels of incitement are martyrs, citizens kidnapped, killed and photographed by armed terrorist groups as if they are victims of the supposed shelling,” the SANA state news agency reported, according to Reuters.

The BBC’s Paul Wood, who is traveling with a group of rebel fighters near Homs reports that while it’s “always difficult to get in to Homs … after this, it is more difficult than ever.” He also notes that rebels will reportedly launch a counteroffensive over the next 24 hours.

The Washington Post’s Alice Fordham, who is in Damascus, reports that some activists say there was also a “large-scale assault” on Zabadani, which is near the capital.