Mother in Homs: "The outside world won't help us"
The Syrian army has resumed shelling in Homs killing at least 13 people so far on Thursday, activists say.
With several districts controlled by rebel forces, Syria's third-largest city is a major focus of unrest against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.Scores have been killed since the army started an assault there last week.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon says said the failure to agree a UN resolution on Syria had encouraged Damascus "to step up its war on its own people".
The international community is struggling to find a way to resolve the crisis after Russia and China blocked a text drafted by Arab and European countries last week.
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When I was in Homs - until Wednesday - there was constant shell fire. We counted hundreds of hits every day. And people got a bit hysterical under that kind of pressure.
Sometimes they would shout: "The army is about to come in; the army is going to use chemical weapons." None of this happened, but this is what they thought.
A lot of people were personally touched by tragedy. I remember interviewing the man who wraps people for burial, and asking if he had to do this for members of his own family. He listed his own son, his brother in law, his cousin, and his uncle.
You met over and over again people with similar stories.
In the areas of Homs that support the uprising, buildings are close together. There's no real shelter. The place is being pounded, the casualties are very high, and that has affected in a personal way every single person living there.
Analysis
Sometimes they would shout: "The army is about to come in; the army is going to use chemical weapons." None of this happened, but this is what they thought.
A lot of people were personally touched by tragedy. I remember interviewing the man who wraps people for burial, and asking if he had to do this for members of his own family. He listed his own son, his brother in law, his cousin, and his uncle.
You met over and over again people with similar stories.
In the areas of Homs that support the uprising, buildings are close together. There's no real shelter. The place is being pounded, the casualties are very high, and that has affected in a personal way every single person living there.
Activists say those killed as bombardments resumed early on Thursday include three whole families.
On Wednesday witnesses in the Baba Amr district reported intense shelling by tanks, mortars, artillery and heavy machine guns. More than 50 people died, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights."The situation is dire. We are short of food, water and medical aid. Doctors have collapsed after treating the wounded without rest for five days," said Homs resident Omar Shaker.
Syria restricts access to foreign media and casualty figures cannot be independently verified.
The army says it is fighting foreign-backed armed groups. Army defectors have joined rebel forces in Homs and other parts of Syria in recent months.
'Missed chance' Speaking at the UN in New York, Mr Ban said: "I fear that the appalling brutality we are witnessing in Homs, with heavy weapons firing into civilian neighbourhoods, is a grim harbinger of worse to come."
He also said said the Arab League was hoping to revive a monitoring mission in Syria, which collapsed last month amid the escalating violence.
Mr Ban said the league's chief, Nabil el-Arabi, had told him he intended to had asked for UN help with the project and proposed a joint UN-Arab League observer mission, including a joint special envoy.
"We stand ready to assist in any way that will contribute toward improvement on the ground," Mr Ban said.
Earlier, the US rejected Russian calls for talks between the Syrian government and the opposition.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Bashar al-Assad had missed the "opportunity" for dialogue.
Ban Ki-moon: "How many deaths will it take to halt this dangerous slide towards civil war?"
"Rather than take that opportunity, Assad brutally cracked down on his own people. We don't think that that opportunity is available any more.
"It is clear that Assad has chosen a path and that choice has resulted in the deaths of many Syrians, including innocent children."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who visited Damascus on Tuesday, had said that President Assad was ready to talk with "all political forces" to end the violence.
But his comments were dismissed by opposition leaders, who want Mr Assad to stand down.
Mr Carney said the US planned to meet soon with its international partners to discuss ways to stop the violence in Syria and provide humanitarian aid.
The UN resolution vetoed by China and Russia on Saturday backed an Arab League peace plan that would have seen President Assad hand power to a deputy to oversee a transition.
Russia said that amounted to regime change.
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