* Arab diplomats confirm arms option
* Humanitarian crisis in protest epicentre Homs
* Arabs prepare new UN resolution
(Recasts with Arab arms option)
AMMAN/BEIRUT Feb 14 (Reuters) - Syrian government
forces attacked opponents of President Bashar al-Assad in cities
and towns across the country on Tuesday and Arab officials
confirmed that regional governments would be ready to arm the
resistance if the bloodshed did not cease.
The western city of Homs, heart of the uprising against
Assad's 11-year-rule, suffered a bombardment of pro-opposition
neighbourhoods for the 11th day running. At least six people
were reported killed.
Residents also fled from Rankous, a rural town near the
capital Damascus, as it came under government artillery fire.
With Assad seemingly oblivious to international condemnation
of his campaign to crush the revolt, Arab countries led by Saudi
Arabia pushed for a new resolution at the United Nations
supporting a peace plan forged at a meeting in Cairo on Sunday.
But Arab League diplomats said that arming the opposition
forces was now officially an option.
A resolution passed at the meeting urged Arabs to "provide
all kinds of political and material support" to the opposition.
This would allow arms transfers, they confirmed to Reuters.
"We will back the opposition financially and diplomatically
in the beginning but if the killing by the regime continues,
civilians must be helped to protect themselves. The resolution
gives Arab states all options to protect the Syrian people," an
Arab ambassador said.
The threat of military support was meant to add pressure on
the Syrian leader and his Russian and Chinese allies but it also
risks leading to a Libya-style conflict or sectarian civil war.
"I suspect we will see a further militarisation of this
conflict, with potentially quite widespread and dangerous
consequences," said analyst Salman Shaikh, director of the
Brookings Doha Center.
Smuggled guns are already filtering into Syria but it is not
clear if Arab or other governments are behind the deliveries.
Weapons and Sunni Muslim insurgents are also seeping from Iraq
into Syria, Iraqi officials and arms dealers said.
Assad, whose Alawite-minority family has ruled the mainly
Sunni Muslim country for 42 years, is trying to stamp out
pro-democracy demonstrations and stop insurgent raids across
Syria country with what U.N. officials describe as
indiscriminate attacks and shoot-to-kill orders.
He dismisses his opponents as terrorists backed by enemy
nations in a regional power-play and says he will introduce
reforms on his own terms.
While the uprising initially involved rallies by civilians,
armed insurrection by the Free Syrian Army, made up largely of
army defectors, is increasingly coming into play.
CITIES UNDER THE GUN
Conflict flared anew on Tuesday in Rankous, near the capital
Damascus. Activist Ibn Al-Kalmoun, reached by Skype from Beirut,
said many residents had fled the town from government shelling.
In Homs, a strategic city on the highway between Damascus
and commercial hub Aleppo, the pro-opposition neighbourhood of
Baba Amro was struck at dawn by the heaviest shelling in five
days, the Syria Observatory for Human Rights said.
Six people were killed, it said, adding to an estimated toll
of more than 400 since the assault began on Feb.3
"They are hitting the same spots several consecutive times,
making venturing out there impossible. The shelling was heavy in
the morning and now it is one rocket every 15 minutes or so,"
activist Hussein Nader said by satellite phone.
"Residents are trapped. We have a man who sustained severe
burns and is dying and he needs a hospital."
The man was in a truck picking up wounded people in Baba
Amro overnight when it was hit by rocket fire, he said.
Mohammad al-Mohammad, a doctor at a makeshift hospital in
Baba Amro, appeared in a video with a wounded youth he said was
shot by a sniper in his side.
"The bullet ended up in the stomach. This is a critical
condition that needs transportation to a proper hospital,"
Mohammad said. "We appeal to anyone with conscience to intervene
to stop the massacres of Bashar al-Assad and his cohorts."
Another opposition activist, Mohammad al-Homsi, said the
humanitarian situation was getting worse, with food and fuel
short and prices tripling. Army roadblocks had been set up
around opposition districts, Homsi said from the city.
Nader said that people in residential buildings in Baba Amro
were sheltering on the ground floors.
Shelling was also reported in the town of Rastan.
Foreign media have had to rely on activists' accounts of the
situation because the Syrian government restricts access,
although reports from neutral organisations such as the
International Committee of the Red Cross and Human Rights Watch
confirm the general picture of widespread repression.
DIPLOMATIC THRUST
At the United Nations, diplomats said a draft General
Assembly resolution, supporting the Arab League plan and calling
for the appointment of a joint U.N.-Arab League envoy on Syria,
could be put to a vote on Wednesday or Thursday.
The resolution, seen by Reuters, is similar to a Security
Council draft vetoed by Russia and China on Feb. 4 that
condemned the Assad government and called on him to step aside.
There are no vetoes in General Assembly votes and its
decisions are not legally binding.
An Arab League proposal for a joint Arab-U.N. peacekeeping
mission be sent to Syria elicited a guarded response from
Western powers, who are wary of becoming bogged down militarily
in Syria. It was rejected out of hand by the Assad government.
Russia, Assad's main ally and arms supplier, also showed
little enthusiasm, saying it could not support a peacekeeping
mission unless both sides stopped the violence first.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington
that the peacekeeper proposal would be tough to get through,
given Russian and Chinese support for Damascus.
"There are a lot of challenges to be discussed ... and
certainly the peacekeeping request is one that will take
agreement and consensus," Clinton said.
The Syria conflict, the most prolonged of the revolts in the
Arab world which saw the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya
toppled last year, is shaping up to be a geopolitical struggle
reminiscent of the Cold War.
Russia wants to retain its foothold in the region and
counter U.S. influence. Assad is also allied to Iran, which is
at odds with the United States, Europe and Israel.
The Arab drive against Assad is led by Sunni-ruled Gulf
states, who also see Shi'ite Iran and its shadowy nuclear
programme as a threat.
Analysts say the conflict could spread across the Middle
East's ethnic, religious and political fault lines if it is not
resolved.
(Reporting Edmund Blair, Yasmine Saleh and Ayamn Samir in
Cairo, Erika Solomon in Beirut, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman and
Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Writing by Angus
MacSwan in Beirut; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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