Syrian government forces were Wednesday set to launch a new attack on the restive province of Homs, opposition activists said doa reported
"The forces of (Syrian President Bashar) al-Assad, are massing at the entrances of Baba Amr and Al Khalidiyeh (in Homs)," Omar Homsi, a Syrian activist based in the central province, told dpa.
The move came as overnight the United Nations put the total death toll from 11 months of conflict in the country at "well over 7,500."
Military forces overnight removed checkpoints near the two rebel districts, a step indicating that the regime troops are poised for a fresh wide-scale onslaught against them, Homsi added.
Homs, dubbed "capital of the Syrian revolution", has been the target of an unrelenting government clampdown since a pro-democracy revolt started in the country last March, says the opposition.
Meanwhile, the wounded British journalist Paul Conroy, who was smuggled from Homs into Lebanon on Tuesday, was resting at the residence of the British ambassador in Beirut, the daily Lebanese newspaper An Nahar reported.
Activists in northern Lebanon told dpa that efforts were being made to get the injured French journalist Edith Bouvier from Homs into Lebanon.
The two journalists were wounded last week in the Homs district of Baba Amr reportedly in a government shelling attack, which also killed foreign correspondents Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik.
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