Oil pipeline explodes in Homs

CNN reporter hiding in Syrian safe house

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: State-run media: Al-Assad plans a referendum on a draft constitution for February 26
• NEW: At least five people are killed in Syria on Wednesday, an opposition group says
• NEW: Report: Syria's envoy to Russia says Syria will not allow international peacekeepers
• A U.N. draft resolution condemning Syria could go for a vote on Wednesday

Are you there? Send us your images or video

Homs, Syria (CNN) -- A massive plume of thick, black smoke billowed from the Syrian city of Homs Wednesday, punctuating the chaos that has plagued the opposition stronghold for months.

According to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, an opposition activist group, government war planes flew over Homs and blew up an oil pipeline.

But Syrian state-run TV blamed a "terrorist group" for the assault.

Under the opaque cloud of smoke, sounds of sustained attacks -- including artillery fire and automatic machine gunfire -- echoed through the city of 1 million people, CNN's Arwa Damon reported from inside Homs Wednesday.

Opposition activists say government forces are set on flattening every neighborhood that might hold dissidents calling for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

But reports of fresh violence Wednesday weren't limited to Homs.

Three bodies were recovered from Idlib province; a 16-year-old student was killed by gunfire in Daraa province; and another person was killed in Aleppo, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

And military forces stormed the city of Hama, where explosions rattled two neighborhoods, the group said. The Observatory said landlines, cell phone communication and Internet access in Hama were cut off.

While residents across Syria grappled with the turmoil, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said al-Assad has set a date of February 26 for a referendum on a draft constitution.

Members of a committee tasked with drafting the document "reiterated their keenness on a constitution that allows ... public freedoms and political plurality in a way to lay the foundation for a new stage that will enrich Syria's cultural history," SANA reported.

Al-Assad has previously said Syria planned to hold a constitutional referendum, but reports of bloodshed at the hands of his regime have only intensified since his statement.

Meanwhile, after repeated U.N. failures to formally denounce the Syrian government, the latest U.N. draft resolution condemning Syria could go for a vote in the General Assembly as early as Wednesday.

Though a General Assembly vote would not be binding, it would mark the strongest U.N. statement yet on the violence. Russia and China have vetoed attempts to condemn Syria for the crackdown by the U.N. Security Council, whose resolutions are binding.

The draft resolution calls on Syria to end human-rights violations and attacks against civilians immediately, and condemns "all violence, irrespective of where it comes from."

But any U.N. action is long overdue, say opposition activists, who reported 49 deaths across Syria on Tuesday. The dead included three Syrian soldiers who defected, the LCC said.

Deaths took place in Idlib, Homs, Daraa, Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, Hama, Damascus, the Damascus suburbs and Latakia, the group said.

Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said Monday most of the wounded avoid going to public hospitals for fear of being arrested or tortured. Instead, they are being treated in underground hospitals where hygiene and sterilization conditions are rudimentary and medical supplies are scarce, she said.

Pillay denounced the Syrian government's "ongoing onslaught" against its citizens.

"The nature and scale of abuses committed by Syrian forces indicates that crimes against humanity are likely to have been committed since March 2011," Pillay said.

Syria posted a banner on state TV Tuesday saying its Foreign Affairs Ministry "absolutely rejects all the new allegations in the new report by the human rights high commissioner."

The Syrian regime has consistently blamed "armed terrorist groups" for the violence in Syria.

"What is happening has nothing to do with reforms, with the spread of democracy. This is the work of armed terrorist groups that are being funded from outside," said Syria's ambassador to Russia, Riad Haddad, according to Russia's RIA Novosti state news agency.

He added: "Damascus will not let international peacekeepers into the country. Syria does not need peacekeepers. Syria has categorically dismissed that option."

CNN cannot independently confirm details of events across Syria because the government has severely limited the access of international journalists.

But the vast majority of accounts from within the country indicate al-Assad's forces are slaughtering civilians en masse, part of a brutal crackdown on protesters calling for democratic reforms.

Pillay has said at least 5,400 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, but she said it is difficult to update that number due to the turmoil on the ground. The LCC has said well over 7,000 people have been killed.

European Union diplomats said they expect new EU sanctions on Syria by February 27, targeting the Syrian Central Bank and imposing a ban on exports of precious metals and phosphates.

Victoria Nuland, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said Tuesday that increasing pressure and sanctions on al-Assad's government was crucial.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe announced a national decision to establish an emergency relief fund for Syria, according to the website of the permanent mission of France to the United Nations. The fund, with an initial sum of ?1 million ($1.3 million), will "fund the actions of all organizations and associations wishing to help the Syrian people."

France will propose the creation of a similar fund at the international level at the first "Friends of Syria" meeting in Tunis, Tunisia, on February 24, the statement said.

Juppe said on French radio Wednesday morning that diplomats have not given up on Russia in the Syria talks.

"We are currently renegotiating a resolution at the U.N Security Council to see if we can persuade the Russians," Juppe told France Info.

CNN's Nada Husseini, Hamdi Alkhshali, Mick Krever, Richard Roth, Holly Yan, Elise Labott and Saskya Vandoorne contributed to this report.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/15/world/meast/syria-unrest/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

lsat bluegrass festival cochlear implant navy football navy football 50/50 50/50